Firewave not recognized

Some surround modes switch speakers on or off as required. It's possible that the inputs you are using have settings that remember your previous settings, ie: no sub and surround speakers. Check the inputs and also make certain that whatever is connected to them is putting out Dolby signals.

Be sure that you have not "muted" your computer's audio-output.

Open the audio "mixer", and check that the "line-out" mix has not been pulled-down to a 'zero' level.

Try the speakers in some other (desktop or laptop) computer.

Try different speakers in your computer.

Check that you're plugging-in to the (green-coloured) "line-out" socket on your audio-adapter (not the blue-coloured "line-in" nor the pink "microphone-in" sockets).

There _are_ limits to what the "Plug-and-Play" features of Windows will detect. Generally, speakers are *NOT* listed within Device Manager.

Try switching from '5.1' to '2-channel-stereo', just to test it.

If your laptop hasn't a 5.1 surround card you can't connect them in a true 5.1 surround system way. But if you have a stereo sound card and if you don't care about true multichannel and want just to hear sound from all the speakers you neet to connect the adapter that came along with your speaker set-just plug and match the colors from the speaker plugs with the adapter and buy a jack stereo to 2 rca cable and plug the rca connectors to the adapter and plug the stereo jack to you laptop.

I had the same problem..... turns out that there is a specific order that you need to plug them in. Disconnect your speakers from usb and from power. Then plug in the Power first. Then plug in the usb connection. They should show up in your sound control panel now.

Check in speaker setup menu that your rear surround channels are enabled.

Unfortunately, it sounds like she broke the jack inside of it. It has lost connection to the main circuit board, and is of course now useless. If you know what you are doing and it is NOT under warranty, you could try opening it and resoldering it, not that it will definitely work. Otherwise, if it is under warranty, back it up (if you can), and take it back to the store.

the surround sound speakers plug into the rear of the computer with three plugs. an adapter comes with it to plug those three into one green plug. if you plug that green plug in, the rear and center speakers should work, although i don't know if the surround sound will work correctly but you should get sound

It should,but will depend on the output jack itself,If it is only a stereo output,it will only allow for a 2 channel plug.
If the output jack is for surround sound,it will work with the 3 into 1

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Have you made sure that the sound options in system preferences are all set, and not muted? Open system preferences, choose sound, go to the output tab. Make sure it's not muted or something silly.

If that's not it, and you're mechanically inclined, you can try opening the mac case and see if the speakers are disconnected. Although, I doubt they are unplugged.

Steven

To troubleshoot a speaker system where sound is not issuing from all speakers, please do the following:

1. Verify that all cables are plugged in correctly. Make sure the rear and/or center/sub audio cable is plugged in to the correct port. On most surround sound cards, the rear audio port is black, the front audio port is green, and the center/sub audio port is orange. If you do not have a surround sound card, make sure you obtain the proper adapter (discussed in the next paragraph) or use surround sound emulation if your speaker system offers it. If you are not sure if you have a surround sound card, please check with the manufacturer of your sound card for details.
2. Make sure your sound card supports the same amount of channels as your speaker system contains. For 4.1 systems, it should have a front and rear speaker jack on the card. For 5.1 systems, the card should have a front, rear, and center/sub, output. The card should be properly installed and configured. Please contact your sound card manufacturer for details. If you do not have a surround sound capable sound card, you can use the source selector switch or the M3D button on the controller unit (if available). You can also use an adapter to split the signal for the front and rear speakers. This type of adapter is a 3.5mm male to 2-3.5mm female jacks. You can purchase this adapter at your local electronic store. Please refer to your manual if you do not know if your speaker system can emulate surround sound.
3. Try connecting the speakers to a portable sound device such as a walkman or portable CD player. Plug the speakers into the headphone jack, but make sure the volume is lowered so the speakers are not over powered. You can do this for both the front, rear, center/sub speakers to verify that they work. If the speaker system works on the walkman, then you are experiencing a configuration issue with your sound card. Please contact your sound card manufacturer.
4. Check the system Volume Control located in the System tray. Make sure that the volumes are at a reasonable level and are not checked for Muting.

Try these articles as well:

Manual

Setting up the Z5500 with PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, DVD Player, etc.

Hope that helps! Should you have any further questions, please feel free to post them here.

P.S. - If you find that the solution/answer I provided led you to, or resulted in a fix, please close the ticket with a FixYa! rating. I would be very grateful for your show of appreciation.

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Cheers!
IrishDruid