Optical port badly designed in R3

I really think this optical port is badly designed. I made the mistake of plugging in a headphone cable into the optical jack (same 3.5mm dimensions) and basically every 10 or 15 plugs the "ground" ring inside the jack actually causes a perm ground (ring doesn't reset) and it always thinks it is plugged in...

Now, this wouldn't have happened had they used a NORMAL optical jack, not sure why they opted for 3.5mm when it is basically the same size...

If I unplug it and replug it a bunch of times it finally stops detecting it.

Probably going to need to get the board replaced, are they replacing the "faulty" SB boards yet with the new redesign?

 

I dunno I havnt heard a peep out of them yet about replacing my board.

 

might be an idea to plug this socket with something to protect it, not sure what would do the job but I'm sure there's something, might be worthwhile asking Dell to provide a solution to this obvious design oversite which in the long run could cost them loads for replacement MB's

 

They keep telling me they don't have mobo supply for replacements, only new orders (probably not true)

 

yea neptune mine did the same thing, but thats untrue about them not having the motherboards, I called last week and they sent it out to my uncle who is the dell technician around me and he came out and replaced it for me already a week ago. I would call back, but they fixed the optical port because I have no trouble with it anymore!!

 

A normal Toslink port would cost a LOT more space, actually.

What they should've done is used a standard 3.5mm headphone+optical port, which a high quality trans/reciev.

I personally wish they'd simply put a coaxial RCA digital audio port on laptops instead of the 3.5mm Toslink. Smaller size, more commonly seen on digital receivers/pro/audiophile gear, and quality is less part reliant.

 

You obviously havent had a macbook with this similar design. Those ones are very susceptible to getting stuck in optical mode resulting in a total loss of all onboard speakers and no way to manually override in the software.
I'd be interested to see if the R3 is better on this front.

 

Sony portable Mini-discs have also used this same port design for nearly 20 years, I own a dozen of those and have never had any issues, however, they are input only ...

The port is either a line level analog input or optical in.

 

I've been unplugging / replugging my system 3-4 times a week using both optical and headphones and never had an issue.

I've also never plugged my headphones into the glowing red port...

 

LOLZ, I don't even know what the hole with the red light is for , let alone why they supplied me with TWO headphone jacks

 

@ dookie, i believe its for connecting 5.1 speakers/headset using the 4 analog cables... correct me if im wrong though because i still have no idea why i would ever need an optical port to hook up 5.1 with analog, nvm that what optical equipment even has a 3.5mm OPTICAL jack???

 

Regardless, I still have no idea what to do with the 2nd headphone jack lolz. I guess they're nice to have just in case though, right? I wonder if it "splits" the audio (makes both headphones softer when both jacks are used)? Cuz in my hp, it also had 2 headphone jacks, and when both were used the sound was quieter than when 1 was used.

 

for gods sake, left ear right ear, it's called stereo, don't you ever fly, you can now steal a set of those aircraft headphones and use them in your R3, how cool is that, the little red glowing light thing is the cigar lighter, you guys need to start reading the manual

 

I appreciate the sarcasm/funnies.