Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit laptop will not detect headphones!

MrNeedsHelpAlot · 07 Feb 2013

There are two jacks on the side of my laptop that are used for listening and a third for talking. I have a stardard headset that I bought from Radioshack that has an audio jack for speaking and listening. I plugged the jacks in all correctly but can only speak and can't listen. The audio instead of playing though my headset will play through the speakers! The headset is detected though, under the speakers and headphones category under the playback devices. I have it selected as a default for everything possible but it wont play sound through the headset itself. Occasionally the headset will play sound but this happens at random. And also when I plug the jack for LISTENING into the the 2nd jack for listening, the speakers are automatically muted somehow and I can't hear or play any sound unless I restart my laptop. Again, there are THREE (3) jacks 1: speaking 2: Listening 3: Also for listening. I tried both for listening and nothing happens. It does detect the mic for recording since audacity and skype work with the headset.

Night Hawk · 07 Feb 2013

Hello MrNeedsHelpAlot Welcome to the Seven Forums!

Once you hear the speakers muted then you know the right jack for the headphones has been selected and a trip into the Control Panel>Sound section is next. Why? When going to set the sound for headphones the default playback device has to be changed from speakers to headphones and you can right click to test to see if the sound is heard while still in the CP.

You'll this is commonly seen when going to use any messenger or live vioce chat option where the speakers are muted and replaced temporarily by the head set. Simply plugging them in won't get you anywhere on it's own. And one of those two audio jacks is intended for external speakers not headphones apparently and why the speakers are muted on the spot.

MrNeedsHelpAlot · 08 Feb 2013

I just tried that but the only thing that I can hear is when people are talking to me via skype. System audio like games, youtube videos, and basically any other program that plays sound will play through the speakers and not the headphones. I want all sound to play through the headphones because when I talk to people it's annoying for them to keep complaining for me to turn down the video or song that I am listening to.

MrNeedsHelpAlot · 08 Feb 2013

Night Hawk said:

Hello MrNeedsHelpAlot Welcome to the Seven Forums!

Once you hear the speakers muted then you know the right jack for the headphones has been selected and a trip into the Control Panel>Sound section is next. Why? When going to set the sound for headphones the default playback device has to be changed from speakers to headphones and you can right click to test to see if the sound is heard while still in the CP.

You'll this is commonly seen when going to use any messenger or live vioce chat option where the speakers are muted and replaced temporarily by the head set. Simply plugging them in won't get you anywhere on it's own. And one of those two audio jacks is intended for external speakers not headphones apparently and why the speakers are muted on the spot.

Nevermind I fixed it. It was just an error with the sound devices. I disabled the Communications Headphones and now all sound goes through the headset.

Night Hawk · 08 Feb 2013

I was going to add you could look over the sound mixer to raise or mute a few things(SoundMax or Windows sound mixer). But I am glad to hear you found a solution. :)

Another option even for laptops to customize the sound is adding in or plugging in a usb sound card as another means of controlling where the sound goes. You would then simply disable the onboard for the addon and use the sound app to mute and adjust things there. That would give you a bit more control over the output as well.

I will likely end up seeing something like that for the second mini tower case I put together last summer presently only using the speakers on the monitor there not having bought separate speakers. At the same time I wasn't looking for any great sound performance not gaming or for communications but a portable desktop I can set up anywhere using a usb Wi-Fi adapter over hard wired to the router.