Adding Logitec X540 speaker system to Acer Z3731?

I recently moved my All-in-One to a better room location and swapped external speakers previously installed on an older Acer desktop running Vista. In the process, I lost control of the sound driver and have been unable to reinsall and correctly reconfigure it. The problem appears to be the characteristics of the internal speaker system and the driver stack that detects its' characteristics. I can't get the hardware to install and control the 5.1 surround sound Logitec speakers plugged into the back panel as a "surround sound" system. I can't keep the drivers from initially recognizing the built in audio which is only capable of Stereo High Definition output. As a result, the outside speakers which provide side, center, and wofer via a powered matrix decoder control unit only end up playing stereo. They worked fine with my older AcrePower-FH desktop running Vista.

Any suggestions on how to proceed under Windows 7 (64 bit?)

I ended up purchasing a subscription to the program Driver Manager which provides recommendations for driver updates and uses heuristics to make its recommendations. Do not trust it for Acer Aspire Z3731. It recommended an incorrect driver for the video on my computer. It was not until I had installed it and started having big issues with MSIE 10 on Comcast's home page that I went back and found the driver for the Intel chipset video which is actually installed. When I updated to that driver the next Microsoft Update I ran came up with an optional update for Win64 with finally corrected the video issues, but...

There does not seem to be a way to get Windows 64 to install and display two alternate speaker systems or to automatically override the default settings which the RealTech driver Acer recommends for my box seems to be "locked in" to. The way the UI looks on the installed Realtech Audio Manager software, it is supposed to be able to detect the existence of more than one set of speakers and to set the proper one as default. Unfortunately, when I plug in the X540's it will not allow me to switch to them and instead of showing three wires plugged in to the back panel, it shows four. I believe that the fourth wire represents the internal speaker attached to the bus which is a virtual location inside the computer. Do I have to open the case and unplug the front speaker bar to resolve this issue? If so, that sucks since Acer had denied me requests to provide a case diagram or disassembly instructions which would help me be sure that I'm not going to break something trying to open the case.

Will somebody please respond? Apparently Acer Engineering never faced this issue when they configured the software. The package which shipped with this computer has now received 228 updates from Microsoft since I turned it on. The 64 bit instance of Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 which shipped with it was so buggy that I ended up using Firefox to register with Microsoft so I could get automatic updates! I am actually a fan of Acer, I own three of their computers, but this problem seems to be Acer Specific. I had the X540's on an older Vista based Acerpower-FH desktop and the driver shipped with it recognized them just fine, but there was no internal speaker system.

Accepted answers

ZundapMan

Finally! a partial solution to my symptoms... With the Logitec X540's plugged in, the "Matrix" button turned OFF, and 7.1 surround sound selected I was able to get both the two "outside" speakers to operate as "rear" speakers while the two inner speakers operated as left and right and the center and woofer to play simultaneously. I had to have the driver set as "disabled" when I plugged in the three wires from the X540's and use the wizard to "solve sound problems" to get the plugs recognized. A good bit of my funbling around came from an unclear understanding of what "Matrix" on the X540 controls meant. It is intended for source sound which is only being rendered in stereo, for example an MP3 created by digitizing a stereo record from the 1960's. In my testing, I often had this option enabled and it effectively supressed all but the left and right speakers in the X540 system.

I'm still not able to easily switch my Windows 7 X64 system from using the external speaker system to using the sound bar and back via software. I believe that this functionality is/should be available for the All-in-One units. Any explanation?

All comments

ZundapMan

If no one can answer the above questions regarding my sound driver issue, can anyone provide documentation/support for disassembling the case? I purchased additional memory to upgrade this system to 8GB of RAM but I have never installed the two extra 2GB chips. I was told when I bought it that there were four slots open inside with two 2gb chips installed, but I've never seen the insides because I'm somewhat concerned about damaging the case in my attempts to pry open "snap together" elements which are obviously part of the assembly/disassembly procedure. If I get it apart, I intend to try to connect a standard serial port connector to the board and bring it out to one of the "knock outs" built into the case so it can use my old trusty APC Smart UPS 700 the way it was designed. I need a serial port to allow APC software to provide automatic shut-down and monitoring capability I'd like to use.

ZundapMan

Additional note:

The documentation for my machine says that the "priority" for sound devices is: 1) USB, 2) Analog, 3) HDMI (if available). My problem seems to stem from the fact that no matter what, the priority one USB properties take precedence. The GUI interface to Real Tech High Definition Audio shows a "set default" option but in my case it is greyed out. It seems to me that I should be able to get the system to recognize an analog sound device instead of the USB but nothing I've tried works!

ZundapMan

Finally! a partial solution to my symptoms... With the Logitec X540's plugged in, the "Matrix" button turned OFF, and 7.1 surround sound selected I was able to get both the two "outside" speakers to operate as "rear" speakers while the two inner speakers operated as left and right and the center and woofer to play simultaneously. I had to have the driver set as "disabled" when I plugged in the three wires from the X540's and use the wizard to "solve sound problems" to get the plugs recognized. A good bit of my funbling around came from an unclear understanding of what "Matrix" on the X540 controls meant. It is intended for source sound which is only being rendered in stereo, for example an MP3 created by digitizing a stereo record from the 1960's. In my testing, I often had this option enabled and it effectively supressed all but the left and right speakers in the X540 system.

I'm still not able to easily switch my Windows 7 X64 system from using the external speaker system to using the sound bar and back via software. I believe that this functionality is/should be available for the All-in-One units. Any explanation?

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