Can't get Sonos Beam to connect to app, or play on my Windows 10 PC

  • 5 August 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 319 views

I just got a Sonos Beam today, with the intention of using it as a speaker for my PC. I plugged it in via the optical cable attachment, plugged in the power cable, but my PC isn’t registering that it’s plugged in. When I hit the test sound button, I hear nothing.

To make matters worse, the Sonos app is completely bugging out as well. I connected it and paired the Beam, then it says that there’s a problem and I need to finish setup. But then it says that it can’t locate the Beam, even though it literally just connected to it about 1 minute prior.

I’ve tried reinstalling the app and trying over 2 times now, but nothing worked. I tried changing the audio formats on Windows 10 in case the Beam can’t support a specific frequency, but no matter what frequency I choose, it doesn’t play anything.


5 replies

Optical is a one way transmission, so it won’t “register”. 

You need to be sure that the output from your PC is set to something that the Beam can read, which is either stereo, or Dolby Digital. It can not interpret Dolby Digital Plus, or DTS, or Atmos. 

But that’s assuming it’s all set up first. It won’t do anything until you get it connected via the Sonos controoler.

In order for it to properly get set up, you should either be wiring the Beam directly to your router with an ethernet cable, or making sure your wifi has an 802.11b/g/n network for the Beam to connect to. The ethernet cable should not go to your computer. It should go to the router. 

Alright, I managed to get it set up on my PC. Had to use a wired internet connection to finish up the setup process, and then connect it to my ‘TV’ in the device settings through the app.

Now my problem is: This is a 3.0 channel soundbar, but I can’t figure out how to set the soundbar to actually use 3.0 on PC.

In general, the Beam takes a 5.1 Dolby Digital signal. That’s what you should be setting the PC to send to it. 

That’s the thing, I can’t figure out how to change it to a 5.1 signal. When I try to configure Realtek Audio (How the soundbar shows up in my Sounds menu), the configure option is grayed out.

I can configure my headphones to be 5.1, even though they’re only stereo, but it won’t let me configure the soundbar.

Sorry, I’m not familiar with the RealTek drivers. You may get a better answer from another member here, or frankly by contacting RealTek’s customer support. 

Reply