Computer not recognizing optical audio cable is plugged in?

[crushablelime]

I have just bought a Vizio 5.1 soundbar system. It seemed pretty decent until recently I relieved that I was not getting true 5.1 audio. The soundbar takes stereo audio and create an artificial 5.1 sound. I currently have the soundbar hooked up to a Samsung TV via optical audio cable, and then have a PC hooked up to the TV via HDMI. However my computer only recognizes the TV as stereo audio. So I then hooked up the optical audio cable directly to the PC but the computer does not even recognize that it is plugged in. I know the audio cable works and I have tried lots of other things. I assume it must be a software probable not a hardware one, but I am not sure. I am still very new to the world of audio and any help is great.

 

[ssddx]

why do you not just leave the optical plugged in from tv to soundbar and then in the tv settings change it so that when you have your tv playing content from the computer instead of using the tv speakers it outputs via optical to the soundbar instead?

 

[americanaudiophile]

Your computer cannot detect if anything is connected to the optical output. Just enable it in your audio control panel