I am new to this forum and hope it's a right section for asking help. Well, I just purchased a 5.1 speaker system from buy.com. I want to connect it to my notebook, but the notebook has only a headphone jack and a microphone jack. My 5.1 speaker system has three connectors, so I can't figure out how to connect. Can anyone help me to make the setup?

Thanks in advance.

You just need a stereo mini plug to dual RCA cable. You can get one from your local Radio Shack.

The computer has to have the capability of outputting 5.1 audio. It sounds like your notebook computer doesn't have that capability, but you would have to check the documentation to be sure.

Look up ProLogic. That was a way of extracting five channels of audio from two channels. Separation wasn't good, but it was way better than stereo and for several years we even called it Surround!

Thing is, you'll need a processor that takes your left and right inputs and gives you five outputs. I have no idea how that relates to your three outputs... or do you mean three connections" left +, right +, and common ground?

Pro Logic is still very much in use today. I see it as an optional audio track on a few DVD's, although it's always been quite rare. It's referred to as "Surround". I often listen to two-channel audio tracks on television shows that are encoded with surround sound. As far as I know, though, it's not ever been called "5.1"