n00b question about 5.1 sound

Hi,

I have 5.1 speakers, and inbuilt Realtek AC97 5.1 capable sound. Now on 90% of programs the 5.1 output works fine. All 6 speakers work great. But on some programs like 3Dmark03 demo and Cakewalk, there is only output from 2 speakers. ONLY in a few programs, but it sounds sh!tty!

Yet in the 3Dmark03 sound test, there is 5.1 output fine. But not in the demos of the 4 game tests, only 2 speaker output. Is this something that is the same for everyone, or is it something else?

what operating system do you have? the only time i had anything like you describe was on windows 2k or older, they defualt the perfomance options to(if i remember right) good, have to run them up to best. xp defaults them on best , or has on all the machines i have installed it on.
and sometimes you have to go into the advanced controls and uncheck spatial and other odd options, if you have a speaker icon by the clock, open the controls and open the properties, put a check in all the controls, then select advanced options to see what all is set. if you have a third party mixer may have to look through and see what environments are set....