The other day my charger broke. The tip/barrel snapped off. So I managed to wire a temporary solution. I took the insulator out of the tip and connected it directly t o the power jack and I connected the grounding wire to the headphone port/mic port. In theory, this shouldn't damage anything. But now since I booted up, my speakers volume is super low when I turn it up and it is really static-y and fuzzy. The audio/mic jacks no longer work either. Would replacing the speakers fix this? or is this a software problem. I run Vista Ultimate and I noticed that there are some other users with unrelated hardware but with similar issues. Just looking for some helpful input
Thanks a lot!
ryan

Sounds like you may have FRIED your Audio Chip (when you put the ground in the Audio/MIC Port (The Headphone Jack is an Output, and the Mic Port is an imput) if that is the case, then the only fix for this would be a Replacement MotherBoard (The Audio chip is sodered into the Mobo) If you can fix this with software (I kinda doubt it ) a cheaper soultion without replacing the Mobo would be buying a Creative Audigy 2Z Notebook PCMCIA Slot Sound Card, a lot cheaper than replacing the whole Mobo........Good Luck

Thanks a lot for the help! I'm just curious, but if I used the PCMCIA sound card, would I need to use headphones, or would it work with my speakers? (internal). I've already found a replacement motherboard also in case it comes to that. 200$ including the bottom chasis. I think that is a pretty good deal but I wanna avoid that.

Yes, It can run your laptop Speakrers, it has a Headphone Jack, a input Jack, and comes with 7.1 speaker cables, it has Bass & Terble, and you can Record form any audio input you want, MP3's Home Audio, just about anything you can think of, it can be done with the PCMCIA Sound Card it will run RINGS around your on-board SigMatel audio........

Wow, I have NO IDEA what just happened, but I connected the laptop again and the speakers started working again. There were some sparks but it started working again! I don't even know how to explain this... Thanks anyways! Still might get it anyways

Gald you didn't FRY your Mobo Don't EVER plug a LIVE CURRENT (For Grounding) into a Imput outlet on your Notebook .........You got lucky this time..........