Inspiron 1720: Earphone jack/Speakers problem

Hello!

I recently had a problem, which sorted itself out, creating another problem in the process. The problem was, sound would come out of the built-in speakers, but not out of the earphones! A solution I found on the Internet was to put the notebook to the Sleep mode, and then resume, and it worked! After a few hours though, the earphones jack started working fine, all by itself. Then, the next day when I booted the notebook, no sound would come out of the speakers, but the earphones worked fine! I searched the Internet for a solution, and one I found was to insert the earphones in the jack and then take them out fast. I did that, and it worked! This solution is temporary though, as I have to insert the earphone and pull them out almost every 20 or so minutes.

I have the latest drivers, and have checked all the Control Panel shebang. It is quite clearly a hardware problem, and as luck would have it, I just ran out of warranty.

So, anyone knows what the problem is and what needs to be done to make it go away? I mean if there's a wire loose, or something else that needs fixing? And how do I go about that?

Thank you!

 

Anyone?

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Anyone?

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The first part of the problem is confusing.

The second part sounds like a hardware problem with the audio board - the contact that shorts when you put in the headphones and which tells the lappy to turn off the onboard speakers is sticking so the lappy thinks the headphones are plugged in. Have you given it a knock whilst something was plugged in?
You could try taking the palmrest off and having a look and maybe cleaning with some switch cleaner. Otherwise give Tech support a ring - the little board only really has the jacks on it with electrical pathways, there's no real components on it so I doubt it would cost much to replace.

 

Are new jacks easily available? Are they easily replaceable? Do I risk anything if I take it to a qualified person, and get it replaced?

 

You'd have to ask Dell about availability or you may get lucky on ebay or similar. It's just the two sockets on a small PCB. To replace it you remove the LCD assembly and the palm rest, undo a screw, unplug a connector swop and put it all back together. It's not overly difficult - I get this down to the motherboard quite often. As your out of warranty what have you got to loose to doing it or getting a qualified person to do it for ya?

This is what you need - http://www.excelcomputerinc.com/html/details.asp?ref=2320&category=boards
Same in the 1700 as 1720.

 

Thank you for your help, I'd try to get this jack changed.

 

im having the same problem. did you fix yours?

 

No, but it's been working fine for some reason!

 

I opened the notebook yesterday, and I took apart the jack in question (it was already off anyways). The cover (palm rest) has two metal "hooks" under it, which go over the two jacks and pressure them down to keep them from coming off. They're very thin, these two "hooks". I put some adhesive under the jack, and placed it where it's supposed to be. Then, I took some paper from the newspaper, folded it, and put it "in" the "hook" above the headphones jack, so that it doesn't bend, and holds the jack down with more force. I didn't take the pics, but hopefully this lame attempt of mine will tell you what I'm trying to depict -




Now, the jack does not wobble and dobble when I put my earphones in, and there's no need to buy a new one and solder etc.