Front Audio Ports Confusing Me

[klear6]

I'm not sure what category this post is supposed to be in. At all.

Anyone want to help me out? I've had a problem with the sound outputs since I got this computer. It never really mattered until now because I didn't need to use headphones or a mic. But I have to now, so I guess it is time to actually figure it out.

Specs:
PC: HP 6300 (tower) plz don't troll me, it is all I can afford so I do the best I can with it.
Windows 7 Pro x64
There are 2 ports (L/R) on the front. L has a picture of a headphones and a mic. R has only the picture of the headphones.
I believe there are also two ports in the back, but it isn't really possible for me to see them because I have an awkward setup due to space limitations.

Normal Speakers: Sonaverse 02i stereo speakers
They are plugged in to one of the back ports and work fine

Headphones: SkullCandy Hesh 2 - however, I am using the WIRED connection not the BLUETOOTH connection.
They work on all my either devices, both the mic and sound, on wired & bluetooth.

When I plug the headphones into the from R port it does give me audio, sounds normal and only comes through the headphones, not the speakers.
When I plug them into the from L port I don't even get the PC to recognize that they are an output device. But it does allow me to set up the mic.
The mic isn't working hardly at all, though. I can barely get my voice to register as actually making a sound when I test them. I've messed with the settings but I can't figure it out.
When plugged in to front R the headphones DON'T output any audio, it is instead heard through the speakers.


I've looked around and read a bunch of forums, and most of them were useless just saying buy a new jack or clean your ports...blah blah blah, or that they weren't properly connected and more. But I found this one post that made more sense about the difference between the ports and how one was designed to recieve and the other was meant as an output and that it expects a cable for each, like it doesn't understand that the headphone cord is trying to both send and recieve (probably because devices that do bother weren't as common when the PC was made?). But I lost the link to the forum post. There was also a comment about the ports not expecting to have to power both the mic and the headphones at the same time. Do I need to get a splitter or something to plug the headphones into and have it separate the 2 signals and route them to both ports? Is there any way to fix this with a software approach? Maybe I could install a driver that tells the port to listen and send audio...but that doesn't insure that one port could literally power both. Hardware isn't my strong point...

So, any ideas?

 

[Tolis_GR]

If the cable has a single rca jack to carry both audio output and microphone i guess it won't work. Mic line in pc works only for a dedicated microphone, it won't carry any playback audio. Maybe you should test if this headset can work with another cable that splits audio and mic lines in two rca units.
For the front jacks, it is normal that when plugging headset to R audio continues to play from speakers, as long as the audio supported by your board or your front panel is analog (ac 97 etc) and not digital. Analog doesn't use a sensor when plugging a device in order to stop the audio from other outputs, therefore you get audio from both front panel and from built-in audio.
If front panel doesn't work in either line audio and mic, first test with another device or with a simple headset to verify that front jacks are not working, as it could be simply that the headset won't work with analog audio. If no device works check inside your pc, whether the front panel connectors are plugged correctly in the motherboard. Another troubleshooting step is to re-install your audio drivers, assuming all connections are proper.