Speakers stopped working after I used my headphones
My speakers were working fine one moment but then stopped working after i used in my headphones. I still have sound when I use my headphones but when I unplug it, i can not hear anything from my laptop speakers. I went through the troubleshooting on my laptop but I still can not get sound to come out of my laptop speakers. Please help!
I think you have a problem with the headphones jack in your laptop. There are contacts inside the headphones jack, you can see them if you look inside the jack. When you plug the headphones into the jack, the plug shorts these contacts and the sound switches from the external speakers to the headphones. Apparently, these contacts got stuck in the headphones mode and because of that you cannot hear any sound from the external speakers.
I’m not sure if you can fix this problem yourself, probably you’ll have to take your laptop to the repair shop. Try plugging and unplugging your headphones a few times in a row, do it fast, it might help to release contacts inside the jack.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:57 am
tHaNk yOu!!! I wiggled a tiny screw driver inside the headphone jack and the sound came on. I appreciate it Laptop Freak!!!!!!
February 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Holy cow!! This worked!! Just pull your plug in and out of the jack or wiggle it a bit and my internal laptop speakers started to work again!! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH. You are truly a lifesaver =]
February 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am
THANK YOU…..I can’t believe this worked…Just did what you said and the sound came back on..Thanks..
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
[...] Before you start taking apart your laptop looking for broken wires, make sure to read this post. It’s possible that there is nothing wrong with the speaker wires and the problem is somewhere inside the headphone jack. [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
When I plug headphones into my Acer Aspire 3680-2626, they don’t work right away. Often I would have to leave them plugged in for several hours before I could hear anything. If I reboot my laptop, I have to start the whole process again. It happens this way for every set of headphones i’ve tried.
Any idea why this happens?
March 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Worked like a charm for me as well.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I tried this, and my headphones broke and the metal prong is now stuck in my laptop..what should i do? HELP!?
March 17th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks man! I just found you on google and followed your advice and it worked!! YAYY!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:06 am
OMG I spent 3 hours changing every setting known to man and computer troubleshooting option…finally I got on line…this was the problem…. Mine was the jack beside the headpones…the microphone jack…I put my headphones in the slop moved it around a bit and the speakers started working
April 1st, 2008 at 6:06 am
Hi,
I have a HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop. Last week I had it attached to my stereo whilst playing music with i tunes. It was attached via the headphone jack. Everything was working fine but since then any time I plug in my headphones into either the headphone port or the aux port the internal speakers do not cut off and I get no sound into my headphones??? Any suggestions??
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Thank you! This is very good advice. I has a Dell rep on the phone to resolve the issue for 15 minutes while I came across your site. I told the Dell rep what fixed it and he was unable to understand…
The way to tell if the problem is with these contacts getting “stuck” is to go to Control Panel – Sounds & Audio Devices – Volume tab – under Speaker Settings, click Advanced and if it shows headphones as the device rather than laptop speakers, this method will fix the problem *hopefully*.
Keywords for google bot: Dell M1210 xps sound card SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
April 9th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Hi, I just got a Toshiba A215-S5850. Yesterday I was listening to music on Winamp, then somehow the PC froze, and when I rebooted, it said the audio device was not installed. I went to the Toshiba website and downloaded their audio driver, and it worked. But now, every time I open an audio file (whether on Winamp or WMP):
- It plays on the speakers but not on my headphones if I plug them, and;
- If I open the file with my headphones plugged, it plays but when I unplug the headphones it shows an error (An audio device was disconnected or reconfigured on WMP, error code 88780096 on Winamp).
Sorry if this post is really long, but I’ve battled with it all morning. I’m running Vista by the way, which tells me I should downgrade to XP…?
CPU
April 13th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Thanx a ton laptopfreak ,u r a genius
April 16th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Wow you know i didnt think it would work but since im kinda drunk i thought id try it and it worked!! i was amazed!! thank you laptop freak!
April 25th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Thanks, this should be on the first page of google, not the 4th.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
You are the freakiest and If I see you out,I will buy you a drink.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
thank u very much.
plugging and unplugging the headphones really worked the instant i did it.
dell people doesn’t knows anything.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Thanks mate!!! Been surfing the web for agis trying to figure this out. This is something I’ll remember forever and be able to try next time this sort of thing pops up. very good bit of info.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:39 am
[...] Uh, I’m not sure if I can fix this problem myself. I am on the way to go to the repair shop suddenly my husband speaks, “It worked, Baby! It worked!” loudly. I am surprised and ask him what he did. He said that he just pull in and out the jack or wriggle it a bit then my laptop’s speaker started to work again. Oh, thanks God…my lovely laptop is fine again now. Thank you laptop freak! [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Awesome!! Wiggled the jack a bit and good to go! Impressive!
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
hi, well i been trying this for 10mins now and no good for me im having the same problem no sound on laptop speakers but plug in head phones and i got a bit sound but not very loud still plz can u help me its driving me crazy thanks
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Thnx I inserted the headphone jack in and out twice and the speakers came on,,,,:))))))
June 4th, 2008 at 1:21 am
My speakers on my Toshiba Qosmio ain’t working after i downloaded bricopack which is to change the theme to vista.What could be the problem?Btw,when i go to control and sound devices,there was no audio devices.Please help me!!!
June 21st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
WOW!….its been days since my laptop can’t emit sound, and now after tryin out the method above, the laptop instantly produced sounds…
p.s. u gotta try it a few times not 10 times, but maybe 20 – 40 times, in a row, and you gotta be fast…
wow…thnk man..
