Headphone Jack Broken on Laptop, and it won't let me use speakers.

[LoLiTzTommyy]

Basically the headphone jack got broken, and I'm not able to use internal speakers due to it thinking I have the headphones in. I have tried a multitude of things like using realtek audio to make it play both at once (I heard that was a setting, but I don't know I never even got realtek to show up), but whenever I install realtek nothing happens. I tried taking apart, but I couldn't get to the piece I need to get to. I would really appreciate it if some of you gave me some ideas to try.

 

[ssddx]

1) it sounds like you broke off a piece inside the headphone jack potentially. if this is the case then try to remove it (there are various methods such as using glue on a stick, etc)

2) in windows sound playback devices change your internal speakers to the default device. this should bypass the headphone jack and allow you to hear sound.

3)if you want a working headphone jack and are unable to remove the piece if there was one stuck or if the port is doa for another reason then you can get a cheap usb soundcard which should run less than $10 and will typically include both a headphone and mic jack. you will need to manually set this as the default audio device when you plug it in though.

4)if you want normal functionality back without needing to set things manually and if you cannot remove or fix it yourself then you will need to get your machine serviced. they will either remove the obstruction for you or replace the port. this however isnt going to be a cheap fix.

 

[LoLiTzTommyy]

I didn't break a piece of headphone in there, it pushed in the sides on the headphone jack. I dropped it while headphones were in there and the headphones are fine, but the inside of the jack is pushed in. I've tried windows playback devices, but it doesn't register that it has speakers unless the headphones aren't in. The 3rd option is what I might end up doing, definitely not the 4th haha.

 

[ssddx]

perhaps you tore the jack off the motherboard or otherwise have broken the jack. if this is the case then #4 is the only way to fix it back to the way it was.

however, in the meantime you can likely get away with #3 provided you can set it as the default audio device.

basically in the window i have on the top left in the image below. changing default audio devices in this window is what you need to do.

 

[LoLiTzTommyy]

Yeah I use multiple playback devices on my other pc so I can set should be able to do that fine, I was just hoping I could find some sort of software to work around the problem, by making it play through both speakers and headphones,or by disabling the front headphone jack

 

[ssddx]

perhaps this can be of use to you
http://superuser.com/questions/120602/how-to-get-headphones-and-speakers-working-at-the-same-time

also this
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/headphones-speakers-at-the-same-time/7ed31bcf-3762-430d-9c9f-e6967d670d0e

should enable sound at the same time as headphones.

 

[TheDrew4u]

I found a solution, a REAL solution!

The problem we have been experiencing is due to a faulty sense pin in the audio jack. I found a version of driver for my sound card that simply does not have that option available. This was suggested to me by the Dell website itself, so I tried the alternative driver, and now my audio plays perfectly through my laptop speakers!

I believe this disables the side jacks completely, but considering they never really worked properly, due to the faulty sense pin, it was no big loss for me.

It will take some research, searching, and perhaps a little trial and error, but a great fix is to locate a version of your sound card driver that doesn't support sense pin technology, and it should bypass the faulty pin perfectly. It did for me, and I have been living with this issue for YEARS! Oh, it's so much nicer not having to jam things into my case to try and disable that stupid sense pin. That was beginning to no longer work, and I was slowly damaging my computer.

Good luck!