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If you not getting any sound or only getting stereo sound, check the following,

You need to completely remove the old graphics and HDMI drivers. This is especially true if the motherboard has ATI chipset with HDMI such as MSI 785GTM-E45 that uses Realtek audio chip and you have loaded Realtek’s HDMI driver. The Realtek’s HDMI driver does not work with ATI 5450 but if Realtek’s HDMI driver is present, Windows may use it instead of the ATI’s HDMI driver.

If you are not sure, check the device manager to see which driver is loaded for the ATI 5450. If it is the Realtek’s HDMI driver, you need to change the driver.

If ATI’s HDMI driver is loaded but you only have 2 ch. sounds, check the Windows’ sound manager under control panel. In Windows 7, the sound manager will show a list of sound devices. If ATI HDMI is not the only one, set it as default. If on the other hand, you don’t see ATI HDMI here, you don’t have the right driver loaded.

There is an obscure “configuration” button at the bottom of the sound manager. Whit ATI HDMI selected, click the configuration button. A new box will show up. The default is 2 channels. Select the proper number of the speakers and arrangement.

Once you get the right settings, the ATI 5450 works great. But since some Windows applications can and will make changes without inform the user, don’t assume these settings just need to be set once and forget it. If things worked for a while but switched back to two channel sound, double check these settings again. I have encountered a few times the settings been changed after auto Windows updates.

Also note, it is better to switched on the HDMI devices downstream from the HTPC such as receiver before the HTPC. If you turn on the HTPC first, the ATI HDMI audio driver may not be loaded and end up with no sound at all to the HDMI port.