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Speakers won't go off with earphones

post #1 of 35
10/30/05 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
Dear all,

This afternoon, all of a sudden, my z70va's speakers stopped going off when I plug in my earphones. I have tried different headsets, of course, and the problem is present both in windows and in my linux. The problem should be hardware-related.

I saw a post of some W3v owner complaining of the same problem, but there was no follow up, except for Eddie suggesting a driver re-installation.

I'm already contacting my reseller, but in the meantime, do you have any suggestions I could try?

Thanks,
incubus
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post #2 of 35
10/30/05 at 2:23pm
Ye this is like the fifth time i ve seen this. How about a go from realteks website for new drivers. Was your linux os working fine with headphones before today? If yes then surely it is hw related.
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post #3 of 35
10/30/05 at 2:44pm
Thread Starter 
Hi Eddie,
Yeah, in fact the problem is present in BOTH of my Linuces, which surely points to hardware. I will try the realtek drivers anyway, you never know.

Just out of curiosity: what would g2play do in this case?

Thanks
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post #4 of 35
10/30/05 at 5:56pm
Well luckily none of our customers have reported this issue and i have yett to see this on any one of our machines. What would I do? Send you a return label for rma right after you reaisntalled your os with BASE drivers. Using different headphones is not the solution although initially i thought it may be. Not sure what to make if it. Definitely reinstalling the os with base drivers is well worth the try. People do freaky things to their puter by installing all kinds of soft to tweak windows with that comes problems. Personally until you tried one of the testers we have available for download and until you reinstalled the os i will not issue an rma till i have a cause and effect. The effect here is known the cause is not and will not be known till you reinstall the os. After you do that you can call your vendor and ask for rma. Thiss sounds too weird to be a hardware fluke though its posible. You guys are a bunch of tweakers always messing withyour base settings and then cry about it. I always have to asume its the software unless there are tell tale signs of hw problems. BTW does this happen only with dvds or all audio?
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post #5 of 35
10/30/05 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 
Dear Eddie,

Thanks for your opinion on the matter. I agree that some people are such tweakers that sometimes they seem to do (black) magic out of the computer.

But that's not my case, I'm a freak conservative and I always use the most stable drivers. Ironically I take a hell lot of care of the laptop, so I'll attribute this one to Murphy.

Tried the newer realtek drivers, no good. It happens to any sound. I wish I knew what is the physical mechanism it uses to "know" when earphones are plugged in and that it has to mute the speakers.

On second thought, I wish I knew an electrical engineer.

Anyway, let's see what my reseller says. I think it's good to bring this issue to the forums, because it could happen to anybody. It's comforting to know that you, a reseller, would do RMA if tests would indicate hardware.

incubus
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post #6 of 35
10/30/05 at 6:56pm
I dont think its a hardware mechanism then again i am no electical engineer. Sorry to have to assume you are a tweaker. If you are not on these parts you are 1 in 1000. I still say give a fresh install a try. If it dont work then for certain its an "issue" not caused by tweaking
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post #7 of 35
10/30/05 at 7:36pm
Thread Starter 
Eddie,

The reason why I believe it's mechanical (hence hardware) is that you have the same effect when you plug in headphones in any equipment that has speakers, even the simplest ones.

Any old pair of speakers with an earphones output will mute when you plug in anything, even a microphone. There was nothing so sophisticated at that time.

Also, I found this at Wikipedia:

"In many amplifiers and equipment [...] a headphone jack is provided that disconnects the loudspeakers when in use. This is done by means of these switch contacts. In other equipment, a dummy load is provided when the headphones are not connected."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_plug#Switch_contacts

Of course I could be wrong, this is not my field. I will re-install windows and see what happens.
Thanks for your help.

incubus
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post #8 of 35
10/31/05 at 2:08pm
Mainly the fact that it does this in linux as well seems to point to hardware but like i said its worth a try even though it sounds futile. If you call asus the first thing they will have you do is reload windows. Contact your vendor i guess its the easiest solution
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post #9 of 35
10/31/05 at 9:05pm
yeah this problem just started for me today...super annoying.

i am interested in finding out what is causing this.


i am using windows by the way
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post #10 of 35
10/31/05 at 10:21pm
The cause is a cheap 1/8" stereo [headphone] jack.
It's not doing its job of disconnecting the main speakers, hence your description of the jack above.
Too bad that such a cheap part can cause you to part with your notebook for shipping & repair.

Contact your reseller for an RMA.

Good luck!
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post #11 of 35
11/1/05 at 4:49pm
Has anyone of you guys changed anything at all in bios?
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post #12 of 35
11/1/05 at 8:49pm
no i didnt change anything in bios...been working fine everyday because i always listen to music, then one day it just stops working correctly..
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post #13 of 35
11/2/05 at 2:59am
So you mean it was working fine on a monday then on a tuesday it went bad? Any changes to your soft that you can recal? Anything at all/?
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post #14 of 35
11/2/05 at 9:56pm
no changes at all...and yeah thats how it happened.

interesting eh?

i am waiting to hear back from asus..hopefully they have a suggestion
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post #15 of 35
11/20/05 at 5:32pm
I have the exact same problem with my Z70Va. And yah, it did happen all of a sudden one evening. Ive tried headphones, my speakers, and my roommate's speakers... And just like others have said... re-installing drivers has done nothing for me either.

Hopefully its just something that can be fixed without sending it back to the reseller.
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post #16 of 35
11/28/05 at 2:40am
Same problem here. Z70Va. Worked fine at the beginning. Not sure if it's relevant, and not sure if it's only my imagination, but the headphone/SPDIF jack seems to be much "looser" than before (less force required to plug in the headphone).

Perhaps someone can try plugging in the headphone while in AudioDJ mode (pull the lever at the bottom left corner of your Z70Va while it is off)? AudioDJ mode shouldn't depend on any software drivers. Maybe this can tell us whether the problem is hardware related. Unfortunately I don't have an Audio CD with me.
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post #17 of 35
11/29/05 at 12:02pm
its safe to say rma is required to fix this.
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post #18 of 35
12/7/05 at 4:43pm
I also have this problem. Started today out of no where... was using the headphones, and my roommate said he heard the music start on the speakers abrubtly. Oh well, I hope asus can figure something out fast here.
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post #19 of 35
12/16/05 at 4:09pm
I posted in the other forum about this with my Z70V. Seems to be the same issue, and I'm running Windows. I've run Linux, but haven't tried to see if the issue's there, too. Will check with the laptop off and running Audio DJ, too. I wonder, though, whether this has something to do with the jack being combined optical (digital) and analog? I don't even understand how this works, but I guess there's a diode at the back of the jack. As for it being a "cheap" jack, all jacks are cheap. Anyone else?
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post #20 of 35
12/16/05 at 4:28pm
Not a fix, but maybe a workaround if you don't want to rma. Look at USB sound devices like this one.

My father-in-law's headphone jack went screwy (the headphones accidently got ripped out of the jack, and headphones/speakers would no longer work out of that jack since). I bought this, and he's been happy ever since.

-Peter
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