Ok, so I had the laptop hooked up to the TV, watching some shows i downloaded, all was wonderful, finished watching and decided to put the laptop back on my desk. I disconnected the power input, S-Video input, picked it up and BOOM!!!...my heart drops! I failed to unhook the audio (headphone) jack that was still attached to the TV. It managed the jack and bent a bunch of the metal inputs inside, the plastic ring around the inputs snapped out too. So now,something is shorting out, because the laptop always must think there are headphones attached, the speakers won't come on. Headphones will work, but the jack is super loose, even after i crazy glued the plastic ring back in...it really bummed me out But, I guess it could be worse, i could have lost all sound, or even shorted the mobo. I guess I will have to resort to always using External speakers or headphones.

Wow. That sucks. My wife thinks I am ridiculously overprotective of my laptop, meanwhile hers has crumbs and fingerprints and crap all over it... ;-)

bad wife...bad wife!!!!

Sorry firus, that is a hard break...you must have given it quite a jerk.

In the long run you will find that your wife's laptop survives longer and yours breaks down happens all the time..

I guess its the nutritive value of those crumbs

This particular problem is in fact quite common - I did a similar thing about a year ago with my 5600.

It is no good just glueing the plastic ring back in place at the rear of the port.

What tends to happen is that the whole port assembly gets levered upwards off the mainboard by the direction of the force from pulling the jack plug.

To find out what has really happened, it requires a complete strip of the top half of the laptop, down to mainboard level to get full access to assess and if possible, repair the port.

If the mainboard is undamaged then it is a matter of reassembling the headphone port if it isnt badly broken up, making sure all the contact wafers inside are reshaped and put back in their original positions.
Then the plastic port casing needs to be repaired as it is this that holds all the contacts in place, especially under the pressure of an inserted jack plug and prevents them from shorting at any time.

I was lucky, as my port was repairable with some patience and skill of hand. It has worked fine ever since.
I have also been able to repair two other laptops with a similar problem.

Even if the port assembly is beyond repair, the remains can be desoldered from the mainboard and a replacement fitted. These ports should be available from a well stocked electronic parts supplier. If not, they are fitted to most mainboards and it should be possible to remove one from a dead board.
Be aware that a map should be drawn of all the solder points on the board as I have never seen any schematics for them. Comparison will have to be made to ensure any replacement will fit in the right place.

I apologise if I make it seem more straightforward than it is. I am an electrical/electronics engineer with miniature PCB repair qualification and consider this kind of repair slightly fiddly but routine.

Anyone who does not have the technical skills necessary should seriously consider finding someone who does to do the strip and repairs.

Stripping laptops requires technical expertise and an ESD safe working area.
Soldering mainboards requires advanced skills and specialist miniature soldering equipment such as a Pace workstation.

Wow nice reply SouthwestWall. I would ok with taking the laptop apart, I've done that many times just to upgrade, clean, tinker. Soldering however, I'm useless at. I think I may take it apart, have a look and see how bad it is. The thing is, the port still works, it just seems to cut out the actual laptop speakers (which I never use btw ). Still I want to make sure nothing it rolling around in there...I got all the plastic, but its the thought of metal that concerns me.

I broke mine actually and just fixed it 2 days ago.

I just opened it up (following the directions in the sticky thread). I just broke the black plastic piece off the held the 1/8" plug down properly. I was able to then superglue the piece back in place and make sure all the metal contacts were proper. Works great.

This was with my 5660.

hmmm, that sounds interesting, I may have to try this out...I have some great super glue at home, used to hold the tires on my Nitro R/C car. The sticky thread you are refferring to, does this have specific instructions on fixing the audio jack?

I think he is referring to the Service Manual Thread. There is detailed instructions on how to completely dis-assemble the beast.