Sound bar won't work on laptop

[LadyHomeLover]

Bought a laptop soundbar. It has one cable, a USB.

Plugged it in, laptop does not recognise it. No bing/bong sound, nothing. It's just as though I didn't plug it in.

Rang the seller to report faulty item and to ask for refund. They said they'd had loads of calls about this, and it isn't because the soundbar is faulty but because the buyer doesn't know how to tell the laptop to output sound thru the soundbar.

Told him that my previous soundbar, smaller but otherwise identical, worked perfectly from the outset just by plugging it into the USB (no software required.) The laptop recognised it instantly and installed its own software (I think).

He said this one is slightly different, but I need to go into control panel/settings etc.

I spent four hours on this - omg what a waste of half a day! - but I'm still at square one. I can't find a way to make the lappie see the soundbar. Can't ring them back as it's now Friday at 7pm and they aren't open till Monday.

Can anyone help?

My laptop is a Dell running Win 7.

LHL

 

[AronSearle]

Sounds like a duff product.

Go into 'device manager'.

Does it show up anywhere in this list, such an item should have its own entry, but it may be listed within the 'sound, video and game controllers'.

If not, or if there is an unknown item with a yellow exlamation mark, it is not plug and play (which means you have to install specific software for the computer to recognize it). If there are no drivers for the product, I can't see a way foward.

If it is listed, does right clicking on it allow give you a 'properties or settings' option.

 

[LadyHomeLover]

Thank you Aron

It's not a device in the manager, and there is no yellow exclamation mark.

I'll have to return it I guess. Pity, cos it looks great!