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
amazing, been without sound over a week, used some old headphones from a walkman in laptop headphone socket, sound came back with and without headphones, many many thanks,(i have never used headphones to listen to stuff on my 2 yr old fujitsu laptop till now btw)
June 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
THANNK YOUU SO MUCH!!!!
YOU ARE REALLY A LIFESAVER!!!! =)
The wiggling of the headphones really worked! OHMY~~!!
I FELT SO THANKFUL NOW!! \\^____^//
June 25th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I have the same problem as Robert: see above about 16 entries. Playing with iTunes one day, using speakers via amp, and then, ca-blamo: no sound through speakers or headphones. Only on my crappy internal speakers. Boy did I get into a bad mood after that. I can’t live with this terrible sound quality…please help! I’ve tried this wiggling thing that everyone is raving about with no luck. My next option is to go to a laptop technician and I’m flat broke and would love a free alternative. Have you heard of this problem before?? Thanks for your time!
June 29th, 2008 at 12:34 am
wow! i have been trying to make my laptop speakers active, after seen your remedies ( plugging / unplugging) worked well.thank u sooo much,hats off to you freakey,
June 29th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
thank u very much
i struggled really 4r 4 hrs and this website saved from getting mad
really it worked superb
thanks
July 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Hello,
I have a Toshiba A105; yesterday there was sound, and today there’s not. I tried the jack thing, but I haven’t had any luck. There’s no sound period–not system sounds, not from CDs, not from iTunes. Nothing. So sad. If I try to take it apart, what might I be looking for?
Thanks!
July 7th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Melissa,
Try reinstalling the audio driver. You can download it from Toshiba website.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I’ve spent the past few hours looking for an answer to this as well. Unfortunately its on page 3 of google. Hopefully people will find it. Problem solved on a Dell Inspiron E1505.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Hi,
I’ve got a customer’s Sony GR370 laptop and the sound works fine through the headphone jack (with headphones or external speakers), but with the plug removed the sound is there but very faint. He said that it was working and just kept getting softer and softer. Could the speakers BOTH have gone bad or??? I’ve tried the insert/remove the headphone plug “trick” but it didn’t help. Any suggestions?? Is there an additional amplifier somewhere in/on the Mainboard that’s needed to drive the speakers or not? Help??
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Awesome, saved me some money laptopfreak!
July 24th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
PERFECT… Did work perfect.. I had tried this intuivitly (or how ever you spell that word) but not as hard as required.
Just move the plug recklessly inside the jack.!!!
July 26th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Help I have the same problem but without headphones attached my playback device list is empty. I don’t have an option for speakers at all. This began when I upgraded from Vista Business to Vista Ultimate. It’s like the OS doesn’t know that there are internal speakers. Any Ideas?
July 28th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Have the same problem with an HP Pavililion DV 2025nr and no luck with all the wiggling. Uninstalled and reinstalled the Conexant drivers. This is annoying. I can hear fine with headphones but not externally.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:58 am
i have got the same problem my laptop speakers doesn’t work once i use my headpones
i have
compaq notebook series F739AU with amd processor
July 31st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
WOW!!! I was just surfing the web randomly as I have run into this problem several times with two of my computers, one a laptop and the other a desktop. Its amazing the extensive steps other forums told people to go through and so I tried this simple technique before rebooting, restoring my laptop to a former point, checking drives (I don’t know about others but I am not exactly a techy kind of gal) and this worked GREAT for me. You are AMAZING!!!
August 4th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Simply awesome!! I had the same problem and I started looking into the forums and found this one. Thanks a bunch!!
August 5th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Dear Laptop-Freak,
I have got a similiar problem. I bought an Acer Aspire 3680 (XP SP3, 2 GB RAM) about 15 monts ago. Headsets have never worked on this laptop.
When I plug in headphones into the jack, the internal speakers go mute but I can’t hear anything over the headphones. I have looked around in various forums, saw a lot of users with the same problem ,however, couldn’t find a solution.
The things I have already done to solve the issue:
- installed the latest Realtek audio system driver (updated other drivers as well)
- bought new headphones which don’t work either
- wiggled the jack about 20 times
I am really frustrated about this as the Acer website isn’t really helpful.
Anybody an idea ?
Tks in advance.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Worked like a charm. So glad I didn’t have to reinstall drivers!
August 9th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Thanks a lot, i saw a lot of websites that were only telling me to get new speakers, only tha laptop freak knew what to do, thanks again.
August 16th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Help!
I’ve tried pretty much everything on all the websites that mention this issue, and still nothing! My sound works fine when I use my headphones, but when I unplug them I hear a second of sound with my built-in laptop speakers and then NOTHING. I tried to wriggle it, tried pulling it in and out fast about 30 times…but nothing seems to work.
It says all my drivers are ok and are up to date – any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Hey,
I know this has been asked before, but no reply has been posted. I’ve had my HP Dv9000 laptop for a year and a half, and a few weeks ago the power cord stopped working. After using a new cord, I found the internal speakers worked fine but headphones do not produce sound . The internal speakers play when the headphones are inserted. I have used the exact headphones with laptop for a few months, and they work fine with my ipod. I tried several other pairs of headphones,and the wiggling trick with no result. Is a USB audio jack the only option? What model would you recommend?
