Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

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Niveous
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Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by Niveous »

Hey there. I've got a question for the mechanical minds here. My laptop speakers have suddenly stopped working but I can still listen to things using the headphone port. Any ideas on how I can remedy this?
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by josh »

Hmm... First off are you sure this is a mechanical/electronic problem and not a software issue? It's usually possible to turn off the speakers independent of the headphones. So perhaps you somehow accidentally did that? Check all your audio settings.

If it's not software, it's likely to be complicated to debug and fix. Did anything specific happen? Dropped the laptop, spilled on it, etc? One possibility is that the joint connecting the speakers to the motherboard got loose/broke somehow. Problem is laptops aren't easy to take apart and once you do it the electronics are so tiny, it can be very hard to get in there and resolder something. Also, if it's not an obvious broken connection when you get it apart, it could be a burnt out chip (which would be extremely hard to debug and even harder to fix).

Long story short, if it's not a software issue and you're not skilled with electronics, you're gonna have to get it professionally fixed or live with headphones only (or external speakers of course).
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

If it's a windows machine:
left click start>left click control panel>left click hardware and sound>left click adjust system sound*. Check that the speaker icon doesn't have an X across it. If so, left click it and make sure the volume bar is set to 100%. Also make sure the drop down box is using your laptop speakers. Sometimes a re-start has to be done to make the change work.

*also on the sound and hardware menu, you can look at the "manage audio" section. Be sure volume bar is set to 100%.
If that doesn't work, it could be a driver conflict, but not likely.

If it's a Mac, I can't help. But they have a control panel and audio management. Go there and make an educated guess. :)
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by JonPorobil »

Everything everyone else has said so far sounds right to me. One other thing to consider: Some laptops come with OEM software that overrides Windows' System Sound control (which is what BLT is talking about). Usually, the main point of this is to have the software maintain independent controls for the internal speakers and for the headphones/external speakers. You might want to run a quick check of your installed programs and see if there's anything that looks like it pertains to audio or sound, because this may have muted your internal speakers.

One other thing - have you tried this with multiple sets of headphones? I had a similar issue on my phone about a year ago, and what had happened was that the tip of the headphone plug had actually broken off inside the jack, so that when I pulled out the headphone cable, the phone still thought something was plugged into it, and therefore it wouldn't "release" the audio to the internal speakers.
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by Niveous »

Thanks for all the advice. I've tried all sorts of control panel based fun and nothing has helped. I checked the speaker driver and that didn't do anything. I've tried three different headphones and the problem remains. But I have noticed the headphone jack is looser than usual. So I think maybe the jack is damaged and the sensor inside isn't working and it's like Jon said, it just won't release the audio to the internal speakers.

So I guess I'm gonna be living with headphones until I can a pro to look at this. Thanks again everyone.
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

If you want to determine if the loose headphone jack might be the issue, use a toothpick or something similar that's non conductive, stick it in the jack while playing music and jiggle it. If you get intermittent speaker sound, then it's the jack. Also, if there is something stuck in the jack causing the ground and the positive(s) to loop, you may get lucky and clear it. It's the positive and negative loop that makes the headphone auto default, not a sensor. When you unplug the headphones, the loop is canceled and goes back to the default speakers automatically.

If the problem started after an update, you might want to do a system restore to an earlier date. Could be a driver conflict for your default playback speakers.

If you use a DAW interface with your laptop, but unplug it when you're not using it, be sure your audio manager isn't set for your "unplugged" interface as the playback speakers default. IE: looking at mine right now, the green check mark is next to saffier audio because my saffier is my playback default. The onboard speakers do not have a check next to it. If I unplugged my DAW (saffier) unit, I would have to manually click on my onboard speakers and click "set as default".
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Re: Speakers Won't Work But Headphones Will

Post by JonPorobil »

Niveous wrote:Thanks for all the advice. I've tried all sorts of control panel based fun and nothing has helped. I checked the speaker driver and that didn't do anything. I've tried three different headphones and the problem remains. But I have noticed the headphone jack is looser than usual. So I think maybe the jack is damaged and the sensor inside isn't working and it's like Jon said, it just won't release the audio to the internal speakers.

So I guess I'm gonna be living with headphones until I can a pro to look at this. Thanks again everyone.
Yes, it's increasingly looking like a hardware issue. Before cracking it open (or paying someone else to crack it open), have you tried spritzing the inside of that jack with some canned air? That's a cheap'n'easy hardware fix for a lot of issues.
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