No sound from laptop speakers

after using headphone jack for speakers

[tonynoriega]

So I plugged in my external speakers into the headphone jack to play some Pandora for a small party the other day.

Onboard speakers worked fine prior to this, and now do not.

It is a fairly old Gateway 7320gz notebook, win xp (sp3), and I have an Conexant AC-Link sound card.

Checked all drivers. No warnings in device manager. Disabled and enabled drivers. Uninstalled and re-installed drivers, still nothing.

I can plug in the speakers back into the headphone jack and I get sound... I am able to adjust the sound in all various ways, I can mute... it seems to be functioning properly in that respect.

Checked Windows Audio service, and restarted that...nothing.

Tried the trick of plugging in and unplugging the speaker plug into the headphone jack to try to trigger the OS to recognize the removal of the device... nothing...

Did a system restore to Jan1 2012... nothing.

Checked all speaker properties, and advanced properties... nothing doing...

Any other ideas?

Could the onboard speakers actually be shot?

[lammert]

Some sockets for external speakers disconnects the internal speakers when a plug is inserted. It could be that this small piece of metal inside the socket has been bent and doesn't make the connection anymore when the plug is removed from the socket.

[tonynoriega]

Crap...I figured it was something dumb like that...even a re-format and re-install couldnt fix that...

Good heavens... now I have to take it to Worst Buy and get it fixed....

Under warranty still... Bought this thing in 2005 ish.. been through hell and back with this thing..

It maxes out at 1GB RAM, if that tells you anything about how old it is...weighs like 5lbs...

I am hoping that this is the time where they say "we dont support replacement parts for this model anymore, we are going to replace it with something comparable.."

We'll see.

[J_RaD]

yea that wouldn't be a replacement part anyway, they'd have to solider the jack off the main board and replace it.

those folks and worst buy have problems just handling a screwdriver.


since you are taking it in just get a little rough with it, plug a headphone in and wiggle it around, plug it in and out solid a few times see if it finally pops back out. Could even try jamming a paper clip around in there... really nothing to lose at this point.

[tonynoriega]

True...Ill give it another few rounds today and maybe I will even drop that damn thing.

[J_RaD]

remove the HD before you go sending it down the stairs.

[Robert Charlton]

My first take as I read your post is that it's that something inside the headphone jack is not returning to full contact position when you remove the phone plugs.

What's been working like magic for me in all sorts of electro-mechanical situations like this is some "Super Contact Cleaner" I bought a few years ago at a local electronics parts store (sadly, a dying institution), not at Radio Shack. The brand I have is MG Chemicals, and the stuff is marked as extremely dangerous and very flammable. Somehow, it's different from ordinary contact cleaner I've used. Try not to inhale any of it when you spray. Use it outside if you can.

I'd spray it into the socket and then plug and unplug the headphone jack a bunch of times. I've also used it to fix situations in which Firewire or USB plugs/sockets aren't providing adequate signal, and for cleaning up PCI slots on motherboards when things aren't working right.

For me, it's become the modern equivalent of kicking something to make it work. ;)

[tonynoriega]

Thanks @RobertCharlton... Ill give that a shot... I also have some electrical component cleaner I used to use for my Mustang on the MAF when I put a new intake kit on it... maybe that will jar something loose...

It seems like its working when it feels like it... I may have to suck it up soon and take it to WorstBuy and take a gamble...

oysh...