same sound from all channels

I'm looking for a program that will combine all the different signals going to the different audio channels (front left, front right, rear left, rear right, etc). im using a pair of headphones on a 5.1 sound card, and my front left speaker signal doesn't work, so if i plug my headphones into the front channel jack, sound only comes out of one ear, but if i plug it in the rear, i can get both rear channels; the problem is that if im playing any game with 5.1 sound i cant hear anything in front of my character. obviously changing the setting to not be 3d sound doesn't help, because then it won't make sound out of the rear channel, the channel my headphones are plugged into. Thanks!

GO to speaker setup of your sound card, and set it to headphones. If there is no headphones option, use stereo.

The obvious answer would be to get a new sound card. I realize that money could be a problem, but since you obviously can't actually enjoy the 5.1 sound without one of the front channels, any old PCI sound card (new, used, borrowed) would be enough to get you at least the 2 front stereo channels until you can pony up for a replacement of the original.

Also, if you have an actual separate sound card and your computer also has 'on-board' sound, remove the sound card, enable the on-board sound in the BIOS and run the sound driver from the motherboard/computer's driver CD.

If what you have IS on-board sound, get into the BIOS, disable the on-board sound (or set it to AUTO) and plug in a cheap PCI sound card.