Fix Dell Laptop audio jack not working
Fix Dell Laptop audio jack not working: Laptop users frequently utilise headphones for a variety of purposes, so even a minor issue with the headphone connector might be concerning. However, when the headphone jack on your laptop stops working, it can cause a slew of issues.
#1 Make sure your headphone is plugged in properly
Sometimes the problem is as minor as having plugged the headphones in the wrong jack. If this is the case then simply taking the headphone plug out and then inserting it in the right jack can do the trick for you. Usually, the headphone jacks are color coded as green, or the jacks have a headphone symbol on them. You can easily recognize the correct headphone jack and plug in the headphone properly to enjoy listening through your headphones.
#2 Disable front panel jack detection
- Search for the Control Panel in your search bar, then open the application from your results.
- Change your view mode to Large icons using the drop-down menu in the top-right of the window.
- Scroll down and click on the Realtek HD Audio Manager. If you don’t see this option, you most likely don’t have the right drivers or use a different brand sound card.
- Click on the Connector Settings icon.
- Turn on the Disable front panel jack detection option, then press the OK button.
- Restart your computer. After doing this, try plugging your device into the headphone jack and playing some audio.
#3 Make sure your headphone is working
If you have done all the above things and still see the laptop headphone jack not working then maybe the problem lies in your headphone. This is something that you can easily take care of.
1. Try to plug in another pair of headphones into your laptop and see if it starts working. If it does work, then your previous headphones are to blame.
2. If the other pair of headphones does not work either, then it is not a headphone problem.
#4 Update the sound card driver
- Press the Win key + X hotkey to open the Win + X menu. You can select to open Device Manager from there.
- First, select Sound, video, and game controllers in Device Manager.
- Then you can right-click your sound card and select Update Driver Software.
- Select Search automatically for updated driver software to scan for driver updates. If Windows finds any updates, it will automatically download them.
- Even if Windows doesn’t find any driver update, it might still be worth checking for sound card driver updates on the device manufacturer’s website.
- If you can’t update the driver, reinstall it instead to kick-start it. You can do that by right-clicking the sound card in Device Manager and selecting Uninstall.
- Now when you restart your desktop or laptop, Windows will automatically reinstall the sound driver.