August 19th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Hi
I think I have the same problem here. I have a ACER Aspire 8920G and the sound worked perfectly until today I unplugged the headphones and my speakers went mute. I still can hear sound when the headphones are plugged. I´ve tried the in and out trick with the jack but it didn´t solved the problem
August 19th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
my speakers were working just fine. but my computer froze up completely while i was playing a game. and my headphones were in at the time. and i didnt know what else to do so i pulled out my battery for a few seconds. ever since i put the battery back in the internal speakers in my computer havent worked. but when i put my headphones in it works just fine. and my volume is all the way up on everything.
(by the way i tried putting the headphones in and out of my computer and it didnt work =[ =[) PLEASE HELP ME!
August 21st, 2008 at 11:18 am
Worked perfectly… quick wiggle, worked perfectly.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Nice one! What a genius.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Ah Im so happy this worked!
I tried everything and got really upset before I found this, little did I know I just had to jiggle around my headphone plug..
August 24th, 2008 at 4:23 am
My laptop is compal hel 80, and I bought it about a year ago. Since then, I’ve had problems with sound. Whenever I decide to use my headphones, first, I have to switch manually my speakers to headphones, otherwise the sound will not appear at all. The same happens when I decide to do the other way round.
I don’t understand why I have to switch the sound manually. Is it because of Vista (home premium 32 bit)?? I’m very patient, but there are moments when it becomes very annoying:(
If there are any mistakes in the language above, my excuse is that I’m not a native speaker of English;)
August 24th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I tired the unpluging and pluging the head phone jack a thousand times, and nothing changes. Not only does my sound doesnt come back but its always saying “No Audio Output Device Installed” i am using a toshiba satellite. please help.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:41 am
Sir,
After 3 hours of “software” fixes this worked. Its always the stupid stuff that fixes these problems.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Thanks SO much for posting this solution!
September 18th, 2008 at 6:57 am
I am having a problem with my sound on my laptop computer. the speakers nor the headphones work, and they were just working yesterday. i had restarted my computer and they stopped working all together. i dont know what to do about it…my sound is up and my headphones are new, ive tried multiple pair in the computer but nothing works. HELP!!!!!!!
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
freakin awesome.. thank you
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Thank you so much! I was tweeking out looking for a solution and this fixed it right away! THANK YOU!!
September 27th, 2008 at 2:47 am
yes it worked for me too!!!! cheers!!!!
September 28th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Hi..
I have a same problem with Tishina..
I bought an SONY VGN-SZ433N about 15 monts ago.
When I plug in headphones into the jack, the internal speakers go mute but I also can’t hear anything over the headphones.
Anybody an idea ?
Thanks.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:47 am
awesome! fixed it for me! Thanks a lot!
October 18th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
hey if anyone has ANYdoubts at all…just give it a try,you’v'e got nothing to loose…cept the guy who broke his headphone jack…but yeah awesome method that actually works.thanx man.owe you one
October 25th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I broke my headphone port by sitting on the headphones and tried to take my laptop but headphones where really hard stuck under me and I heard really bad sound… after that my headphone port doesn’t work well. I have to move headphones port little up to hear sound from the speakers. I brought this laptop 2 months ago, is warranty gonna repair this?
October 27th, 2008 at 4:37 am
It worked me too except not until after I rebooted
October 28th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Like the rest of you, I was listening to headphones on my Compaq nc6400 laptop while at work. After removing them from the jack, I noticed that the speakers no longer produced sound. I check the hardware profiles and made sure all the device drivers were installed, played with the sound settings, etc… Everything showed up to be workign fine, according to the software. I even reinstalled the drivers just to make sure. Finally, I found your website by googling “speakers broken on laptop.” Your advice was common sense and I was considering fidgeting with the jack with a paper clip before ultimately giving up and calling tech support. I tried plugging and unplugging the headphones several times, and fidgeting with them inthe jack this did not work. Then I tried plugging and unplugging it rapidly, like a fruit-fly making love to his sexy girlfriend fruit fly! This worked, just at the moment my office mate was about to tell me I was a moron. Thanks.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
The problem that im experiening is different to the one above.Whenever i would like to isen to music or sound through earphone/headphones, the music still comes out through the speakers and not the headphone. the laptop that i have is a toshiba equium.so i was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same problem and if antone knows of how to fix it.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
After taking the advise posted waaaaaay above, I gave it a shot. The support people at HP didn’t help much….. well at all. I looked in the jack and saw a tiny piece of junk in there. Got it out and worked immediately! Thanks for the ideas guys!!!
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
My speakers were dead all weekend, and the only i got some noise out of them was pushing the headphone jack in. Very frustrating!! After searching on google, found this site, tried out the trick and IT WORKED!!! Thank you so much!!
November 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
YOU ARE AMAAAAAAAAAZING!! MY LAPTOP IS JUST NEW N WEN THE SPEACKERS STOPPED WORKING I WAS SOOOOO ANOYED!! NOW THER WORKING!!! THANK YOUUUUU!! ps: yess you should try it several times, i tried it for like 30 times until it worked
:D:D:D be fast!!
November 11th, 2008 at 7:10 am
I had this problem and solved it with your response.
Thanx a lot!
November 25th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Thanks so much Laptop Freak! I’ve searched and searched the net for a solution to this problem and nobody seems to know the solution. Who knew it would be such a simple fix?!
November 29th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
to jane and robert i had the same problem and no one seems to help with is so heres what i din i went to control panel/sound/and rolled bake the speakers it took a couple min. and i restarted it but it works yay
November 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Thank you so muchhh!!!! At first it didnt work but i tried it again slowly and it worked!
