How to connect my older Sherwood/Newcastle surround sound receiver to my HP PC?

Greetings,
I am trying to connect my older (about 15 years old) to my HP Pheonix Envy 810-135qe PC. Many have stated that all you need is a stereo 3.5 mm to stereo RCA male "Y" connector routed to either the sound card or headphone jack. I have tried this using a stereo 3.5 mm to stereo RCA female connectors with a RCA male to male connector cable to the receiver. I have tried both connections, directly to sound card and to headphone jack and all I get is static. What am I doing wrong, theoretically this should be a simple and straight forward connection. Could it be the male to female "Y" connector? Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance for your help.

Here is some more info on the PC and receiver (just in case):

Receiver:
Sherwood/Newcastle R-325 surround sound receiver
Power amplifier output (8 ohms) stereo mode 90w x 2
Surround mode (left, center, right) 80w x 3 and rear 80w





PC:
HP Pheonix Envy 810-135qe
Nvidia High Definition Audio
IDT High Definintion CODEC
10GB RAM
Win 7 64bit operating system