trouble getting surround sound (1 Viewer)

[Joe950626]

AV receiver: yahama HTR 5550
Hi, i am trying to connect my old laptop to my home theatre system using a optical cord through a Toshiba Dynadock "adaptor", but i am not getting surround speaker and subwoofer sound
i do have DTS turned on and i configured the output sound of laptop to 5.1
when doing a test with my receiver the surround system works, but when doing a test on my pc, the surround speaker doesnt make a noise
please help
see image below

 

[Joe950626]

 

[Joe950626]

i tested on laptop by clicking on the surround speakers and subwoofers, no sound is made

 

[Al.Anderson]

You supplied so much onformation I feel bad asking ... what's the connection coming out of you laptop? (A picture of you laptop ports would be great.)

 

[Joe950626]

You supplied so much onformation I feel bad asking ... what's the connection coming out of you laptop? (A picture of you laptop ports would be great.)

the connection is a USB port from my laptop to a Toshiba Dynadock device with S/PDIF to the optical input of the receiver
sorry, i have no idea how this work, what do i still need to output 5.1 sound?
thank you so much

 

[Al.Anderson]

I confess I haven't done much with USB. I was hoping there were other port option.
But 'Speaker Setup' doesn't feel right; try going into control panel > sound > playback and see if there's a USB option.
Also, you may need to install a driver; did the Dynadock install any when you connected it?

 

[John Dirk]

USB doesn't natively carry audio signals so your laptop must contain some sort of built-in sound device that is handling the conversion. If you want to continue using this setup, you'll likely find the appropriate settings in the properties of that device. Check your Device Manager [in Control Panel] for the sub heading Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Then move your mouse pointer down to the lower right of the screen and hover over the speaker icon. Find the device under Sound, Video and Game Controllers that matches what is shown when hovering over the speaker. This is your currently active audio output device. Make sure it is using a format that supports HD audio such as WASAPI or Direct Sound.


EDIT:
Just checked out the receiver. No HDMI. My bad. Ignore everything below this line but everything above should still apply.


I notice your Toshiba dock also supports DVI output. I would strongly advise using this as opposed to optical. You should be able to purchase a DVI - HDMI adapter at your local Best Buy [or maybe even Wal-Mart if you're lucky] for less than $20.00. This will give you a direct HDMI connection to your receiver and greatly simplify things.