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Done well this worked a treat. Took laptop apart first with no joy. Started to give up and found this.
For me it was the mic port.
Cheers son!
December 7th, 2008 at 5:40 am
tahnks……….when i read it i thought it won’t work……..but wooooooola it worked
thank you very vry much hope d oders who have d same problem will try it
December 7th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
argh! i’ve had the same problem as jane and tiffy and robert with my Acer Aspire 3680. internal speakers work fine, but when i plug in my new external speakers i get NOTHING, for no reason. With my skype headphones it worked after i’d waited ages. Tiffy i don’t understand your solution, when i go into control panel > sound > there’s no roll back option. i disabled my internal speakers and still no luck.
please help!
“to jane and robert i had the same problem and no one seems to help with is so heres what i din i went to control panel/sound/and rolled bake the speakers it took a couple min. and i restarted it but it works yay “
December 10th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
THANK YOU! BRILLIANT ADVICE IT WORKED FOR MY INSPIRON 9400!!!
December 13th, 2008 at 1:20 am
absolutly worked.
you are amazing
thanks loads
jessicaa
December 17th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I see several other people who have asked this with no reply, but I have the OPPOSITE problem – my external speakers work but headphones have been working only intermittently for some time and now not at all. Dell Inspiron 1500 series. Windows XP. Used to be I could get the headphone jack to work again by shutting down and turning it back on, sometimes took 2 or 3 times but eventually it would start working again, and it would work as long as I DID NOT unplug the headphones. So I just leave my headphones plugged in all the time, and reboot as necessary, but now it won’t work anymore.
I had already tried the plugging/unplugging thing, and I’ve tried wiggling the mic jack next to it as well as the headphone jack. I’ve noticed lately that when I plug the headphones into the mic jack I’ll get a burst of sound through the headphones before it decides it’s a “line in” device. It did NOT used to do this, on those occassions when I plugged into the wrong jack I would hear nothing, so that’s a new symptom.
Any clues, please? Please please please?
December 20th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Respect, man. simple but genius
December 30th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
SIMPLY AMAZING!!!
December 31st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Dude I was living with no speakers for so long and it was driving me crazy im coming back to you everytime i have a computer problem
January 5th, 2009 at 10:13 am
hey,
i was wondering if you could help me,
im basically having the opposite problem to the main article, my external speakers work perfectly,
but when i insert my head phones, the sound continues to come from the external speakers and no sound comes from the head phones. Im having the same problem with over 5 pairs of head phones. Any ideas?
Im using a compaq laptop.
Thank you.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Annie,
Apparently the headphones jack is broken and will not switch from the external mode when you plug your headphones.
Most likely it’s necessary to replace the jack.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
This really worked u r great wow
January 8th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
OMGZ IT WORKED LOL TY U R LAPTOP JESUS!
January 9th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Excellent, thanks Laptop Freak, I was having the same problem as in the original question, just tried your advice with a push-pin and it worked like a charm. Thanks again!
January 12th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
OK, here’s the solution for a bad headphone jack for those who don’t want to open their system up and try to replace or add a soundcard.
Get a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. It’s the size of a flash drive and it plugs into a USB 2 port. You can use it with headphones or powered speakers. It doesn’t have a line in or mic input. If you just want to be able to hear again and “wiggling the plug” doesn’t work, this is a $30 plug ‘n play solution. The only problem I had with it was the USB extension cord they sent with it seems to be bad – when I was trying to use it, after a few hours the sound would quit working. Since I plugged directly into the USB port I’ve had no more problems.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:32 am
why the sound play simultaneously on both laptop’s speaker and the earphone? i plugged my earphone into the jack but sound can still be heard from the internal speaker………..why?? how do fix this? i’ve just changed to xp from vista yesterday…
January 16th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I went and wiggled a tiny paper clip in the headphones jack as mentioned on the first post (Cherie’s), and the worst happened! the pc just went off and it doesn’t want to turn on
This wiggling didn’t sound right to me, but after reading some comments of people who have succeeded I said let’s try it….
The problem I had was that I only get sound when using headphones, no sound from the internal speakers,
but when I unplug the headphones I could hear the sound from the speakers for like a second or half a second before it stops, so I knew that the speakers were not damaged,
anyway, Now I believe I have short-circuited something inside, I’ll have send it for repair I guess
Just wondering if someone had the same problem, if so, I assume you’ve taken it for repair, what went wrong? and how much did it cost you to repair it..lol??
Thanks
January 16th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I forgot to add that I’d like to warn laptop users who might think of wiggling any metal in the headphones jack, please think Twice!!!
You can live without sound, but you won’t make without ur machine, will u?!
January 16th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
oh my god !!! im the happiest man alive
Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. !!!!!!!
January 18th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
help i tried everthing on my acer \aspire 6920 and nothing worked the headphone jack works for head phones but when i take them out the internal speakers dont work. first i pluged my lap top into my amp and then when i took ot out the internal speakers didnt work
January 20th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
HATS OF TO U BOSS…I HAD A SIMILLAR PROBLEM SINCE A MONTH EVEN TRIED WITH HP HELP SUPPORT BUT COUDN’T SORT IT OUT AND JUST THEY ASKED ME TO SEND IT TOT THEIR SERVICE CENTRE. AT LAST I TRIED WIGGLED THE PLUG IN THE JACK. NOW INTERNAL SPEAKERS WORKS GREAT………THANKS
January 26th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
thank you , can’t believe i spent weeks trying to figure it out.. thanks
January 26th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I recently received an hp ze5620 laptop that had a hard drive failure, but the hdd was replaced. i have installed all drivers , but the irda doesn’t work (opened it and it doesn’t appear to have the transceiver on the board!) also, the headphone and microphone plugs dont work, but every thing else on the pcb works i get a buzzing from the headphone plug and it shuts off the internal speakers. Any ideas?
