So I managed to screw the sound on my NP8662...

Great. Using a friend's headphones on my barely 4-month old NP8662 I managed to trip on the cable and give the 3.5 output jack a nice nudge. It's now refusing to play from the in-built speakers (I'm guessing the bump is making it think there's something plugged in constantly), and only plays out of one channel if I plug something in. Normally I'd send it right back to Powernotebooks, but I'm in the UK and sending my laptop to the US for an extended period of time is simply not an option. So, questions:

a) Can I get any service from Sager/Clevo directly, or from some other company which will offer warranty in the UK?

b) If I can't get any of this service, is there some other method I can use to listen to music? I've got 60+ GB of music on this and it kills me to have to use my MP3 player to have to listen to it. Could I perhaps somehow use the USB port, Firewire, digital output, etc. for listening to music? Maybe a small ExpressCard soundcard?

c) Is there some way (either in Ubuntu 9.04 or Win7) to force speaker output? I'd rather be able to hear something badly rather than nothing.

Thanks in advance for any responses. Sorry if I sounded a bit forceful as it's nearly 3 AM here and I'm really pissed off that I broke what is essentially a new computer.

 

Not sure about A......But as for C, if your you physically screwed up the hardware, no software/os will help. As for B, any USB headset will work fine, it negates onboard sound card and channels. I only use a USB head set with my notebook, its win.

 

I highly doubt I've actually damaged any of the speakers or anything. My best guess is that it's making contact accidentally or something and it thinks that there is a headphone plugged in, so it's directing the output to the jack as opposed to the speakers.

I just ordered a pair of Portapros from Amazon and I'd rather not have to dish out for a USB headset as well... Will a soundcard (either USB or ExpressCard) allow me to use the speakers as well do you think? Thanks for your speedy response.

Additionally, I've emailed a couple of Clevo retailers here, hopefully they can help.

 

If the jack is screwed up, i think your sol....so ya either kind of sol...If it were mine, and i was in your position and didint want to get it serviced, id figure out how to unstick the jack so the speaker worked (wire cutters) and then use a USB headset so i had both audio options, but thats just me....of course id probably send it in really.

 

Since it appears that you probably ended up doing the physical damage, and it's not a manufacturer fault, you probably wouldn't be covered under warranty. At that point, you really might as well contact a Clevo reseller in the UK like Kobalt or one of the others and just ask them for the prices on a repair, since it's likely you'd have to pay for the repair anyway.

I'm not sure an external soundcard would help in terms of getting your notebook speakers to work; most of those seem predicated on transferring sound from your notebook to a further external headset or speaker solution, so I don't see how you could get them to power your internal notebook speakers, unless you tried doing some sort of strange feed in through the microphone port or something, which I have doubts about actually working.

 

I wonder if using a expresscard 5.1 soundcard will turn off the on-board sound card? I would imagine it would as that one is being used.... not sure though.
GL

 

Yes, it will turn it off. He may also try to change the audio output from the headset to speakers from the control panel.