Mute/Turn off notebook speakers?

[klurg]

Hello!

Does anybody know if there's a way to turn off or mute the internal speakers of a notebook? I have a broken soundcard (realtek HD) that won't recognize my headphones when I plug them in. The sound still works through the jack but the problem is that the notebook speakers won't mute. I know it's a hardware problem because I've read that lots of others with my model (asus f50) have had the same problem, and they had to send it back to Asus to get a motherboard replacement. I figure that since I always use either headphones or external speakers (also my warranty has expired), I'd rather just find a way to turn off the internal speakers, if it's possible??

 

[DaveSimmons]

Get a $20 USB soundcard from Newegg and use that, once that is the default audio device Windows won't try to send audio to the Realtek.

(I have a Turtle Beach $25 model that works well, but I paid extra to get optical digital out.)

 

[corkyg]

I am on my 7th notebook/laptop since 1995. Every one has had a speaker volume control and an on/off switch. Some of the newer one use a combo Fn + ? combo. However, that also turns off all audio ports as well. So, your only good chance is the USB soundcard.

Your headphone port probably uses a shunt switch that shorts out the internal speakers when a heaphone or speaker mini-jack is plugged in. That could be broken off. It can also be replaced.

 

[klurg]

thx for your answers! I've been thinking about getting an external sound card. Seems like a good idea, since the on-board sound card always seems to cause trouble when it can anway.

 

[evlmon]

well, I've had the same problem.You can fix it on windows 7 quite easily.Go in Control Panel to sound, there, in my case, there appears an icon for the speakers and an icon for the digital ouput(the green jack) .if you right click the speakers you can hit disable and that will disable the laptop speakers but the green jack should still work.Hope this works.