January 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
is there a way to shut off the headphone jack on a laptop ?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Kasm279,
Try reinstalling the operating system, drivers and applications from the recovery disc. Boot the laptop from the recovery disc and reinstall everything back to factory defaults. The recovery process will erase everything on the hard drive so do not forget to back up all personal files before you start.
That could be just a software related problem.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
erm………… I dont have any recover disks. i installed xp i bought for my desktop and never used and downloaded all the drivers from hp’s website
January 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
the headphones don’t work under ubuntu (Linux) either,so not a driver problem
January 31st, 2009 at 6:26 pm
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAa this pull out n in jack thing really works LOL… i was crushed thought this vaio was dun for.. yeaaa…. it works
February 1st, 2009 at 1:53 pm
laptop freak, will you please help me? its been 3 days!
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
One thing, is that, if you’re gonna use random metal or electric conducting tools, do not use it when the PC is powered or it may end up damaged/short cutting it.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Kasm279,
I really cannot help you a lot without testing the laptop myself. If it’s not working in Windows or Linix, it must be a hardware related problem. Maybe the sound chip is fried?
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Heh,
That’s right. Also, I would remove the battery, just in case.
February 4th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
OK, thanks for the help!
February 11th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Thanks a lot man. good information
February 14th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
omg thank you so much!
February 20th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Great job! It worked for me too..had the same problem… Thanx!! =)
February 21st, 2009 at 12:18 pm
You are a genius laptop freak – I cannot tell you how happy I am. I completely agree with all the other happy comments – I am myself so happy that I found your post online after struggling so much myself – AGAIN YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!!!!!! THANKS!!!!!
February 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU…i was getting SO frustrated–speakers worked one day then nothing–the earphone trick of plugging in and out fast worked on the fifth try..i was jumping up and down and so thankful for not spending a fortune to correct this….appreciate the assistance–checked 6 other post and yours was the only working advice!!!!
February 28th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Awsome dude,Its super cool….
It worked…
You cracked it man….
Thanks a lot
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Hi
A few days ago I plugged my Acer aspire to the TV audio jack to my headphones jack on the computer and since then i cant hear any sound form my laptop speakers what should i do?
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
hey i tried the plug in and out thing on the laptop jack and it didnt work. i did the test thing and i can hear it but when im on youtube or windows media player or something i cant hear the sound. can you help?
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I had the same problem last night, my HP Compaq Presario V6700 Laptop has problems with its audio. No sound at all for the built-in speakers and headphones, it also happened after I jacked the audio in the tv, after I unplugged the stereo jack from the laptop, there was no sound at all. I can’t sleep with this kind of problem, I’m broke right now and obviously I can’t afford to go to the technician. I’d like to know how does that wiggling technique works? how fast do I have to do it and how many times did you do it before it worked for you guys..tnx.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Hey – Now I have the same problem; but the sound would come back on the speaker sooner or later.
Here’s what I figure: I’m using my iPod earphones and maybe I shouldn’t. They work – but I’ve been told that its inlet/port (or whatever you call that piece that you stick in to the device) is longer than regular earphones. I figure this could be a possibility of the problem, if using iPod earphones. It could ruin the contacts.
March 28th, 2009 at 9:27 am
thnxsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss … u rock man ..
i plugged the headphones and unplugged it fast .. and everything went fine .. thxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
[...] Try fix the problem using this method. [...]
April 6th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Frustrating. So many well meaning but thoughtless replys crying “thank you” but without referencing which replyb has helped tham and for which problem. Thay all seem to think that they are the only once posting here…
April 7th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Hi, I seem to get this problem too on my Dell studio 15 laptop running Vista. Wiggling the headphone jack does nothing – I’ve found that if I play around with the jacks in the IDT audio settings, I can get the sound back through the speakers. The problem seems to occur if I use the left hand of the two headphone jacks on the laptop. Anyway, worth trying this before you take anything apart.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
My laptop’s speakers stopped working so I went ont he internet and searnched on how to fix them. Someone told me to fix the audio- something. I right clicked the speaker icon and saw “sounds”. When I clicked on it and turned off the audio decvices for playback, it disappeared. When I tried to get it back, I found out I didn’t know how. Any chance you know what happened and how I can fix my speakers?
April 13th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Thank you so much!
April 14th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Laptop freak i really need your help.
I have spent all morning trying to get my headphones to work on my laptop im completely frustrated so i thought i might ask an expert. They worked yesterday and now i have no idea whats going on. I have Windows Vista Home Premium on my Compaq i went to the sound settings and i did a test on the headphones and i could hear the testing on my right and my left headphone. but those are the only sounds i hear on them. All other sounds like videos regular computer sounds i only hear through the laptop speakers. I dont understand whats going, i dont know what to do anymore. Is there a way to fix this or should i take it to a computer expert to change my headphone jack. I was thinking about doing that but that doesnt make sense when i can hear sounds eventhough they are only the ones that the computer dose a headphone test on.
