Tech-Heads, Assemble Once More

[According2Aaron]

I have an Acer Extensa 5620Z laptop. I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium.

My problem is that I can hear sound from my laptop's built-in speakers, but when I plug my headphones in the jack (there's only one jack, on the front), the speakers still play, but there's nothing from the headphones. As you know, when you plug something into that headphone jack, the speakers should cut out and the sound show all be transferred to the headphones, or whatever device is plugged in.

Now, I've already torn the sound properties and Device Manager apart trying to figure this thing out, but I've got nothing yet. In the sound properties, I've tried making the headphones the default device: Nothing.

I went into the headphones properties within the previously stated properties and clicked "Test." This produced perfect sound through the headphones, but nothing else will. Halp?

[Joshy]

I can only assume it has something to do with Vista's drivers for your hardware. You may want to check your audio hardware manufacturer's website for their own drivers. I have a macbook with Vista installed on a second partition, and have audio issues as well. Sound doesn't come out of my speakers until i plug something into the audio jack, and then remove the jack.

[nine_deuce]

Perhaps the jack is bad? things do break from time to time.

[According2Aaron]

I can only assume it has something to do with Vista's drivers for your hardware. You may want to check your audio hardware manufacturer's website for their own drivers. I have a macbook with Vista installed on a second partition, and have audio issues as well. Sound doesn't come out of my speakers until i plug something into the audio jack, and then remove the jack.

I tried updating all the relevant drivers I could, but that didn't work. Also, I don't know what sound card I have or what manufacturer made it. I even downloaded Everest to tell me all about my system and it didn't know what sound card I had either.

Perhaps the jack is bad? things do break from time to time.

I had considered that as well, but when I went into the sound properties, I opened up the properties for the "Headphones" device listed, then I clicked "Test." That "Test" button produced perfect sound, but that was the only way I could get sound. No other programs produced sound, and the internal speakers still played sound, even though there was a set of headphones plugged in the headphones jack.

[Phempa]

install this... not sure, but it might do something

http://www.asio4all.com/

and if you use winamp, you'll want the winamp asio output plugin

[Masamune]

Is this your laptop? From the pictures on this there are three jacks on the front that could take a standard headphone plug. Mic-in (if plugged headphones in would produce your exact problem) Line-in (same as before) and headphone jack (wouldn't cause your problem). Silly, I know, but I've overlooked far more obvious things on a laptop (see: touchpad).

Assuming that's not the problem, most likely it's a software based problem. Is there another sound management software installed? Acer (and other major manufacturers) like to install their own extra crap software. If there are two programs designated for control over your soundcard then if one says to ignore headphones then they will both do that. It's very annoying but I would look at proprietary software as the root of your problem.

As a pointer I know that Acer likes to use that annoying "e" thing for webcams, maybe something similar for soundcard?

[According2Aaron]

Is this your laptop? From the pictures on this there are three jacks on the front that could take a standard headphone plug. Mic-in (if plugged headphones in would produce your exact problem) Line-in (same as before) and headphone jack (wouldn't cause your problem). Silly, I know, but I've overlooked far more obvious things on a laptop (see: touchpad).

Yeah, I'd considered that, but that's not the problem, as everything I tried to plug in, I plugged in that exact slot (headphone jack).

Assuming that's not the problem, most likely it's a software based problem. Is there another sound management software installed? Acer (and other major manufacturers) like to install their own extra crap software. If there are two programs designated for control over your soundcard then if one says to ignore headphones then they will both do that. It's very annoying but I would look at proprietary software as the root of your problem. As a pointer I know that Acer likes to use that annoying "e" thing for webcams, maybe something similar for soundcard?

This computer came with that "e" thing as you mentioned, but I've just upgraded to a higher capacity hard drive. It's only since I installed, formatted this hard drive, and installed Windows Vista back on that I've encountered this problem.

I've tried installing all kinds of drivers, but I can't find anything that works. I would assume the operating system would contain everything I need to operate the basic functions of my computer, but I guess I'm wrong.

As of a day or two ago, I discovered that if I go into the sound properties (by right-clicking the task bar speaker next to the clock) and set the "Headphones Device" as the primary device, I can get sound out of it if something is plugged in. That's great and everything, but I just don't understand why it's not working the way it should be working. It should be that when you have the regular "Speakers Device" set as the primary device that you get sound from the internal speakers, but when you plug something into the headphones jack, all the sound is remove from the speakers and transferred to the device plugged into the headphones jack, but that's not how it's behaving.

[According2Aaron]

And now I've also discovered that my laptop won't detect my SD card in the SD card slot. Would that be a lack of an Acer driver?

[Masamune]

Probably Acer is your problem. First step is get the drivers from the device manufacturer, not Acer. After those are installed (don't use the MS driver update, it's crap -_- ) check your SD and sound card again.

After that I'm not totally sure what the problem would be. All your symptoms point toward drivers. Put another way, your computer is aware it has a headphone jack and if you tell it to use headphones only it's fine, but it simply doesn't understand to disable the speakers when you plug in headphones by itself.

[According2Aaron]

How do I find out who manufactured these devices (sound and SD reader)? I downloaded Everest and it couldn't even figure out who the manufacturer was. =(

[Masamune]

Perhaps a program called SIW (System Information for Windows). I use it pretty regularly with about a 90% success rate. Also the Acer website should breakdown what hardware is found inside your computer. If not then go google hunting.