Audio problems with motherboard I/O

[thatNickdude]

Hi I have a pair of apple earphones and it has one 3.5mm jack and I can hear with the line out and record (the mic doesn't work with line out) with the microphone port but the problem is I can only use one port at a time and I don't want to buy a splitter. My motherboard is the H170 performance

 

[amtseung]

There are different kinds of 3.5mm jack. The ones on your motherboard are designed to run in a single direction (signal in, or signal out), whereas the ones on, say, the Apple earpods, are meant to communicate in both directions through the same jack. You need a splitter to make use of both functionalities.

 

[thatNickdude]

There are different kinds of 3.5mm jack. The ones on your motherboard are designed to run in a single direction (signal in, or signal out), whereas the ones on, say, the Apple earpods, are meant to communicate in both directions through the same jack. You need a splitter to make use of both functionalities.

I know that but I was wondering if I could use only one without a splitter

 

[amtseung]

I know that but I was wondering if I could use only one without a splitter

Short answer: Usually, No.

Long answer: They're wired completely differently on the inside of both the jack and the port, and contact points line up differently. I'd be surprised if you got lucky and it happened to work. Why not try it? It won't break anything.