Speakers Don't Work on XPS L702X

Hi Chris,

The problem here with the speakers could be physical as you have mentioned, but have you tried removing the audio software installed on the system ?

Sometimes if the software is the cause it would not recognize your internal speakers and would always consider your earphones to be plugged in.

Remove the Audio Software from the Programs and Features list and restart your system, if the problem still persists then it def is the physical condition of the speakers.

if the problem still persists then it def is the physical condition of the speakers.

Or the speakers could be okay but a problem in the headphone jack with the sense pin. The problem is described in the Headphone Jack FAQ in the 2nd section entitled "Likely problems on newer models with HD audio."

Thanks for the FAQ jimco. Unfortunately, the diagnostic utility froze at the testing LCD brightness stage and refuses to go past that point. When it reaches that screen, no keyboard input is recognized, and I have to force the system to power down.

I tried to reboot into diagnostics multiple times, and each time, it froze at the brightness test. So, not only can I do the test to check the speakers / headphone jacks, my screen is not stuck in low brightness mode and cannot be brought back up to full brightness.

Any suggestions?

Never mind about the brightness. A couple more reboots, and it oddly went back to normal. I still cannot complete a diagnostic however.

My assumption is that I will need to replace the jacks if I want to get my speakers back. Given your FAQ thread, it would seem that they still have significant design issues with these jacks. It's unfortunate. You would think they would have figured out how to either 1) make this problem not occur (it happened with my old Studio 17 system as well but was fixable) or 2) make it to where the part is user serviceable without disassembly.

Do you know if getting this fixed is covered under warranty?

Sound through the headphone jacks works just fine on my L702X, but I never get any sound through the speakers. This has been the case for more than a month now. It's time to get it fixed.

Jimco, 

I thought the problem was with the internal speakers.

@jimco, unfortunately, they do not list anything, so I don't think it's separate (or at least they don't offer the part if it is). Sounds like I might just have to make a support request and see what they say. If it's going to take a while to get the system back, I might just deal with never being able to use the speakers, which is a crappy thing to have to make do with on a system I am likely to use for around 2-3 years.

@Telson, jimco understands exactly what I'm talking about and is on the right track. I have no idea what you think is being discussed.

Jimco,  I thought the problem was with the internal speakers.

Hello Telson. I know. I was just suggesting something else it could be if it is not the speakers. The way to tell which one is by using the Dell Diagnostics audio tests. If the speakers are bad then no audio will be heard through them during the tests. But if the sense pin is the only piece of hardware that is bad, then audio will be heard through the speakers during the tests because the tests do not use the information from the sense pin. But in this case it does not seem possible to use the tests so I'm not sure how to nail it down except by replacing the hardware.

I am glad it has been taken care off. :)