Surround Sound Issues

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron e1505 with Creative Audigy Advanced sound card. I also ordered the Kensington dock. The dock connects through USB and has surrouns sound inputs for my Logitech speakers. The speakers are recognized and automatically selected by the laptop, but the Creative sound card cannot seem to understand the external options. What should I do.

New member... go easy on me.

 

Just plug your speakers directly into the e1505 and bypass your dock.

 

I would love to if the laptop had surround output. I could convert a headphone signal into red/white chord, and then that into the yellow/black/green signal.... but that's a pain in the ass and defeats the purpose of the dock's ability to stay put and maintain a static work place with a mobile laptop. Basically, I don't want to have to plug all that in everytime I dock.

 

Yeah, I know your feeling. Too bad the e1505 cannot accept PCMCIA, or you could get the higher end Creative Audigy 2ZS.

It may be that the driver/process that the Dell sound uses is incompatable with your current dock. Play around with drivers at both ends - the USB end and the sound end of things.

 

Did the Kensington Dock not come with a sound card driver? I don't think that there is any way to use the Audigy software when you're using an external non-Creative sound card, but there should be some sort of software that the sound card in the dock came with that will allow you to change the settings for the speakers.

 

Well, the driver did install itself, and if I was running just the default sound card, all would be fine. But since I'm running on the Creative sound card, it's not understanding the dock (probably on purpose... although that sounds more like Apple than Creative...)