Thanks so much for your help
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 am
I tried following the Sony Website suggestions and nothing worked until I found your advise. Thank you very much. I follow your instructions and plugged and unplugged the headphone jack several times until the internal speakers worked again.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
my lap top spekers dont work and nether does my headphone jack
HELP!!!!!!!
May 15th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Vincent Alonzo,
Could be software related issue. Try reinstalling the audio driver.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Great Sight !! Love it !!
interesting…
Dell Latitude D830 with semi-fresh WinXPSP3 install. Headphones working but no laptop speakers.
Went to Volume Control and under Volume Control, clicked on Advanced. This opened up, you got it, Advanced Controls for Volume Control and, at the bottom, there’s Other Contols with
_
|_| 1 PC Spk Mute
I unchecked that and voila! the speakers worked.
I guess that Microsoft can’t afford to fully spell out the word ‘Speaker’…
May 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am
so this definitely worked, i took a bobby pin/paper clip and just swirled it around the headphone jack and it clicked and my sound went back to the internal speakers. touche.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:22 am
I used my headphones last night on a plane flight and could not hear audio after I removed them. I spent over an hour troubleshooting through the HP website. Then I found this website and did exactly as suggested. My audio now works! Thank you kindly for posting this information!
May 21st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
my laptop speakers sound like there is a scratched up cd in or something, it flutters like every 3 seconds and it’s really annoying. what could be wrong?
May 24th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
my internal speakers of my “acer” laptop work but after 1 or 2 minute stops working can anybody help me with this problem thank you
May 29th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Headphones stopped working after unplugged from USB port
Hi,
I use a Lenovo that runs on Vista. My USB headphones worked until I unplugged them, because the sound kept cutting off, and when I plugged them back in they did not work. Someone can help?
txs
June 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
My internal speakers don’t work, and the sound from my headphones also don’t work. I’ve tried wiggling the headphones in and around the jack about a million times, but still no sound..what do I do?
June 24th, 2009 at 12:59 am
hi,
i have SATELLITE L10-194 note book.
i was playing flash games, suddenly sound distoted,
at that time i tink that it may be game problem, but
when i closed the game and played a movie, it was shoking,
the sound i am hearing is only surroundings sound and
main charactor sound is muted, (like karaoke), i also hear the music, amazing… my brain is getting blown, how is it possible?….
steps taken>>> sound drivers reinstalled—- result same
tried morethan two headphones- result same
finally recovered(withoriginal dvd) —- same
hint—– some videos & clips having 16bit or 64bit
audio are playing good sound…
Request— please help me… Thanks in advance.
July 5th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Just earlier, I was plugging in my headphones, in and out, just messing with how it sounded, then this happened. So I tried this and it work, thaat was a life saver!
July 7th, 2009 at 5:50 am
Ok so i had some trouble with my laptop not charging so we sent it of to get repaired. But since its been back no sound is working from the speaker but when i plug the headphones in the work fine. I’ve tried everything, checked see if it was muted, tried updating it but it says everthings working fine.
can anyone help me?
Email me on Angelbaby_69 AT hotmail.co.uk
Thanks.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:32 am
I fixed this issue. I right clicked the silver speaker icon and brought up Advanced Controls. In my menu there was a check box under Other Controls that said 1 Digital Output Only. I unchecked it and now my speakers work again.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I can not believe it but this worked for me: #
127
kevin Says:
May 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am
so this definitely worked, i took a bobby pin/paper clip and just swirled it around the headphone jack and it clicked and my sound went back to the internal speakers. touche.
July 24th, 2009 at 6:11 am
Thanks so so much for this support site.
I’ve almost always used my head phones only for a while now. I unplugged it today to play a video clip for a colleague and found the speakers were dead. I tried jenny’s (136) idea. I went to the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, clicked on Advanced Speaker settings. There I found the Speaker Setup was somehow set to HEADPHONES? How that happened, I do not know. I simply changed it to Desktop stereo speakers… and viola, my speakers are back in action.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
hey that worked!!!! I pushed around the plug from the head phones and my speakers are now working !!! yay It’s been for ever since i could play music on my laptop! thank you so much!!!!
August 12th, 2009 at 1:50 am
THANK YOU SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!! This has happened to me TWICE now.. the first time my mom must have fixed it by accident hahaha. Thank you!!!
I now has music and if it happens again, I know what to do. Thank you!
August 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
thank you soooo much!!! this really does work…i’ve been trying for days now, restoring my system and everything but nothing seemed to work…This was so simple, i thought that i may have broken something initially and typically my laptop is now three months out of warranty!…but this is a simple problem easily fixed.
THANKS, D.
August 30th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Thanks I had the same problem but I used external speakers. It works fine now ^_^
September 20th, 2009 at 6:29 am
thank-you laptop freak , after opening uo my laptop, messing out with settings i happened to find your site, plugging in and out the headphones a few times REALLY WORKS , thanks
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
This is awesome!
September 25th, 2009 at 10:53 am
You are a legend dude!!!! I was seriously stressed out thinking my internal speakers were fried, but then I googled the problem & found your site… Will defno be here more often. Thanks a lot from Cape Town, South Africa!
September 27th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
my speakers cut out after i had plugged in the power cord.
i tried the plug/unplug headphones thing but that didn’t work.
i also tried rebooting but that didnt do anything either. so i closed my laptop and tapped on the end closest to the speakers a couple of times, then reopened. that fixed it.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:09 am
thanks alot !
this is exactly what happend to me. played with the plug and the sound came back.
probably saved me some money!
