Please help guys my laptop has no sound and I am in Thailand for another 5 months !

Ok this isn't a easy problem like the sound is muted etc. I am in Thailand doing Thai boxing and I spend all my free time watching movies on my laptop with a pair of headphones.

I noticed thou that I was just getting sound out of one headphone last week and the only way to make sound come out of both was to raise the headphone pin in the jack hole, which I did by putting something under it to keep it up.

Today thou I just cant get any sound out of my laptop speakers never mind the headphones. I have done system restore and that didn't fix anything. I now noticed that the headphone jack hole is quite bigger than normal so no doubt I have damaged it a bit by forcing the pin up , as I can see the headphone pin is a little bent as well. (hope you understand)

If the headphone jack was damaged I should still be able to get sound out of my laptop speakers thou shouldn't I ??

I don't have International warranty so could only post it back to the UK to be fixed which will cost a hell of a lot of money. can you help me out in any way ??

I am more gutted as I speak to my little girl most nights via skype, which I can no longer do

Dell M1710
Vista

 

The whole audio card could have shorted or something. Go find a cheap usb or express card replacement. It will be the easiest thing to do. The only other thing to try is uninstalling and reinstalling your audio drivers. Worked for a Dell I fixed once upon a time.

 

When you plug in a headphone your computer senses it and cuts off the built in speakers, if your jack is damaged there is good chance the jack sensor or something else is also damaged.

The easiest fix is buying a USB or expresscard soundcard like gengerald suggested, or buy a pair of USB headphones. A basic USB sound card will cost around $10 or less; OR you could look in to something better like a Creative X-Fi Go! Slightly more expensive but it will have better sound quality and more features.

 

thanks you so much guys! I have been so stressed about this, thinking about the cost posting back to the UK.

Is that creative X-fi Go the best option ? as I am happy to pay any amount of money once for the best sound quality. I will only be using headphones and its for games , DVD`s , divx etc.

Thank you for advice !!!

 

There are few other options:
X-Fi Notebook (Expresscard, Stereo)
X-Fi Surround 5.1 (USB , 5.1 surround)
Asus Xonar U1 Audio Station (USB, Stereo)
TurtleBeach Audio Advantage SRM (USB, 5.1 surround)

But X-Fi go! is the cheapest and smallest among them. Here is my personal review on X-Fi go!.

 

Does the X-fi Expresscard offer any advantages over the X-Fi Go!, aside from support for the wireless reciever?

 

I think I will go with Xonar U1 only as i dont like creative like most people

 

No, not to my knowledge. AFAIK none of those external X-Fi cards have the dedicated EMU20K1 chip like their desktop counterparts. But still it is a worthy upgrade to integrated audio.

yeah, Creative is known to have problems in the driver department, but so far I haven't experienced any major issues with mine (under both XP and Vista), and I like the overall quality and features. Xonar could also be a good (if not better) alternative. Unfortunately I didn't have the option to purchase anything else. Let us know your thoughts once you buy it.