HS1 sound channels reversed

As I have seen in several other posts here and I too am having a problem with the left and right channels reversed when playing games. If a player is on my right side in the game I hear them being on the left. I am using the latest driver (I never installed an older one) and Windows 7.

The only fix I can find is to alt-tab out of game, go into the Windows Sound -> Playback Devices -> right click Corsair HS1 -> Configure Speakers -> and select a different surround set-up (i.e. change from 7.1 to 5.1 surround or visa versa). Then when I re-enter the game the sound is fixed. If I leave the game and come back I have to redo this trick. It is very annoying and I don't know how to fix this properly so it doesn't reoccur.

This problem occurs consistently in both Battlefield 3 and in Black Ops. I don't play other games so I don't know if it will occur in any others.

Please help. Thanks.

I'm having the exact same issue with my Vengeance 1500 set. Every game, no matter what the Driver/Windows/Game audio settings are set to. No combination solves it. Sometimes they become reversed immediately, sometimes I can game for a few hours and it doesn't happen at all. Most of the time they become reversed within 10 minutes or so.

The only "fix" I have come up with is to alt-tab out of game, switch the mode in the Corsair drivers between bypass/5.1/7.1, and then alt-tab back into the game and change the audio settings to match. This is temporary though, and the channels reverse again.

I have three sound drivers on my computer:

- High Definition Audio Device

- AMD High Definition Audio Device

- Corsair CA-HS1 USB Audio

I disabled both the HD audio device drivers in my Device Manager. Everything seemed OK for a day and then today the channels were reversed again while in game.

Should I actually uninstall the other audio drivers or just disable them?

Also, there are two HD Audio controllers showing up in the System devices section too. Should I do anything with them?

I tried uninstalling both the sound drivers and audio controllers for both the HD Audio.

Then Windows 7 immediately detected the on-board audio device and reinstalled them all again. Right now I have them disabled to see how it goes.

Unfortunately I don't have another computer to test the headset on.

Quick update:

I just noticed that when I disable the HD Audio Controllers in the "System devices" section of the Device Manager then the HD Audio Devices disappear from the "Sound, video, and game controllers" section, and they reappear when I enable the controllers. I haven't tested with the controllers disabled so I will do so now and report back.

I have the two HD Audio Controllers disabled, with nothing but the Corsair HS1 Device showing up in the Sound Devices and my sound is backwards again.

This is frustrating. I can't uninstall the devices because Windows 7 just reinstalls them again.

What's the next step?

I'm having the exact same issue with my Vengeance 1500 set. Every game, no matter what the Driver/Windows/Game audio settings are set to. No combination solves it. Sometimes they become reversed immediately, sometimes I can game for a few hours and it doesn't happen at all. Most of the time they become reversed within 10 minutes or so.

 

The only "fix" I have come up with is to alt-tab out of game, switch the mode in the Corsair drivers between bypass/5.1/7.1, and then alt-tab back into the game and change the audio settings to match. This is temporary though, and the channels reverse again.

PLEASE NOTE!!! One thing i found was with my sound card, (onboard XF-I Supreme FX II) the EAX effects could cause channel switching... so, i disabled ALL EAX effects but kept the sound card active (just set my 1500's to default so when i plug them in, it automatically switches to the headset and back to speakers when removed)

and it stopped doing it... it wouldnt randomly switch during gaming, it would be reversed as the game launched, Alt+Tab out and back in, and all was good.... once i figure out how to stop them reversing altogether, i'll post here... currently playing with my motherboards sound settings in the bios.. im thinking the source COULD lye in there.

Well, right now I have EVERYTHING sound related disabled in my device manager except the Corsair HS1 driver and it is still reversing.

This means that if I unplug my headset and I can't hear anything from my speakers cause the onboard sound drivers are disabled. I know this is for troubleshooting purposes so I can live with that for a short time but I still have the reversing sound problem from the headset.

I tried several of the different sound modes, including war tapes and headphone. None of the modes had an affect on the reversed sound issue. The only temporary fix is to alt-tab out of the game, go to the driver properties for the HS1 and change if between 5.1 and 7.1 then re-enter the game.

In doing some research on that BF3 sound setting all it apparantly does is change the compression and dynamics of the game sounds. War Tapes is the most dynamic; headphones is the least dynamic. So you can set it to what sounds best for your sound system.

What do you recommend I try next?

Could the problem be drivers related to a specific type of hardware?

I have sound on board my ASUS M4A79XTD-EVO motherboard. Could the Corsair drivers not be playing well with this?

It's a bug/glitch in c-media software. My sound card uses same software and it does the same thing at random if i have 7.1 Virtual enabled. What i do fix it is to turn on/off Environment effect.

Maybe Corsair can get c-media to look into this bug/glitch, its been around for at least 2yrs and still no fix from c-media. I was told by the tech support for my sound card to disable 7.1, that it's the reason sound reverses.

Dear Corsair-Team,

can we get a solution for this? It's so annoying that it makes me want to throw my headset out of the windows. I payed 90€ for my 1500 Vengeance Headset and i really want to stick with it but... this is just horrible.

I am pretty sure it's a driver/software problem.

Corsair did an RMA replacement for me, and the new set has the same issue. It does this no matter what the Corsair drivers and the Windows 7 settings are. Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, all of them reverse, and it seems to be at random. I haven't identified any in-game event that triggers the reversal.

Alt-tabbing out and it can offer a temporary fix, but it reverses again shortly after. Heck, I've had the sound reverse, then reverse back to normal a few minutes later, all without leaving the game.

This is extremely frustrating at this point. I just reinstalled BF3 and the drivers, I'm leaving everything locked at 5.1 settings, and we'll see how it goes. I'm not hopeful at this point.

Same issue here, except with the newer Vengeance 1500.

Running Windows 7 64-bit and Battlefield 3. Randomly the sounds start coming in from opposite sides.

I swear everyone in the game thought I was drunk!

Reinstalled, restarted, resolved... for a few minutes! It randomly decided to reverse again on its own during the game.

HELP!

I am still having the same issue. I have tried all the troubleshooting steps that The Ram Guy has recommended and nothing seems permanently fix the problem.

Ram GUY - is there any hope to fix this permanently?

I appreciate that Corsair is looking into the issue. You can see my system setup (makes/models) in my profile, if that helps.

Until a permanent solution is found I will just have to to change my sound set up between 5.1 and 7.1 each time I start the game, and sometimes after a map change. That seems to be the only thing that helps.