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Headphones not working, but Speakers are and the Microphone doesn't work.
Hi, I recently bought an Inspiron 17-7778 and have already found a problem. I use a pair of Razer Tiamat Headphones, which is also a headset. When I originally plugged in the mic cord, (Note: There is only one audio jack) the computer asked me what the cord was. I said that it was a microphone and that was that. The only problem is that not only does the mic not work, but when I plug in the audio jack, It doesn't recognize the audio or the mic jacks being plugged in, even though it tells me that I plugged something in. I've looked through a couple other similar forum posts and all of the answers suggest using different headphones, but that isn't an option for me because this headset was not cheap. Any help would be appreciated.
Jim Coates
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August 11th, 2016 07:00
Hello. If you headset has 2 separate plugs -- one for the headphones and the other for the mic -- then the mic will not work when plugged into a Dell laptop with a single headset jack (aka a combo jack).
Your headset's plugs are of the TRS type (tip/ring/sleeve, or 3 segments). The combo jack will work with headphones with a TRS plug, but will not work with a mic with a TRS plug. The mic would have to have a TRRS (4 segment) plug, in order to work.
Amazon sells some TRS-to-TRRS adapaters, but we have received mixed reports about them. Sometimes they work but very often do not.
Another alternative is to get an inexpensive usb audio jack, and use its jacks instead of the laptop's combo jack.
As I said, the headphones of the headset should work okay with the combo jack. If you are not getting audio through the headphones, try a different set of headphones. If still no luck, re-install the audio driver.
1. Open the Device Manager (find it in the Control Panel, or type devmgmt.msc into the search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" category.
3. Right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
4. Click "uninstall".
5. Do not check the box to “delete the driver software for this device”.
6. Restart the computer. Windows will detect your device and re-install the driver. The driver is re-built from files that are in a folder on the hard drive. The reason this process fixes some audio issues is that it resets the driver settings to their default configuration.