Hi Chuck: The answer is actually simple. What you think of as the lineout on your sblive is actually your rear out. The four jacks on the back are line-in, microphone, front-out and rear-out. So if you increase your rear speaker volume in amixer you should be amazed by the output of your non-working powered speakers. Kirk -- Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario phone: (519) 661-3061