I own a SONY VAIO VGN-FZ140E Laptop that runs on Vista Home Premium SP1. Very recently I bought a XB Soundblaster card and then bought Altec Lansing VS3251 5.1 speakers. After connecting the speakers, when I test it out (control panel > sound > configure) all the 5 speakers are working perfectly (so there is no issue with the cable connections) But when I try to play songs using winamp/windows media player/divx player etc., I dont hear any sound from the rear left and rear right and center speakers. Not sure what I am missing. Can someone please help me.

ok; there are a few choices,one:maybe you made plugings wrong,view the instructions manual,must do all plugings by the book,rear with rear and so on..two:you sure your sound card has 5+1 compatibility ? three:have you made the configurations in sound control right?

I checked the connections. As I said earlier, when I test the speakers using windows control panel, I can hear sound from all the 5 speakers. Its only when I play songs using winamp or media player is when I face this problem. My sound card is a 5.1. Its a Creative USB X Fi 5.1 sound card that I have.Yes I have done all the 3 steps that you had mentioned but i still have the same problem. When testing the speakers i hear sounds from all 5, but when playing songs its only from the front left and front right

If you only have a stereo (2 channel) signal source, unless your player has a multi-channel synthesize that is all you're going to get.

Wizard is correct. If you have a game with surround sound, try it.

Guys thanks for taking the time out to reply. I had reached out to Creative Cust Support as well, telling them about this problem. They gave me the link to an article in their KB and asked me to try it out. http://support.creative.com/kb/Show... It looks like this is something which they are aware of and have a work-around in their bundled applications. I had missed out on installing their bundled application and had just stuck to having windows look for the drivers from their CD. I installed their application, which helped me enabled 3D surround sound and now I have all my speakers playing songs. Thanks guys !! Appreciate it.