[dba-Tech] No Headphone Output

Hi Jim,

I'll pay attention.  So far, my experience with Dell tech support has 
been excellent.  I stay very patient and focused, and that seems to 
help.  That's how I got through all the video and BIOS updates that had 
to happen in a specific sequence, way back when my Win XP update from 
Win ME (yuck!!!) suddenly resulted in monitor failure.  The tech guys 
spent nearly a week with me, a couple hours per day, working it out.  I 
ended up with a very stable XP installation on a box I used for a long 
time.  Thanks for the 'heads up' though.

TNF

Tina Norris Fields
tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-com
231-322-2787

On 3/14/2014 11:28 AM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Hi Tina:
>
> Had a similar issue with a small Netbook a couple of years ago. It turned out to be a hardware issue and warranty covered it by replacing a few components in the computer...motherboard, sound board and connectors.
>
> Note: If you bought the laptop via some charge cards (ie Visa), the warranty is doubled...in our case the one year warranty was extended to two years.
>
> PS: Have found, in the past that Dell support is less than stellar. In one case, they recommended to a client extra hard drives for their Dell server RAID. It turned out the computer was not designed to accept these additional drives so a two hour job extended to most of the weekend...first attempting to strip the new drives and then trying to recover for the process...and that was a senior Dell tech. We discovered the issues via researching the Dell web site, then demanded compensation for our time and our upline company had to sue Dell to recover the fees.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tina Norris Fields" <tinanfields at torchlake.com>
> To: "DatabaseAdvisors-Tech" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Friday, 14 March, 2014 6:47:46 AM
> Subject: [dba-Tech] No Headphone Output
>
> Hi All,
>
> I'm working with the Dell tech people to try to solve the problem, and
> I'm exploring the online discussions on the same topic, but I also want
> to ask this gang for help.
>
> I have a new Dell Inspiron 15R, came with Windows 8 (64-bit) - since
> upgraded to Windows 8.1.
>
> When I plug in headphones, nothing changes - the speakers continue to
> sound and no sound comes through the headphones.  The mixer does not
> show headphones, only speakers.  The Sound properties dialog does not
> show headphones, only speakers.  All sound tests show the speakers
> working well, and do not recognize headphones at all.
>
> After a long online chat with a Dell tech, the decision was to replace
> the motherboard.  That was done Wednesday evening.  Upon completion of
> the replacement, the initial problem remained exactly the same.
>
> I have done all the driver updating I could find, both through the My
> Dell Drivers support and from the manufacturer Realtek Semiconductor
> website.  Results continue to be exactly the same.
>
> So far, the online suggestions all point to setting the headphones
> option in the Sound properties dialog to be the default.  My problem is
> that there is NO headphones option in the Sound properties dialog box -
> none at all.  I do have the "Show disabled devices" and "Show
> disconnected devices" check boxes ticked.   I have uninstalled and
> reinstalled several times to no avail.  The first time I uninstalled,
> when I rebooted the system it did claim that no sound device was
> installed.  The last time I uninstalled, when I rebooted the system the
> existing device had already been installed.
>
> The sound card is called Realtek High Definition Audio.  I'm thinking
> the sound card is defective, or, if it's truly a motherboard problem,
> then the replacement motherboard has the same defect as the original
> mortherboard.
>
> Any ideas about a solution?  Thanks.
>
> TNF
>