# Sound and Short Circuit Problems



## the_sundance (Oct 17, 2013)

Hi all,

There's a whole number of problems I'm experiencing with setting up a home theater system. First of all, here's my full set-up:

Computer: Dell Alienware X51 (i3, GeForce GT545, Realtek sound)
Screen: Panasonic TC-L58E60
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V573
Speakers: Pioneer SP-PK22BS 5.1
Everything else: C&E oxygen-free wire, open-screw type banana plugs, ferrite-core HDMI cables
The way it's hooked up: computer to receiver via HDMI, audio out to speakers with wire and plugs, video out to screen via HDMI. 
Running Windows 7

So, I just wired everything except for the subwoofer because I didn't have an RCA splitter - getting that tomorrow. I did want to test the speakers, though, which is where problems started. Whenever I turned up the volume up to "moderately audible", the receiver would shut off and tell me to "Check SP wiring". I went ahead and made some improvements towards how the wires are placed into banana plugs. I stopped at making sure the center speaker doesn't shut the thing off - for now, I'll just keep on improving connections. Are there any other reasons why there might be short-circuiting going on? The polarity is fine - I've checked and double-checked every plug. 

Another problem is that there is no actual 5.1 going on. I played a movie with DTS 5.1 to test the center speaker (using the KMPlayer), and there was no sound. Would it make sense to run the audio via SPDIF instead of HDMI? Is the onboard Realtek sound card good enough? Due to the dimensions of the computer, I won't be able to stick another sound card in there, and there aren't all that many options for an external sound card. One thing to note is that there was sound on the center speaker when I ran the Realtek configuration tool. What happened once, though, is that the speaker started making a noise after running the test, which is yet another thing I have no idea what to do about...

So that's that - hope this isn't a hopeless situation  Thanks for your time!


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

Polarity wouldn't cause a short, it will typically just affect the sound quality. Assuming the Receiver doesn't actually have a fault, there is likely a short in your cabling/wiring.

HDMI is the best output choice. To test your audio configuration, use the Windows audio setup to send test audio to each speaker. 

To get 5.1 from a media player, you will need to ensure the media player is configured to output 5.1 audio. Most default to stereo output and they don't auto configure based on your Windows configuration.


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