Hello.
I've had the Bose Companion 5 speaker/sub woofer system for about a year, but in the last 4 months, it just stopped working with no warning. Back then, after a call to Bose, per their instructions, I would have to unplug everything, which is a pain, I have get down on the floor, under my desk, with a flashlight figuring out which wire went where....wait 30 seconds, plug everything back in and...wow... it worked again.
Then the next day when I turned on my desktop, no music again. Since then, I've called Bose repeatedly. They are so nice, they really do care about your problem. One tech guy called me back a two weeks later because he had found a fix for someone with the same predicament. I do not care if this isn't politically correct, but their call center is in this country, and that is a good thing.
I don't have to ask Marilyn, Jay or Bruce over in India that I cannot hear them, then I cannot understand them. They cannot understand me. That has been my general experience, perhaps others have had more productive calls. I'm usually connected to people who are just not ready to answer the phone in English and since they did not understand me, also they read from scripts that have nothing to do with my problem at hand.
That the companion series were designed not to need any special drivers - they say Microsoft should have it covered with very basic, multi-purpose drivers that are shipped with their operating systems. Bose's stance is that no hardware, no drivers are needed, just a USB port - they use those as "pro's" and reasons to buy the companion. Just plug and play.
Their sound, best I've ever heard. In most songs, it was like hearing them for the first time. I heard all kinds of nuances and all sorts of background that made a good song great.
The sound was absolutely worth $399.00 easily, but not being able to use them really is quite sad. 
I have talked to Microsoft twice. They are of course much less knowledgeable and tell me to call Bose for a driver disc, this after I have told them everything I've said here. Clueless. They made it very clear that they had absolutely nothing to do with this, and they sure stuck to that.
I have Googled this over and over, I found that I am indeed not alone, yet I never find an answer. No one seems to know why their companions stopped playing.
Trusty CNet gave them this rating: Summary: Comparing these reviews to 99165 other Speakers reviews gives this product an overall 91/100 = Excellent.
By the way, I have the same computer that I did when I splurged on the Bose System. I have not added anything as far as hardware. No big software changes either.
I have a Gateway that is about 1.5 years old.
AMD Phenom 9100e Quad core Processor 1.80 gHZ
Installed Ram: 4.00 GB
Running Windows 7 Home Premium, Before that, Vista Home Premium. Yes! My Bose worked on a Vista Desktop.
Thanks in advance, if anyone has any clue I would sure appreciate it.
If you or someone you know has one and figured it out, please let me know. Any help from anyone would be much obliged.
Nick
PS You know what they say about a thousand words, tiny url and similar services are out because of phishing scams being pulled, abusing these services. Here is the long URL:
<http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/digital_music_systems/computer_speakers/companion_5/index.jsp>
Thanks!
Randy
