[TriLUG] How to get laptop earphone jack to work?

[Reid Sayre]

Be sure you are plugging the speakers into the correct jack. The buzz 
you hear when you touch the plug that is plugged into the jack indicates 
that you are touching the MICRPHONE input, not the speaker output.

I have half a dozen systems around of various ages. The simpler systems 
(laptops, built in motherboard sound, PCI sound card) have either two or 
three jacks, colored red, green, and blue. The red one is the microphone 
jack, the blue one is the "line in" jack (does not exist in all 
systems), and the green one is the speaker/headphone jack in all cases. 
When you plug a headphone plug or a plug for external powered speakers 
into the correct jack (the green one in all of my systems), there is a 
physical switch built-in to the jack that turns off the built-in 
speakers. It has nothing to do with software drivers (unless you have a 
very unusual system).

If you think you are in the correct jack, then try the other ones 
anyway. They are usually clustered closely together, and I suppose it's 
possible that they are mis-labelled or mis-colored. The connection from 
the laptop to the external powered speaker is set up in such a way that 
there will be no damage if you plug it in the wrong jack. The connection 
to the external speaker is an input, and connecting an input to another 
input (microphone or line-in) is not likely to damage anything.

Reid Sayre

Steve Litt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have a Compaq Presario V6133CL laptop running Mandriva 2007. The sound 
> system works perfectly out of its dinky little speakers. However, when 
> connect the input plug of my powered speaker system, which works perfectly 
> with my desktop, to the earphone jack of the laptop, no sound comes out of 
> them, and the sound still comes out of the little laptop speakers.
>
> I tried lubricating the speaker system plugs to no available. I turned the up 
> the volume of the speaker system to maximum -- no sound. However, if I put my 
> finger on the plug a buzz comes out the speakers.
>
> I looked around for a function key combination that would effect the sound 
> system and couldn't find one. The only thing I can find is a speaker on 
> speaker off button and an LED touch slide pot, but neither of these work 
> under Mandriva 2007.
>
> When I run aumix, there are three sliders: Volume, which works perfectly, 
> Line, which will not let me set it at anything but 100%, and Mic, which again 
> will not let me set it at anything but 100%.
>
> What can I do to drive powered external speakers from this laptop?
>
> Thanks
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/
>
>   

-- 
Reid Sayre
rlsayre at bellsouth.net

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