Attaching Speakers to your PC ----== 0) I-LEAD Computer Literacy Guide.

<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Attaching Speakers to your PC ----== 0) I-LEAD Computer Literacy Guide.

Attaching your speakers to your PC

For the most part this is very simple. If your soundcard is a standard one, then plug the jack on the end of the speaker wire into the line out of the soundcard. Which one is the soundcard? Well, like most things to do with PC's, it will not fit anywhere else on the back of your machine. If it won't go in easily, then it isn't supposed to go there.

A set of speakers and the back of the PC, yesterday

The soundcard sockets (along with all the others) are typically around the back of your PC. Once you've found it there is one final problem to overcome. Which hole to put it in. There are quite a few 'universal' symbols which attempt to mean "Plug in speakers here". Some motherboards and soundcards, come with color coded holes, so match the color to your plug and thats all there is to it. Others come with mysterious inscriptions etched into the metal of the sound card, telling you what each hole is for. Most branded PC's now come with huge fold out sheets detailing these first physical set ups. So once you open the box, you can plug it all together properly.

Color coded holes and if you look hard, mysterious symbols....

If like me you are color blind (or cannot make sense of the symbols) then there is one further step you can take.

Plug in your speaker jack into what you suspect is the correct socket. Check the speakers are switched on, and turned up a little. Play a sound, such as a .WAV file, or maybe an MP3. If you hear nothing, then plug it into another hole, repeat the process until you hear sound coming from your speakers.

There it is, pressed into the socket, and all ready for your Elvis collection

Speakers are one of the few components you can plug in and out while the computer is switched on. If you think the speakers may be damaged and so never going to give you any sound, you can try walkman style headphones instead. These typically have the same sized plug on the end of the wire, that will fit into your soundcard. If not, then as with nearly everything on a PC, you are trying to plug it into the wrong place.

Happy listening, and DON'T you step on my blue suede shoes.

Tip

It is relatively cheap these days to get a set of PC speakers with a sub woofer. It really does add a huge amount to even the tiniest desktop speaker set up. You may want to make sure that you have the sound controls on the desktop parts of the speakers and NOT on the subwoofer/amplifier unit. Climbing under the table every time you want to change the volume slightly, will become very tiresome, VERY quickly.
It is slightly conceivable the neighbors will NOT want to hear you smashing open the sacred chest of XXintjin, in the dark valley of Jomethajol at 2:40am, even if it DOES have a nice bass quality to it.