When you plug yours in, does it only play on one side?

Mine only plays the right side speakers

if I pull the plug out a bit, it will play the full surround. I wonder if it's my cable?

Sounds like your jack plug is mono or bust.

well, i found another cable, did the same thing.... then I decided to reverse the male plugs and it works fine. Wierd

You may want to try another device and see if your device has a bad jack on it.