Tinny audio when headphones plugged in

Whenever I use my headphones on the onboard audio it sometimes sounds tinny the voices are muted and sometimes it sounds fine.

I have no idea if that is a windows issue or something else.

 

So where are the connections at the backpanel or front panel? It could be the software setup has the phone connection detection settings at close to mute levels. Otherwise try another working headphone to test if it's not a headphone fault or wiring.

 

on the side because it's a laptop and I've tried 2 headsets and they all exhibit the issue (one of those 4-pole plugs). dunno if it's a driver or something because it happens sometimes as just reinserting can fix it.

I do have a USB sound card as a back up for this issue.

 

Not good it sounds like the audio software has gone bad or hardware is bad. Only way to test is uninstall the Audio driver restart and reinstall it again. And if that doesn't work then you got hardware failure.

 

I have one of these puppies in case I go nuts.

https://au.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-g1