Can't connect a 5.1 headset to a 4-jack laptop?

[mckenziepiping]

I have an msi GT70 laptop with Headphone, Mic, Line-In, Line-Out.

I just bought the Turtle Beach EarForce Z6A which has 4 speakers in each ear for true surround sound.

Its cables are labelled as such: Green (front), Orange (C/S), Black (rear), Pink (mic) and I have no idea how to connect this to the 4 jacks that I have, since they are all gold-plated and not color-coded.

Is my laptop even compatible with this headset?

 

[legacyBIOS]

If it has the inputs on the laptop, you can tell. Open the realtek audio control manager. It will give you a picture of the inputs with the colors on one of the tabs in the utility. Once you plug one of the cords into an input, the input on the utility will light up. It will take a tad bit of trial and error, but the utility will show the colors. Hope this helps.

 

[cklaubur]

From the manual I found on MSI's website:

Front speakers (Green) to the Headphone jack.
Center/Subwoofer (Orange) to the Mic jack.
Rear speakers (Black) to the Line-in jack.

However, that will leave the microphone disconnected, since the center/subwoofer speakers will be plugged into the mic jack. However, Realtek's audio drivers should let you remap the jacks so you can make it work.

Casey

 

[mckenziepiping]

If it has the inputs on the laptop, you can tell. Open the realtek audio control manager. It will give you a picture of the inputs with the colors on one of the tabs in the utility. Once you plug one of the cords into an input, the input on the utility will light up. It will take a tad bit of trial and error, but the utility will show the colors. Hope this helps.

Weird, when I connect everything, the utility shows a picture of the inputs and whether anything is connected to them, but there is no color-coding. There is simply grey for disconnected and black for connected. So basically I have 4 black bullets under the heading "Analog". I took a screenshot but apparently this site won't allow me to post it.

 

[mckenziepiping]

From the manual I found on MSI's website:

Front speakers (Green) to the Headphone jack.
Center/Subwoofer (Orange) to the Mic jack.
Rear speakers (Black) to the Line-in jack.

However, that will leave the microphone disconnected, since the center/subwoofer speakers will be plugged into the mic jack. However, Realtek's audio drivers should let you remap the jacks so you can make it work.

Casey

I actually tried this and it just gives front, left and centre sound. The rear speakers actually seem to produce a sound during the Realtek Utility audio test, but the sound they produce sounds just like it's coming from the side - there is no "behind me" sensation at all. And when I play a surround sound test file, there is no difference between front and rear sound.