Headphone jack

[4breezes]

I'm dealing here with my older Dell Inspiron 3520. A month ago I upgraded the OS from Windows 8.1 to 10. That was easier than I thought it would be. There were no hitches, no problems along the way. It now runs smoothly on Windows 10.

3 days ago the headphone jack quit working. It went stone cold dead. I tried it with the external speakers, and I tried it with headphones. Nothing. The built-in speakers work well, though a bit lacking in sound quality. The headphone jack gives me no sound whatsoever.

I'm not familiar with Windows 10, but I have found one or two settings which claim that the headphone jack is working. Still, no sound. I need your help on this. Ask any questions you need, I'll do my best to answer.

[fink]

Did you try rolling back the audio drivers?

• Open Device Manager. Locate the device you want to roll back the driver for. Right-click the device name and choose Properties.
• On the Driver tab, select the Roll Back Driver button. Select Yes to confirm the roll back.
• After the roll back is complete, close the device properties screen. Select Yes to restart your computer.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-roll...indows-2619217

Another option would be to try uninstalling then reinstalling the drivers.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-d7126dc1f7b6

[4breezes]

Is there an independent driver for the headphones? The built-in speakers work well, but with a lesser quality sound.

The failure happened a month after the OS upgrade. The headphones and external speakers were fine during that month.

That being said, I'll try a roll back.

[4breezes]

The headphones are not listed separately. I followed instructions for the "speakers" only to find that the "roll back driver" box was grayed out. My only option along that line would be to try to update the driver.

[fink]

Have a look here to see if there's a newer audio driver.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...5-3520/drivers

If no success finding one/fixing the problem it does sound more hardware related and you might need to get a USB to Mini 3.5 adapter to get your headphones working. They aren't expensive... I use one on my older desktop media server and it works well to send a signal to external speakers.

[4breezes]

I suspect you're right in it's being a hardware problem. Inserting the headphone jack effectively kills the built in speakers, but does not produce sound in the headphones.

A question on using the USB adapter. Will using the USB adapter shut off sound from the built in speakers? I use the headphones, earbuds, when visiting my daughter. She doesn't like my music or the Netflix shows I watch. If the built in speakers still produce sound when the headphones are plugged in then there is no advantage. Is there a way to shut down the built in speakers?

I appreciate your continuing help on this problem.

[fink]

Windows normally auto defaults to the most recent item that was plugged in/inserted but you can also go into speaker/sound properties and manually switch between all items shown.

It would look something like this: (what does it show now BTW? are headphones there when you plug them in? If they are try manually switching to them to see what happens)

[4breezes]

I found it!! You found it! "Windows Sonic for Headphones" was turned off. As soon as I switched that I tested and had sound in the headphones. I have not yet tested either the built in speakers or the external speakers. My daughter is on a zoom call which I dare not interrupt.

Thank you, sir, for your help once again. You have saved me much pain and suffering.

[fink]

No problem!