I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Gamer sound card and a LiteOn 16x DVD+-R/+-RW Drive. There is an audio port on the front of the DVD drive. I'd like to be able to hook the audio port up to the sound card, so that I can plug my headphones into the front of the computer and get sound from the sound card. I can't figure out how to get the audio port on the DVD drive working at all. My motherboard doesn't seem to have any ports for the audio connectors used by the DVD drive (small 2 pin digital or 4 pin analog connectors). My sound card has both, but I've tried hooking the DVD drive to the sound card with both the digital and the analog connectors and either way I can't get sound out of the DVD drive audio port. The DVD drive and the sound card both work fine otherwise. Please help.

You shouldn't make any external connections, especially with the analog cables. The audio will be transfered digitally via the IDE cable to your soundcard.

:( It doesn't work, regardless of whether or not I have the "Enable digital CD audio" option checked for the DVD drive, and regardless of whether I set my sound card or my motherboard to be the default sound device. I just get dead silence from the DVD port.

I'm confused. :confused:
What is the nature of the "audio port on the front of the DVD drive"?
Usually you have a headphone mini-jack socket on the front of the optical drive.
Yet you say "I'd like to be able to hook the audio port up to the sound card".
You should never connect the headphone output [from the front of the optical drive] to the sound card unless in desperation you connect that to the "Line-in" mini-jack socket on the sound card. That should never be necessary.
Did you mean to say "so that I can plug my headphones into the front of the computer and also get sound from the sound card."?
That should be no problem, because the two are independent of each other.

You say "I can't figure out how to get the audio port on the DVD drive working at all."
Does that mean that if you plug a working headset into the "headphone" socket on the DVD drive and then play a CD, you cannot get any sound from the headset?

"My sound card has both"
My PC uses an analogue connection.
I believe if you use the digital connection then the PC has to be both capable and also configured to use that.

"either way I can't get sound out of the DVD drive audio port. The DVD drive and the sound card both work fine otherwise."
Does that mean that your sound works ok EXCEPT that you cannot get anything from the "port" [what I think is the "headphone" socket] on the DVD drive?

Yes, it is a headphone mini-jack.

I can't get any sound at all out of the port, ever, no matter what I try. I have two audio processors on my computer: the audio built into the motherboard, and the dedicated sound card. I'd like to get SOME audio out of the port on the DVD player. Ideally I would like that audio to come from the dedicated sound card (which produces higher quality sound than the motherboard), but at this point I can't get ANY sound AT ALL out of the port, so I'll take what I can get.

The headphones I'm using work. I can get sound when I plug them directly into the ports on the sound card. I can also get sound when I plug the headphones directly into the ports on the motherboard. I can't get any sound out of the port on the DVD player.

I can read CDs and DVDs just fine, and I can get sound from the ports directly on the sound card.

I have a plethora of functional audio ports available for use. I just want to get the port on the DVD player working because I'll always be annoyed if it doesn't work. It's the only thing on my new computer that I can't get to work, and it's bugging me.

"It's the only thing on my new computer that I can't get to work, and it's bugging me."
I can understand why. :(
Does the headphone SOCKET [don't call them ports because they aren't] have a volume control asociated with it on the front of the DVD drive?

My CD-RW has a circular knurled wheel, and only the tip of its circumference protrudes through the facia.

My CD-reader has two buttons, one to increase, the other to decrease sound volume.

OK,
I tried playing a CD in each of my CD drives with the headphones connected to the appropriate headphone output socket on the front of the drive.
Each of them can have the volume level turned down until no sound can be heard from the headphones.
Perhaps all you need to do is turn up the volume using the physical control on the front of your DVD drive.

Yes the socket does have a volume control, but the probelm isn't the volume.

Perhaps I need an updated driver? Right now I'm using the default Windows driver for the DVD drive. I'm also going to review the documentation for my motherboard to see if I need to do anything special to enable digital cd audio.

"the socket does have a volume control, but the probelm isn't the volume."
How do you know that?
Do you turn the volume up to Maximum [whilst a CD is playing (you can hear it through the sound card)] and hear only hiss/hum/noise through the headphones in the drive?
If you do, then the drive is faulty.

"Perhaps I need an updated driver?"
Not for the socket on the drive. That is hardware produced sound, just like a Hi-Fi or non-PC CD player. The PC software isn't involved in that.

"I'm also going to review the documentation for my motherboard to see if I need to do anything special to enable digital cd audio."
I thought you were getting sound ok via the sound card and PC software?

Do you turn the volume up to Maximum [whilst a CD is playing (you can hear it through the sound card)] and hear only hiss/hum/noise through the headphones in the drive?


Yes, precisely. Though even with the volume at maximum I can barely even hear a hiss.

I'm officially giving up. The socket isn't really that important anyway; once I get a seven-piece speaker system my headphones are going into storage. I'm just being obsessive. Thanks for trying to help.

If the drive is still within its warranty period, you should be able to take it back for a working replacement or a refund.