connecting 4.1 green/black wires to laptop and tv

Surround setups aren't designed to make sound come from all four speakers from a simple stereo input. I'm guessing because you haven't adequately described the entire setup but yours likely should have the sub plugged into the rear left/right outputs and it has it's rear left/right speakers attached to it. The front/center speakers attach to corresponding outputs. Your laptop have a pcmcia connector? Get a surround capable sound card to plug into it. On TV you need to plug into a surround system to get sound from all the speakers. Subs always plug into either a rear set of connections or a dedicated sub output.

I can think of several ways to accomplish what you're asking. Probably the simplest...

Go to partsexpress.com

Buy a Dual Headphone Adapter:

That will connect both SW inputs to your laptop, giving you four [4] speaker stereo.

Again, from partsexpress.com:

Get a 3.5mm Stereo Male To 2 RCA Male Cable 5 ft.

If your laptop has a line in, you can plug this in there and plug the other end into your TV audio outs.

This way you don't have to undo any cables and you can use your laptop as an audio switch / mixer.

If your laptop only has a mic in, you could try it, but turn off any mic boost in the Windows mixer and start with a low volume setting on both the TV and the mic input of the laptop.

I really wouldn't expect any damage from this [although *technically* possible], but the TV audio out will overdrive the laptop mic-in to the point of distortion very quickly.

If you can't/don't want to try that, pick up a 3.5mm Stereo To 3.5mm Stereo Coupler Metal

When you want to listen to the TV, swap the headphone adapter on the end of the SW cables to the 3.5mm coupler on the TV's RCA adapter.

If you really don't feel like switching cables back and forth to go from the TV to the laptop, you could pick up an inexpensive av switch from eBay for under $10, but you'll need more [or certainly different] adapters to accomodate the switch.

If you're still confused, or want to try the av switch route and need cab;e/adapter info for that hookup, reply here. But it's actually pretty simple and straightforward.

hth,

Uh...you said "input".

If that's correct, you're screwed as far as connecting the TV to the SW system.

If you meant output, then you're ok.

yes i meant input.

just wanted to let you know that i got the connections and hooked things up and it works perfectly on both laptop and TV.

In fact the TV speakers remain "ON" when the output is connected to my

thanks a lot for the help

Cool. Glad all is well.

I don't understand how you're hooking the TV to the SW if the TV only has inputs, but...

As long as it's working the way you want, that's all that matters.