use old 5.1 sound system with new laptop (3 vs 1 connectors)

[luckydriver]

nephew is getting asus 17 tuf laptop for christmas. i have a 20 year old sound system id love to give to him so his gaming machine sounds better. its the altec 3151 and i do have the manual. http://www.laaudiofile.com/vs3151.html is what it looks like

so instead of the green black and orange connectors being able to be plugged into a typical PC sound card all at once, i now just have a single hole to plug in the speakers. the manual states depending what color you plug in you get 2.1 5.1 etc. there's also a switch on the unit 2/4 and 6. plugging in the orange is muddy horrible bass. plugging in the other 2 means just 2 of the 4 other speakers work (front or rear). im sure he will be happy just 2 speakers and the sub working vs the crappy laptop speakers but is there any way we can get all 5 speakers working . no matter what i did the center channel never seemed to work and i did turn up the dials.

also the orange and black connectors have an additional connector you can plug something else in, i guess headphones or mic?

 

[boju]

With a purely analogue surround system you're limited to audio jacks which laptops usually don't have enough of. Only way to bypass that is getting a 5.1 usb sound card.

Ie; Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro, has output jacks you'll need to connect sound system.