How to get 5.1 speakers to work on my PC

[GuyWhoUsesPCs]

I bought the Gigabyte H110m-a motherboard a while back and just recently purchased the logitech z506 speaker system for gaming. These speakers are 5.1 channel, but I cannot get them to function properly on my PC. There are three cords: a green cord, which i plugged into the green "line out" port on my mobo, an orange cord, and a black cord. There are no orange or black ports on my motherboard, so i tried plugging them into the "mic in" and "line in" ports as per a post I read at the time. However, only the front two speakers worked when I tried this. When I unplugged the orange and black cords from my motherboard and the sub woofer, sound began to play from all speakers but it is very quiet from the rear speakers. I tried configuring the speakers in my windows settings, but the windows sound test would only play noises from the front left and front right speakers (not the central front speaker). Do I need a sound card with orange and black ports? I read somewhere about receivers, do I need to purchase one of those? Are the rear speakers just normally quiet? Any feedback on what's happening or what I can do would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[alexoiu]

You have to change Speaker configuration in Realtek manager to 5.1 then connect:
rear from subwoofer to light blue on motherboard
front from sw to lime on motherboard
sw/center from sw to pink on motherboard. Then test.

 

[sizzling]

The manual is unclear but it indicates to me you can only get the front speakers working from the sockets on the back of the motherboard. It says you need a HD audio module for 7.1 but I believe they mean 5.1 & 7.1 as you physically don't have the sockets for 5.1 without it.

 

[Paul NZ]

Looks like you can only use 2 ports. On the back of the mobo. On mine which has 6, the colours go to the corresponding ports

Just plug in 2 of them go to sounds / select the speaker. Select Config / 5:1 if it's there, see what happens

 

[GuyWhoUsesPCs]

I still can't get it to work after trying the suggestions. I guess I'll have to get a sound card or hd audio module (whatever that is)- are there any you guys would recommend?

 

[alexoiu]

You will get all speakers to work only when watching DVD movies labeled as Dolby Surround (similar), listening to DVD music recorded as DTS, 5.1, or in games... For a "fake"surround, you have to select "Speaker Fill" in the Realtek Manager.
Try this: connect the subwoofer to the motherboard as I explained in my first post, right click the sound icon, select Playback devices.
Make sure that the default device is Speakers, with Realtek labeled below,
Right click Speakers and select Configure speakers.
Make sure that 5.1 Surround is highlighted, then click on each speaker in the picture on the right side and see if getting sound from each one.