This worked for me, I bought some 5.1 speakers for my computer that uses realtek fro inegrated audio. Surroud nworked fien in XP but when I went to Vista it was all stereo, which was because they removed idr what it is but this audio thign in vista. Anyways I was spendign tiem tryignto fix it and I stumblerd on something. I downloaded the new driver from realtek but I downloaded the ZIP version of it. I then extracted the contents to a folder and opeend up device manager. I went to the audio device and right clicked and went to Update Driver Software. Than "Browse My Computer for Driover Software" and in the address bar I went to the foler I ahd extracted my audio driver, after it updated i had 5.1 again! I have 5.1 in all of my games except for BF2 and su mselect old games that didnt support surround. The orange audio button by the clock was missing but if you open the realtek properties you can re enable it.
I thoguht I might as well share this with ppl who ahd the same problem as me. IDK if it works for everyone but it worked for me.
PS: I used this on Realtek HD Audio, idk if it works for the other codecs. And yes i do have "Speaker Fill" on but I am getting genuine surround, if somethign is behidn me I can tell. I did this primarily because the subwoofer wouldnt work unless i did Stereo, and if i checked off the bonsu options in rwaltek liek Bass Management I woudlnt get sound because it would give me a error. But this fixed it all for me.
I thoguht I might as well share this with ppl who ahd the same problem as me. IDK if it works for everyone but it worked for me.
PS: I used this on Realtek HD Audio, idk if it works for the other codecs. And yes i do have "Speaker Fill" on but I am getting genuine surround, if somethign is behidn me I can tell. I did this primarily because the subwoofer wouldnt work unless i did Stereo, and if i checked off the bonsu options in rwaltek liek Bass Management I woudlnt get sound because it would give me a error. But this fixed it all for me.