No sound from speakers but headphones work!

it told me i had a device plugged in and was highlighting the headphones.

It seems that the computer is falsely sensing that there is a plug in the headphone jack, which could mean that the sensor has failed. See the Headphone Jack FAQ.

Another test you could try is to switch between the Realtek audio driver and the Windows native driver. If the speakers don't work with either driver, that's a good sign of a hardware defect.

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" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked [but SEE NOTE].
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, sometimes you have to restart, sometimes not.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 2 and 7.]

NOTE: if you have a 2-in-1 model and do not see a "High Definition Audio" option after step 6, then uncheck "Show compatible hardware". Then in step 7, if you see 2 "High Definition Audio" devices, select the 2nd one.

If you only have the symptoms with one of the drivers, then the other is at fault. If you have the same symptoms with both audio drivers, then it is very probably not a driver issue.

Contact tech support to have it repaired. Be aware that sometimes Dell will deny support if any media player other than Windows Media Player is on the laptop, so remove any other players before contacting them, and don't tell them if you ever had any other players.