Question Audio keeps shuffling between speaker & headphone mode ?

[Andrewlad]

Hey guys,

The built-in speaker on my old Dell Vostro 1015 went kaput years ago, so I used to use speakers in the past & later started using only headphones. Have been using the laptop since 2011.

Not sure, what happened but since morning, my audio kept breaking, tried searching around a bit for solution & found that in the Devices, the audio keeps shuffling between Speaker & Headphone. I tried updating driver, said its up-to-date. Tried disabling Speaker & only enabled Headphone, still not much of a help.

At times, when I remove the headphone from the jack, it says headphone connected when I put it on, it shows as unplugged.

just for info, I replaced old HDD with SSD & replaced my old RAM slots of 2gb each to 4gb each, the max possible for this Core2Duo processor, in 2023 June thereabouts.

I tried running sfc /scannow multiple times, I get different results. Every odd time (1st, 3rd, 5th..) I get "found some issues but unable to fix", every even time (2nd, 4th, 6th,...) get results stating all issues fixed. This result has been happening for more than year r so, hasn't caused any other issues.

I am clueless on what else I can look into, any sort of assistance is appreciated. If sfc result isn't related to my audio issues, no worries about it.

 

[KingLoki]

Try this driver to see if any change.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/e...rid=h05dn&oscode=w732&productcode=vostro-1015

 

[Andrewlad]

Try this driver to see if any change.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/e...rid=h05dn&oscode=w732&productcode=vostro-1015

hi KingLoki thanks for the suggestion.

Actually when I went to the local hardware shop in mid 2023 when I swapped both HDD to SSD, they installed pirated version of W7 Ultimate 64bit, which I had to change after buying a license key.
From what I gathered, they didn't have W7 Home with them, not even pirated copy.
I had W7 Home edition until 2023, came with 32-bit processor.
I am assuming they installed suitable drivers with the OS they had.

So will this driver still work & not cause any issue? As OS may be a mismatch & so is probably installed drivers.

Just some history, if it matters in anyway:
Some time in 2021 or 2022, wifi & bluetooth stopped working, it happened after a conflict with my VPN I suspect, as that was the only new software I had installed in months. So I use wifi reader (USB) for internet, don't use bluetooth anyway.

 

[Ralston18]

History matters.

Unfortunately you may be in a bit of a "perfect storm" situation.

1) Very old laptop and components.
2) An obsolete OS.
3) Pirated software from who knows where...

Even if the current audio problem is resolveable I would not expect the laptop to last much longer.

Back up all important data at least 2 x to locations off of and away from the laptop. Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

Start planning for the future.

 

[Andrewlad]

History matters.

Unfortunately you may be in a bit of a "perfect storm" situation.

1) Very old laptop and components.
2) An obsolete OS.
3) Pirated software from who knows where...

Even if the current audio problem is resolveable I would not expect the laptop to last much longer.

Back up all important data at least 2 x to locations off of and away from the laptop. Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

Start planning for the future.

hey Ralston thanks. This is not my primary laptop, got another one Lenovo Ryzen7 with W10 (may jump to W11 later this yr) - using Dell only for watching stuff like movies, sports etc. Usually take backups of them in my external HDD, if I download anything - so that I don't end up losing data only to start downloading all from fresh again 🤣

This laptop is more like sentimental value over anything, as this was the 1st one I had purchased with my own money 😉 Back then wanted a much latest version of Acer in my budget but shop people recommended this model of Dell within my budget for heavy usage - Acer apparently had issues, both with quality & service. Hey, it did serve me full time upto 2021 Jan. 10 solid years, never had to format or any major issues.😎

I had this audio issue sometime last year too but it got resolved on its own somehow. Hopefully some miracle happens even now, doesn't cost to dream 🤣

The only odd thing since the pirated version is, the system won't go into Sleep Mode nor any Screensaver would show up, irrespective of how many hours the screen is upright. It goes to sleep only when u close the screen.