Problem with headphone speakers

Hi guys

Today I purchased a microphone/headphone set. It is just a plug and play one. I came home and plugged it in, the microphone works fine but I can't get my headphone speakers to work.

So far I have tried:

Plug in the headphone port on the front of the computer - they don't work.

Plug in the line in port at the back (where my desktop speakers are plugged in) - they do work, but of course then I don't have my desktop speakers working.

Went into speaker options through control panel and of the 3 coloured ports, I selected for the middle one to be headphone - plugged it in - didn't work.

So I have 3 coloured ports, top being line in which I have the desktop speakers plugged in to, Middle being either line out or headphone, and bottom being microphone. Then I have the headphone port at the front. I have realtek ac97 drivers. So I'm not sure whether the drivers aren't set up for headphones or what the problem is.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
Shezz

 

1) Your speakers have to be plugged into LineOut because LineIn is for another input from a stereo, etc.....
2) The normal place for headphones is the same port as the speakers (LineOut) Many speakers also have a headphone jack on them which disables the speakers when you plug in the headphones or you can buy a 3.5mm splitter which will give you two jacks; one for the speakers and one for the headphones.

Be warned; though, that leaving your speakers up when you use the mic causes an echo problem wherein your mic picks up the speaker sounds.

 

Thankyou for your reply. I'm not sure what is wrong with my setup as if I plug my speakers in line out they don't work, they only work on line in. I just tried to plug the headphone into my speakers though and that worked so I will just do that when I use them.

I think the guys I bought this computer from and who recently put in a new motherboard are the dodgy brothers. Have had a few strange things going on and motherboard not set up right.

Thanks for the help

 

If you had a systemboard (there aren't any motherboards anymore; but, we'll leave that alone) replaced and they did not reinstall windows from scratch, you could have numerous, serious, problems. You mentioned that you had some control over the sound subsystem, most probably by changing the speaker setup and i will bet money they don't have the front jacks wired correctly. On the back; though, the green is line-out, pink is mic, and blue is line-in. Did the new "mobo" change the labels?

 

Ok, when they put in the motherboard - which I was told was new but turned out to be secondhand, my speakers didn't work at all, then they had to add some jumpers or something.

Then when I got broadband my usb didn't work, kept disconnecting and my isp told me I would be better using ethernet, but I didn't have a port, so went and bought a port, installed using the disk as windows didn't automatically do it, then I found the motherboard number and looked it up on the net and it should have had an ethernet port with that motherboard - so I think they're a bit shonky.

I had to download some drivers from the net that they hadn't done too. They also had a pirated windows on my computer which when I ran into problems I couldn't fix since I didn't have a disk, so I have since purchased a new windows xp and reinstalled it. The front headphone port isn't working at all with my headphones.

It is the green one that I have the speakers plugged into, your right I had it mixed up I have them in line out. Which if I plug my headphones into that my headphones work, but I don't want them in that port as I don't want to keep swapping them everytime I use them, its a bit hard to get to. It will be easier to plug them into the actual speakers and change that each time.

 

This doesn't help your situation, but your 'techs' or hardware 'vendors' sound like they should be avoided and you should tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. You should also demand at least a partial refund from these so-called techs....

 

Yeah, I wont be going back there trust me!

 

The built-in ethernet is probably hiding behind the shield on the back of the computer. I have seen that before and, if you are lucky, you may be able to simply break out the rectangular part covering it.
If you download the manual for your systemboard, it sounds to me like you are savvy enough to get the front jacks working. They will be wires that you simply plug onto the correct pins.
I won't completely blame the idjits that worked on your system for installing the wrong version of Windows. Microsoft requires OEM's to "brand" their copies and there about 900 flavors of XP; creating a nightmare for tech's that very few know how to handle correctly.