This makes me think that the ground is not getting connected, on the TRRS connector you want last ring and sleeve to be connected together as GND, since various connectors do the sleeve/ground connector at different points and maybe on the other computer the ground connection happened where the second ring is.

Tiido wrote on 2020-09-27, 10:58:

This makes me think that the ground is not getting connected, on the TRRS connector you want last ring and sleeve to be connected together as GND, since various connectors do the sleeve/ground connector at different points and maybe on the other computer the ground connection happened where the second ring is.

So you're suggesting I ground the sleeve and final ring? The last ring is unused so I could do that but... Since the Santa is only 5.1, the possibility exists that it has only TRS sockets so if I ground the male jack RS together that may cause a short circuit when plugged into the socket.

If the ground were not getting connected, would that not affect the speakers equally when running off the laptop? That works though.

A socket only meant to accept TRS connector can have its Sleeve contact be in multiple locations (depending on particular manufacturer) and the whole premise is that it happens to connect where the 2nd Ring is, it is the only thing I can think of being able to cause such a problem. You'll definitely want to connect sleeve and the 2nd ring together, and perhaps it will fix the issue. You can also simply try connecting a wire to computer chassis and ground of the speakers to test this theory, if the problem fixes it most probably is what I have described, if not the plot deepends...

It seems you were right (so far anyway). By grounding out the disconnected channel the problem went away. In fact at one point I was picking up the radio and wondering why I was hearing about a local strip club's financial woes even at 0 volume on the pc. So the sound on the Santa is functional now. The question is whether or not the new wiring will work with the creative card which has 4 poles. If not I'll need to make some sort of switch so I can either ground or unground that unused channel.

The Creative card shouldn't have a problem with TRS connector being inserted into its output connector(s). In worst case you can use a low value resistor (say 10 ohms) between the ring and sleeve if things end up not working on the Creative card.

That's true, it never occurs to me that a pull-up resistor does the same thing without the need for switches.

Now if only I could find a better software interface... I can't even set the damn volume of the individual speakers like the Creative panel lets me do. Arghh.. Thanks anyway.