It. Happened. AGAIN!

[Eireann]

No, no USB. Regular plugs.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Normally a headphone plug acts as switch to switch off the signal to the speakers when the headphone jack is plugged in. When the headphone jack is removed, the signal is reconnected to the speakers. This should not make any difference to the computer which should always see something is connected to the sound signal, either headphones or speakers.

That being said, maybe you have a bad headphone plug that isn't connecting the signal to the speakers when the jack is removed.

[Eireann]

This whole thing started after I installed Vista. I just installed an update, then after it installed and restarted, I unplugged the headset. The little speaker icon is showing green, but I'm still not getting any sound from the speaker.

[Chromatix]

Some sound chips now have separate amplifiers for the line-out (in back) and the headphone jack (in front). There's a sense line and some part of the driver deals with switching it over.

I first saw this on Macs, and didn't understand why, but it makes more sense if the line-out is multichannel, since there is no single jack which carries a plain stereo signal - probably the Macs were using an early version of one of these chips.

So there are two things to check: the software and the hardware. On most PCs the headphone/mic sockets are connected by a cable to some header on the m/board, so make absolutely sure you've got that the right way around. Then go and freshly install the latest driver for whatever your sound chip is.

[Eireann]

Yes, they're definitely plugged in the way they should be. I'll try it with the driver again.

[Chromatix]

Some of these multichannel cards also have a specialised control panel for enabling and rearranging the sockets. The one for my m/board is a royal pain...

I've actually found that the sense line doesn't work with my particular case. So I've had to disable the sense logic and make it pretend that both the speakers and the headphones are always connected.

But there's a problem with that - the headphone socket then gets only the front speaker signals, not the downmix, if there's a multichannel movie playing (speech usually gets sent to the centre channel, so this matters a LOT).

So the other alternative is to plug the headphones into the speakers and let them do the downmix.

[Eireann]

I had to reload Vista due to one of the files being either missing or corrupted (the offending file was \windows\system32\winload.exe). Since then, the sound is working as it should. Keep your fingers crossed!

Though now, there have been a couple of occasions where the computer froze to such an extent that I couldn't turn it off, and had to unplug it. I have no idea why.

[Broomjockey]

How long did you leave it before unplugging it? And was the hard drive activity light still going?

[Eireann]

I unplugged it, then plugged it in again about a second or two later. Yes, the hard drive activity light was still illuminated.

This just happened again a few minutes ago, and rather than unplug it again, I just waited it out. It started running again, but then I got a message that one of the chipsets was missing a driver (which is a message that I got just a few days ago). I'm downloading it now - what is UP with this machine?

[Broomjockey]

I unplugged it, then plugged it in again about a second or two later. Yes, the hard drive activity light was still illuminated.

Then it wasn't frozen, it was thinking. Unplugging it while your hard drive activity light is on is a good recipe to screw up your OS.

[Eireann]

Whoops! Thanks for that. At least I let it think the second time.

[lordlundar]

Then it wasn't frozen, it was thinking. Unplugging it while your hard drive activity light is on is a good recipe to screw up your OS.

And the HDD at the same time. If you want to override the system, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and engage the shutdown that way.

[Eireann]

And the HDD at the same time. If you want to override the system, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and engage the shutdown that way.

I did. It didn't work. Pressing the power button didn't work. Unplugging it did - but I won't try that again. I just waited it out.

Last night, I installed updates, which took one hell of a long time to configure when I turned the machine on this morning. I can only hope that things have improved!

When I unplugged the headphones last night, a panicky message came up to tell me that - horrors! - a device had been unplugged. It did the same thing when I plugged them in.

But it works! The sound works through the headphones AND from the rear speaker. I have no idea how I did it.

[Eric the Grey]

I did. It didn't work. Pressing the power button didn't work. Unplugging it did - but I won't try that again. I just waited it out.

Most computers built over the past 10 years or so have a delayed shutdown. You have to push the power button in and hold it several seconds to power it down. It's a safety feature to keep someone from accidentally hitting the button and shutting down when they didn't want to.



Eric the Grey

[Eireann]

Aha!

I'm so glad I started this thread. You kind people have given me all kinds of help and very important knowledge. It's like having an early Christmas present!