Realtek HD audio recognizes my headphones as speakers

I am not sure if I understand your suggestion rvcjew, but the volume is so low when using the onboard audio on the motherboard, so even if I have my volume all the way up, it is still really low.

My headphones.

Dynentan said:

Thanks for your response atreah.

I have checked HD audio manager, and when right clicking on the green output jack on the front panel, it allows me to choose headphones, in fact the headphones mode was already selected -- so this clearly explains why the volume is louder and better when my headphones are connected to the frontpanel.

However, when I right click on the green output jack on the backpanel, nothing happens. There is no box that pops up and allows me to choose between speakers and headphones.

You need to right click on the green output jack on the back panel, that is the one that is highlighted, a box should come up saying connector retasking, then you can select headphones when you are on that menu.

This was the solution that worked for me, but Realtek drivers do tend to misbehave a bit, after I thought it was solved I realised it was amplifying everything going out of that port to a ridiculous level making naturally quiet sounds sound loud. In the end, it is better to use the ports for their intended purpose.
There are some other workarounds but they require some work and aren't necessarily desirable.

Checked, didn't solve the problem.

I managed to solve this problem though by uninstalling the realtek drivers completely from my system and installing DFX instead which has no problems registering my headphones.

I was able to change my settings from speakers to headphones by following this guide.