What's up with the headphones?

[Eireann]

On YouTube this evening, I had a problem with my headphones. Sometimes the sound cut out on the left side. I unplugged them and plugged in a spare set.

I couldn't hear anything.

I reversed the plugs, in case they were in the wrong holes.

Nothing.

I plugged in the old set.

Same thing - no sound. Even when I reversed the plugs.

I plugged in the new pair, opened VLC player, and played a video. Success!

I went back to YouTube. No sound.

Now what?

[Eireann]

Whoops, I posted this in the wrong forum! My apologies.

[It's me]

Make sure you have the most recent version of Flash........

[rose_metal_nz]

YouTube has a seperate volume control & mute... Sorry if this is obvious, but have you checked them?

[Amadan]

YouTube has a seperate volume control & mute... Sorry if this is obvious, but have you checked them?

Also it's possible, although unlikely, that the particular videos had messed up sound. The first one may have only have sound on one of the two stereo channels, the second video may not have had sound.

[Eireann]

It's working now. Even at the time, I wondered if I should just restart the computer. I didn't; I closed it down and went to bed. That did the trick. I'd still love to know how to listen to the speaker sound by unplugging the headphones. It worked when I had my old hard drive, with XP. It doesn't now. The speaker says "enabled", but it doesn't work.

[It's me]

I'd still love to know how to listen to the speaker sound by unplugging the headphones. It worked when I had my old hard drive, with XP. It doesn't now. The speaker says "enabled", but it doesn't work.

What are your headphones plugged into? External speakers?

[Eireann]

They're plugged into the jacks in the front of the computer tower.

[Amadan]

They're plugged into the jacks in the front of the computer tower.

I'm guessing your old Desktop had speakers built in, it's unusual but I've seen it on Macs and HP among others.

Most desktops don't have any speakers built in, apart from a beeper for very basic stuff.


Best bet is probably to get a set of desktop computer speakers, plug them in the back and if you get the right set they'll have a headphone jack on the speakers themselves and redirect sound as you plug and unplug headphones.

[Eireann]

Well, this is the same desktop that I had before. I don't understand it, but for some reason, when I changed hard drives and operating systems, it stopped producing sound from the speaker when I unplug the headphones.

[Ironclad Alibi]

You might open the computer and check the wire connections for the speakers and headphone jack. In changing the hard disc they might have been inadvertantly disconnected.

[Amadan]

Well, this is the same desktop that I had before. I don't understand it, but for some reason, when I changed hard drives and operating systems, it stopped producing sound from the speaker when I unplug the headphones.

Ah sorry, I'm so used to customers calling desktops "hard drives", "towers", "cpus" etc I assumed you'd got a new pc.

What Ironclad Alibi says is a good idea.

Is the speaker(s) inside the machine or connected to the back?

[Eireann]

Inside the machine, as far as I can tell. When the hard drive was replaced, an acquaintance who works in IT did it. He's not overly familiar with actually opening and replacing machinery, but it looked pretty straightforward, even to me. It doesn't seem likely that any wires were disconnected in the process. The headphones work whether they're plugged into the back, or the front.

[SteeleDragon78]

perhaps when things got changed a setting like "mute speakers when headphones connected' got enabled?

[Chromatix]

If the speakers are built into the computer, then most likely the wire from the soundcard to them has been disconnected. Either that, or they don't have power any more.

It's an unusual configuration though, unless it's an all-in-one machine - most people use external speakers plugged into the green (line out) socket on the back of the soundcard. This is also true for speakers built into the monitor.