October 15th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Thank you so much, I didn’t think that would work, but my sound was restored as soon as I plugged and unplugged my headphones fast.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
okay my laptop just wont play music or anything.
i no the speakers one it say so nd the volumes pretty high and i tryed headphones and nothing so u no wats wrong?
October 25th, 2009 at 7:24 am
have just successfully restored laptop sound by quickly inserting and removing external jack plug several times on my wifes dell studio 1537 laptop.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
YOU ARE AMAZING. I LOVE YOU. I CANT BELIEVE THIS WORKED
THANKS A BUNCH
October 29th, 2009 at 11:09 am
This problem was the same for me, the headphone jack solution worked
Thanks for posting!
October 29th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
boston acustic digital speakers will not work on my dell xps m1730.
called dell just after i bought the laptop about a year ago and was told to buy something go between speakers and laptop.
i forgot what it was & called 8 months later and dell cant help me now.
bose analog speakers work from headset.
set up output to digital 48khz and still no sound.
system is several years old but the speakers will self test all 4 channels & sub. can u help me ? ty steve.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Thanks man this worked u saved me l0l
November 9th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
i hear music come out of the speakers but it sounds really bad and i tried to use my headphones but it still sounds bad.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Thank you laptop freak. i unplugged my head phones very vast and in one tug my sound was restored.
you have my unending gratitude
November 20th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
i have HP F739AU Laptop. my problem is when i connect my headphone with my laptop. both laptop speaker and headphone work. i want to fix this problem as when i will use head phone my laptop speker should not work and when i will not use headphone thn laptop speaker will work. how can i do this amd what is a problem. i am using XP service pack 2
November 27th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
thank you thank you thank you!
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’m having the same problem and have tried the wiggling of the jack thing…any other ways you readers may have found? I even tried it on its side to use gravity…NOTHING!
December 9th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Well my problem is that my laptops speakers won’t work but when I put in ear plugs in I can hear sound!! I really need help
December 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I spent hours trying to troubleshoot why my notebook internal speakers stopped working after I had used external speakers. Couldn’t figure it out. I was so frustrated. Finally – I found this page – and it WORKED! That was exactly the problem – I had to plug & unplug the external speaker jack several times – saw on the screen finally that the notebook detected the device being unplugged and at the same time the speakers would flicker on. Finally after a few more insertions and pull outs, the internal speakers worked. I can’t believe that jack has contacts that are so flimsy. Thanks so much for posting this solution!
December 10th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
WOW. That just worked. You are amazing. Thanks.
December 12th, 2009 at 3:13 am
My speakers were working fine one moment but then stopped working after i used in my headphones. I still have sound when I use my headphones but when I unplug it, i can not hear anything from my laptop speakers. I went through the troubleshooting on my laptop but I still can not get sound to come out of my laptop speakers. My laptop is DELL INSPIRON 6000 , I tried this solution, but believe me no benefit.So please help me hw to fix the speakers of my laptop which work when i use headphones , but don’t work when i remove the headphones.
December 12th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
i can’t hear any sound from my speaker but still can hear from my earphone…is there anything that i can do to fix it..tq
December 20th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have a HP touchsmart TX2, and it has been great for the last 6 months i have had it. But then, I inserted the audio jack to listen to music through headphones, and the sound quality was bad: all distorted. I then removed them, and the speackers just poped, fairly loudly.
Since then, my speakers don’t work, but pop each time I unplug my earphones, and the sound quality in my earphones is very distorted. I have tried countless times to quickly remove/insert the earphones, but with no positive results. I have tried with other earphones too and all seem distorted, but work fine on my ipod. Someone please help me!!
I am running windows 7 home premium.
Thanks in advance
Nick
December 27th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Please help me everyone, I really don’t know what to do!
Got an HP netbook for christmas, and started using it last night and the sound was working perfectly. Suddenly today, there’s just no sound at all from the speakers or the headphones. When I plug headphones in, but not all the way, there’s a weird fuzzy sound and I don’t know what it is. I’ve spent hours on the troubleshooting thing, I’ve tried system restore. I tried twizzling the headphone jack thing and that didn’t work either. Please help, I only got my laptop 2 days ago and I don’t know what to do!
December 31st, 2009 at 5:59 am
well, i can’t believe it. i spent hours going over every setting, reinstalling drivers, etc… inserted and pulled the plug a few times and it worked.
thanks for the tip.
January 11th, 2010 at 1:23 am
ABSOLUTE LEGEND!
This worked for me – wow, eternally grateful too!
Thank you!
)
January 11th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Thanks it helped me. I got scared that my motherboard was faulty… and was going to a repair shop but i stumbled upon this link.. and got my internal speakers corrected…
January 14th, 2010 at 6:24 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A505,and I have been having problems with my internal speakers working for a while then the next day when I wake up and want to play music they don’t work. I have checked everything for sound and still they do not work. Is there something I can do or should I just send it off to Toshiba?
January 14th, 2010 at 11:41 am
My Logitech speakers stopped working on my Mac after using headphones. The internal speakers of the Mac only worked. I took Jenny’s advice (#136) but because I have a Mac, went to System Preferences, clicked on Sound and discovered that somehow the Logitech speakers had turned off. So I just clicked them and voila! Thanks Jenny!!!
January 20th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Thank you soooo much. This saved me so much time and money. Thanks to Google also for leading me here
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:23 am
SO I just had this start happening to me this early morning. It happened once when plugging in external speakers. After a reboot it worked. However after rebooting for Vista updates, no matter how many times I plug/unplug headphones, it doesn’t work.
