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So the title pretty much sums it up. My laptop's built-in speakers will only work if my headphones (or other external speaker) is plugged into the 3.5 mm jack in the front of the laptop. This is a new occurance since Windows 7. Long story short....the headphones and laptop speakers work when both are plugged in, neither work with the headphones unplugged. Thanks for help!!!
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
Goto Control Panel->Sound->Playback tab. Right click on speakers and select Setas Default.
If that doesn't do it try going to Control Panel->Troubleshooting and select Troubleshoot audio playback. Follow the prompts.
Hope that helps.
All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.
Answer accepted by question author
Hi,
Did you follow the steps of setting the speakers as default by Jetta48?
Make sure that you have the latest audio drivers installed on the computer. You may also try running an Audio Troubleshooter and see that resolves the issue.
Tips for fixing common sound problems
Update a driver for hardware that isn't working properly.
Open the Playing Audio troubleshooter
Let us know if that helps.
I will be merging the new thread with that your original thread, you may reply to the same by clicking on the “Reply” button, instead of creating a new thread.
Regards,
Chethan Kumar.
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer. Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
Ok, recently I had this problem on a desktop computer with external speakers. I know that seems like a different problem but I actually think it's the same and that it's shown me what the issue was. I recently started plugging in my speakers into every jack on my soundcard to try and figure out if any of them worked. And it sort of did when I plugged it into my headphone jack. But not AFTER I plugged it in. Only when it was partially plugged in. This told me something was wrong with the sensor on the headphone jack NOT ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE COMPUTER. Basically, there's a part of the headphone jack that tells the computer to send sound out the headphones instead of the speakers. This, basically makes your computer choose between one of two options with the deciding factor being whether or not something's plugged into your headphone jack. So I jiggled around a headphone plug in the jack and sure enough, I soon got normal function again. Headphones in, sound comes through headphones, headphones out, sound comes through speakers.
If this doesn't work, consider finding someone good with hardware and replacing the headphone jack on your computer.
I read all the answers and tried everything they proposed. Then I noted the key on my keyboard with a speaker on it in the "F" keys. F2 was the key which was blocking my sound. I hit it and then hit F3 to increase the volume and voila! I had sound!
So the title pretty much sums it up. My laptop's built-in speakers will only work if my headphones (or other external speaker) is plugged into the 3.5 mm jack in the front of the laptop. This is a new occurance since Windows 7. Long story short....the headphones and laptop speakers work when both are plugged in, neither work with the headphones unplugged. All the settings (ie COntrol Panel) show everything should be working correctly! Thanks for help!!!
