Use sound-out (headphone) jack and on-board speakers concurrently

In most laptops, as soon as you plug into the sound-out (headphone) jack, the on-board speakers are disabled. It would be good to be able to use the on-board speakers and supplement them with a small external woofer or a couple of small external speakers.

Has anyone been able to do this on the XPS 15? Many months ago someone wrote that he had been able to do it, by clicking some option in the Realtek audio panel that appeared when he plugged into the sound-out (headphone) jack. I've been unable to do that. If anyone knows how to use sound-out without disabling the on-board speakers, please share.

 

bump .

 

Well, I tried doing this too and my searches lead me to virtual audio cable: Virtual Audio Cable Home Page

I can't remember for what reason that I forgot about the whole thing and ended up just using the dual output to headphones/external speakers but hopefully that should give you somewhere to start looking for a solution.

 

That Virtual Audio Cable software doesn't seem to have anything to do with my goal.

I'm not looking for dual output. I want that when I connect headphones or external speakers to the sound-out jack, that I can set the laptop's on-board speakers not to disable. The default is that as soon as you connect a plug into the sound-out jack, that the on-board speakers are disabled. I want to change that behaviour so the speakers are not disabled.

 

Is this the thread you're looking for?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/622035-disabling-headphone-jack-detection.html

It worked for me when I had damaged the sensing pin in the headphone jack. Remember to back up the registry before making any changes though!

 

I was hoping there might be a way to do it that's not so permanent.

Sometimes I would want the on-board speakers not to disable, such as when connecting tiny travel speakers so I'd want all speakers to play.

Sometimes I'd want the default behaviour of on-board speakers being disabled, such as when connecting laptop's sound output to a large home stereo.

 

Well the only other thing I can think of is the Speaker/Setup option under Speaker/Headphone in the Realtek HD Audio Manager panel - perhaps changing that to Quadraphonic or 5.1 might help?

 

I had the same thought. I've been playing around with it, but so far have not found a way to have sound-out and on-board speakers active concurrently.

 

Anyone tried to do this?

 

I can't confirm it now but I remember plugging the headphone to the SPDIF and my laptop speaker was still working. Only when I connect to the other headphone jack, the laptop speakers are disabled.

 

When I plug into the S/PDIF port:

- if I select Front speaker or Headphone, on-board speakers are disabled and sound is sent through the jack.
- If I select Rear speaker or Centre/Subwoofer, on-board speakers play and no sound is sent through the jack.
- If I select S/PDIF, there's no sound at all - no sound from on-board speakers or through jack (probably because I don't have a S/PDIF connector, just a regular stereo plug).

So, nothing I've tried on either port has allowed me to have both on-board speakers and sound out through the jack concurrently.

 

Is anyone else interesting in doing this, in using XPS internal speakers and Audio-out port at the same time?

Or, am I the only one?

 

Definitely not the only one.
I do find it hard, however.

Fingers crossed!

 

Have you asked Dell Support about it?
I sent them an e-mail, but they don't accept e-mail support from Canada.

I would prefer to use e-mail so I can better describe the issue in writing, and so the first-line support person can forward it to a more technical expert. I'll have to phone them after all, unless a US customer wants to do the same thing and I can give that person the e-mail I typed up.

 

I don't mind sending them your email from the UK. Dell are usually pretty good at responding.

 

What functionality would this give you? The only reasonable use I can think of is for a surround setup, with the laptop speakers being the front speakers and using the other speakers for the rear speakers. This should work if you plug the speakers in and set them as rear speakers, and then play something with surround audio. (there might be a few options in the realtek menu you also have to config)

Other than that, I don't have any ideas. There's no good reason for it not to work other than it not being implemented due to the engineers not seeing a use for it.

 

As I said in the first post, I could use the on-board speakers and supplement them with a small external woofer or a couple of small external speakers. This is useful when travelling, when I want a little more/better sound than the on-board speakers, but don't want to have to entirely replace the on-board speakers with external speakers. The on-board speakers are pretty good, so a small supplement would be a good addition.

I agree, there's likely no technical reason why this couldn't be allowed on the XPS, except that the software designers didn't think of it so they didn't build in that functionality. The default, as with other laptops I've used, is that use of Audio-out port disables on-board speakers, probably because designers assumed that's how everyone would want it.

 

Thought I'd bump this, just in case anyone has figured out a way to do this.

 

Dell-Bill_B provided a little information about this:

 

thx for the pm toronto (i live there too lol).

i posted this question for my studio 1555 years ago, u are definitely not the only one interested.

i didnt find a solution to it, i ended up buying a better speaker system with more bass. oh and dont bother contacting dell, at most they will redirect you to realtek or most likely tell u its impossible. ( but i know it is possible, its just a software issue - not hardware capability)