Broken headphone jack + warranty issues? [SZ240]

Hello everyone!

A while ago I tripped over the cord of my headphones and I happened to yank them off the laptop causing the whole headphone input jack to get completely destroyed (which turned out to be quite delicate). Now whenever I input headphones in there it's like nothing happened; sound still plays through the external speakers.

Well I have a feeling that reparing this with Sony is going to cost me an arm and a leg, any insights anyone? Has anyone repaired an out of warranty item like this?

I thought of buying a 3.5mm to USB adaptor and using it instead. Anyone have any experience with that? I just bought a pair of Sennheiser headphones and I don't want sound quality to be compromised!

Plus I have some faded keys (the A, S, and D keys) and I really hate how they look like. Is that a warranty item I can ask them to fix? I don't remember rubbing off the print on them I've been using they keyboard normally. I might've played one too many FPS though.

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

Well, I had the unfortunate experience on a SZ3 just recently and I may be able to let you know what I found out.

My socket is directly soldered onto the motherboard. So, fixing it under warranty means a new motherboard!! Mad.
I purchased a USB sound thingy and it works fine.

If I get the chance when the laptop is out of warranty, I may have a go and see if I can get it fixed as the USB soundcard is a bit of a pain to carry around. I was thinking of wiring up the mike socket as the sound socket, as I hardly use the mike.

I think Sony should not have such fragile sockets!

Good luck,

John