I got a flashlight and looked into both jacks, the contacts look fine (as far as I can tell), none of them are pushed in as they would be if headphones were plugged in.
Device manager doesn’t list ANY audio devices. When I plug in my USB headset it works fine (different output device obviously), but no matter what I try, normal speakers and headphones refuse to work.
At this point, is my only option to have it looked at? I’d do it myself (I replaced the screen myself after a bunkmate on base stepped on it as he was climbing down off the top rack.), but I’m wary of cracking open the main case and messing with the innards.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:54 pm
ok I used my ear phones to listen to something took em out and no sound from my laptop. Just a regular mac so restarted it and still no sound. Plugged it in a few times like it says. Still no sound. There’s a red light coming our of the ear phone port and I can get sound on the ear phones but no sound without the ear phones. HELP ME!!!!!!
January 25th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
my laptop speakers only work when I plug in my headphones and then it can be heard on my headphones and speakers at the same time. How do I fix this problem?
February 18th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
THANK YOU Laptop Freak! I just put the headphones in and took them out multiple times and now the internal speakers work again!
February 21st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Thanks alot. This advice solved my problem
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
AWESOME!!!!
I was having issues with my speakers after using my headphones and couldnt figure out what happened. My two year old nephew had gotten to my computer and i thought he messed with it. then i read this and was like yeah i have been using my headphones for the first time. so i did the plugin/unplug headphone thing and it worked. Thank god i didnt have blown speakers. This definatly felt like a blonde moment. Thanks for the help!!!!!!!!!
March 7th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
omg thank you so much! I plugged it in and out and it worked.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Thank you soooooo much =] took a few attempts but it worked..x
March 17th, 2010 at 12:43 am
wow you are a beast, lol very good advice, I tried the headphone trick and unfortunately it did not work so i took it to the next level and inserted a plastic covered paper clip so it won’t short-circuit and moved it around making sure I was touching the prongs and bingo. it works…
April 1st, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Thank you so much for your help. It was so annoying that my speakers stopped working and it was such a simple thing. I just inserted a jack 3-4 times and it started working! thanks a lot!
April 14th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
It worked for me as well!!!Thank you!!!
April 24th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
omg it worked! thank you sooo much! I’ve been trying to figure this thing out for months!
April 30th, 2010 at 11:45 am
AWESOME!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
May 1st, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I have a windows vista advent laptop and the ring for the audio jack is missing it was fine for a while but now every time i plug in my head phones only a little volume comes out the head phones and the laptop speakers play out loud i have already tried moving about the end or the male jack so please can someone help
May 9th, 2010 at 7:14 am
fantastic advice
it worked for me too
thanks so much
May 28th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
your r a genius ty so vm
June 8th, 2010 at 10:14 am
your my hero.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
AMAZING!!!! To say the least. For the past few months, i’ve tried every bloody trick in the book and all i needed to do was this? Thanks a lot, dude. May the digital Gods bless you.
June 14th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Awesome, bro!! I was already looking for new drivers, thinking it was a Win7 incompatibility.
Great advice, thanks a bunch!
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:19 am
awesome your da best 5 star rating :}
July 1st, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Thank u so much man
U just saved me lots of time, money and peace of mind
god bless
July 10th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Recently I bought a Toshiba L650D laptop and now I can’t hear any sound. The OS (Windows 7) thinks there is music playing, no driver problems, I can see the volume bouncing in Windows Media Player when I play a song. But I can’t hear it, also no succes using headphones, I just hear noise.
Possible causes
- Just before it stopped working I had short circuit while plugging in the battery adaptor. When I tried again with a different plug it reloaded the laptop.
- After the short-circuit I connected the laptop OUT and IN jacks on the same machine (a digital drum).
Can you help me?
Thanks
July 20th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Your suggestion, so simple, yet effective. Thank you for posting the solution to my speaker not working problem on my laptop. You were exact in suggesting the jack contacts were “stuck” in the headphone position, I inserted the headphone plug into the jack on the laptop, wiggled it around a few times, and it instantly, the speakers started working again! Thank you, thank you!
August 4th, 2010 at 1:19 am
I have problem in toshiba satellite A200-24A laptop using windows 7 Os , when i plugged in headphone suddenly no sound on laptop speakers and headphone too ,i tried lot nothing else happened , please need a solution
August 8th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
OMG Thank You Very Much, I was Like Freaking Out When It Happened But Thanks To Your Solution About Plugging And Unplugging It Worked And to Those Of You Who The Problem Persisted Don’t Give Up I Probably Had To Do It About like 20 Times Before It Worked
August 13th, 2010 at 5:48 am
after i plug in my headphones and mic to laptop, adobe flash crashes,everything that has to do with sound stops responding like windows live messenger audio video set up,control panel-hardware and sounds. please help!!
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I have a slightly different problem..
I spilt water over my laptop and then quickly unplugged it and turned it upside down to let the water drain out but the sound stopped playing almost instantly (when water hit or unplugged?)
Since then the sound only works via headphones although the IDT HD SOUND programme (that launches when i put headphones in mic jack) suggests something is ‘plugged in’ to the headphone jack even when the headphones arent…
You’re plugging headphones in and out fast trick doesn’t work for me so I was wondering..
- could the water have permantly damaged the jack or will it eventually dry out (its been about 48 hrs already)?
- can you replace just the jack?
- is this something dell would fix as i’m still in warrenty? if i neglected to tell them about the spilt water!