Weird headphone jack issue

So I've had my P170EM for a while now (check signature for full specs) and have found a very strange problem with the headphone jack.

I discovered one day that plugging the headphones into the headphone jack, the sound would only come out of the left headphone. I had to wedge the plug ever so slightly out of the jack and angle it a certain way for the audio to come out of both the left and right sides. Unplugging the headphones and testing with the built in speakers, the sound is fine on both left and right.

A few days ago I found the cause of the issue and I'm hoping someone else can reproduce, has seen this themselves, or at the very least this helps someone else. Turns out that plugging the headphones into the jack while the laptop is switched off and then turning it on would produce the issue. Having the headphones unplugged and only plugging them in after it has booted up doesn't produce the problem and everything works fine.

Very strange one indeed....

 

Could be your headphones plug? I had the same problem plugging my earphones into my iphone but with other devices they worked fine.

 

It could very well be something with the audio jack on the laptop itself, some sort of contact pin not quite making proper connection.

It does seem a bit odd that this issue is determined by whether your laptop is on or off when it is plugged in.

Do you have other headsets you could use to test the jack with?

 

Well... If he says the problem only happens when he turn the machine with the jack plugged in, then I believe him and does look strange.

If it's like he says, it looks to me some kind of firmware\software problem.


But well, Motherboards are a crazy thing. My old Asus, some times wouldn't turn off untill I unplugged my USB mouse. Other things I had was that having my wheelpad attached, my Asus wouldn't Boot windows and would only look like it frozen... OH well...

ps: But since connecting the jack after laptop is on doesn't give that problem, then it's a good to go thing (hapilly not much of a problem:thumbsup .
Keep Cool

 

I had to mess with the audio settings for a long time to get my NP9170 to sound right out of the headphones. I experienced your problem, and some even funkier ones also, and I ended up getting just the right settings in the realtek audio program and now I don't have problems anymore... just a thought, have you checked out all the audio settings?

 

Tried 4 different headsets, all with the same issue. All 4 work fine in my iphone however.

 

Not sure what audio settings could cause this. Anything in particular you can suggest?

 

I have had this problem as well. The only fix I have found is in realtek's audio settings when using headphones change the audio type to stereo and your headphones will work properly.