Sound-related issue and questions

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
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My aging speakers recently half-died on me, the headphone jack stopped working (but the speakers themselves still work). I need the headphone feature more than the speakers themselves however. I will order a new set of 2.1 speakers in about two weeks, but until then I need an alternative way to get the sound directly into my headphone without using the speakers.

The first way I see I could do that would be to plug my headphone in the headphone jack at the front of my generic case. There's indeed a little panel on the front (at the bottom) I can open, and there's an headphone jack, a microphone jack and two USB slots there, but I never knew how to use those things. There's a whole bunch of wires linked to that front panel, and I really don't know where to plug those to get what I want (basically I'd only need the headphone jack to work). There's colored wires with indications at their end such as "Ground", "Spkout L", "Spkout R", "Mic Bias", "Mic In", etc. What do I need to make that work?

Another alternative I noticed would be to use the headphone jack on my CD-RW drive, there's one on its front with a volume wheel to its right, and there's a wire that came with that drive which I never used before, it has four slots on both ends, and I think I can plug one of those ends directly in my sound card (analog out I think?). It's very frustrating considering I can't even open up the satellite concerned here to check myself and see what's wrong with the headphone jack. I also thought about using the on-board audio and plug-in my headphone directly at the back of the motherboard, but the headphone's wire is too short and I can't just turn the case around due to the number of various wires and plugs on the back.

And finally I tried to plug the headphone directly on the sound card but I got no sound at all, I guess it's not that simple. Basically I'd like some suggestions, what should I do to get sound in my headphone without using the speaker's own headphone jack. At least it won't last forever. I am going to buy some Edifier M3400 2.1 setup, as I mentioned, in about two weeks or so, and then I'll be happy, but until then... ouch.
 

nickbits

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2008
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i've always just plugged head phones into the line out jack on the motherboard. i'm not sure why that's not working for you.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,198
204
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Originally posted by: nickbits
i've always just plugged head phones into the line out jack on the motherboard. i'm not sure why that's not working for you.

I've tried that, directly at the back (green line out jack), but it doesn't work, I think that's because the on-board sound is disabled in the BIOS, but even if it did work technically it wouldn't be feasible practically, simply due to the very short headphone wire, and I would have to turn the PC case around and that's a lot of trouble due to many reasons.

I'm still trying to figure out a better way.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,198
204
106
Wow... false alarm, but... dammit. I found out the problem, it's not my speakers nor the headphone jack, it's the headphone itself, I discovered a slightly removed portion of the protective layer on top of the colored wires underneath it, so I can see the wires, there's four of them, a green, a red and two copper (in color I mean, or I could say it's a very pale brown) ones, and one of the copper wire is slightly damaged, and I think I know where that whole damage comes from, but that's not important, what is important is how can I fix that?

In the meantime I might reconsider buying a new 2.1 setup, but I will surely buy a new headphone, probably the same one, although it has long been discontinued, or something along the lines of a Sennheiser PX100 (I think that's the model name, but I'm not exactly sure). On second thought, buying a quality and performing headphone is actually the same price as buying the 2.1 setup I was looking forward to (Edifier M3400). The Sennheisers I want are around $80 CAN with taxes, and the 2.1 setup is also around that price from NCIX including taxes and shipping.

Either way I'm ending up spending money, but I'd still like to know if repairing that wire is feasible at all, and if so, how? Do I just put some electrically conductive tape or something?