Laptop and Surround Sound

[Justin685]

Hi guys, ive seen on different forums, people asking how to get surround to work on laptops, but I haven't found a proper answer..

My computer has one headphone jack, but its an optical jack.. isn't that meant for surround sound?

Ideally, id like to get a cheap 5.1 system and plug it in with the optical plug, but I don't want to buy an external soundcard if I don't have to.

My computer shows the option for digital audio and has a greyed out spot where I can select speaker configuration.

How would I go about getting 5.1 with my setup?

thanks for the help

 

[kaswyn]

I don't know about yours, but I have an MSI GE70 series laptop with a Realtek soundcard and Sount Blaster software. The Realtek soundcard alone is ok. However, if I attempt to go into the regular places you would to mess with the sound mixer, sound controls, etc., I don't find anything useful. I have to click on the up arrow in my system tray to show all running apps and find the Sound Blaster icon to click, which brings up the controls for surround sound, bass, etc. I can tell you I'm fairly impressed because I can hear the difference between on surround sound and surround sound. In fact, the Sound Blaster software allows me to drag the bar across to make it two speakers, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. Pretty cool if you ask me.