Rear Panel Audio Jack Too Quiet, Front is Busted

[nickrusso]

I've seen threads about people tripping over their headphone wire and messing up the front panel jack so that the audio only comes out one channel. This happened to me, in my case it only comes out the right ear. For a while now, I've been using the back jack, which works fine, except that its much quieter even at the same volume as the front panel. I assume this is because the front one is meant for headphones while the back is for speakers.

If that's true, is there a way to switch them through the settings on my computer? Are they not the same pieces of hardware?

I have pretty nice headphones and I'd love to be able to really blast music again, but I don't have/know how to use a soldering iron, and so far that was the only solution I've seen for anyone else who tripped over their wire and ruined the front panel jack.

 

[Endre555]

If the wire is tripped then yes, you need to connect the wires inside back again, or you should check if the male jack connector of the hedphone is bent in any directions and if yes, then carefully try to bend it back to the original position. If you have an ASUS motherboard, you can try turning the rear panel jack form speakers to headphones in the Realtek audio driver settings. I don't know how you can do this with other motherboard brands, but it should be similar.
Good Luck!