Does your sound card need drivers to use optical output?

[Obamargarine]

I have a Dynex DX-SC51 sound card (pretty ancient), and I couldn't find vista drivers for it (I have Win 7), but the 6 analog outputs do play surround.

However when I plug the optical cable in, only the 2 main speakers work (in the windows device configuration).

Is there something else I can do to make the optical work for the full 5.1?

thanks

[Krispy Kritter]

You typically need the drivers/software installed to gain access to all of the cards options. However, with that said, the digital output (ie: 5.1) should only work (aside from stereo as you already noted) for sources with 5.1 output.