AIW X-series Fm problem

Zweinstein

HI!

I have an AIW X800 XT.And the FM radio is always mono instead of stereo.I saw that I`m not the only one with this problem, but I haven`t seen any solutions.It`s doesn`t matter how I connect it to the soundcard(via the AGP bus, or with the 4-pin line out).I think it isn`t the soundcards problem, because I tried it with the MoBo integrated soundcard, and the results are the same.I`ve attached the blue line out cable from the dongle to an auxillary amplifier, and the sound is mono again.So the problem is in the videocards tuner.

I`d like to ask the X-series users, to try their FM radio and share their experiences(please indicate the correct type of your card if you respond).
I would appreciate if someone would have an idea, to solve this problem.

Many Thanks!

dh66

I have an AIW X800XT, and my FM is stereo and always was as far as I can remember. I'm using cat 7.4 and MMC 9.16, and it's connected via the AGP bus. You might try uninstalling your ATi drivers and doing a clean install, but I really don't know if that will work or not.

Zweinstein

I guess your lucky, but listen to it again using headphones.I`ve tried the drivers you suggested, but nothing happened.As a matter of fact I`ve tried almost all drivers, all combinations, AGP bus and cable connection etc., but it`s still mono, and all the stations are stereo.As I mentioned, I`m not the only one with this problem.
I`m using a Windows XP with nothing but the ATI display and multimedia drivers, so there`s nothing to interfer with.
Thanks for the reply!

OldBuzzard

I had 3 different X800XT AIW's and I never got STEREO on FM to work either.

I used all sorts of hardware configurations and CCC/MMC combinations, and nothing worked.

It's no doubt software related, and just another case where ATI screwed the AIW owners

H3X4D3C1M4L

I have to agree 101% with OldBuzzard, as I share an identical experience to him.

No doubt I could elucidate to great lengths on the steps I took to try and fix it, but why bother?

Zweinstein

I too agree with you and OldBuzzard.I won`t list my attempts either, but believe me, I tried everything to make it work.I see you drew the same conclusion that I did, namely that this is a software problem.I already contacted ATI about this issue, but it doesn`t seem to concern them.
I was using Nvidia in the past, without any problems.Ati hardware maybe better, but the software part isn`t worth a straw.
NO MORE ATI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H3X4D3C1M4L

I think what the issue is, is that the hardware is a mono receiver only.

What other explanation is there

But it makes sense.

Freddy2

Hello all,

I too have this problem and I have also tried all kinds of drivers, settings and installs, but I doubt that it is software based...

It could be a driver problem, which would be kinda logical, because the AGP AiW X800XT/XL is, as far as I know, the only card having this problem and the only AiW that has the MT2050 tuner: newer cards, including all PCI-E ones, have the MT2121 tuner.
But also the Theater 550Pro based TV Wonder Elite used this tuner and I have never heard of any mono issues with that card, so that makes a driver issue less likely.

On top of that, have you ever seen the patch work that was needed on the NTSC version of this AiW X800XT, to make the FM Radio work at all, sometimes... So that makes it very likely that there was more wrong than could be fixed with "just" a seperate wire and that would make it a hardware problem.

Has anyone ever tried to RMA its card just because of this FM Radio mono problem!?... It would be interesting to see what they would do then...

Freddy

H3X4D3C1M4L

They'd do nothing. Its an inherent flaw in the hardware and we got stuck with it.