Headphones not detected

Question

I have a Dell Vostro 3500 with Windows 10 20H2. At some point, my laptop just stopped detecting headphones when I plugged them in. I have seen many other people facing this issue but not a single solution I have found anywhere applies to me. Either it doesn't work or that solution isn't applicable to my system as I don't have the same system or drivers or software. And I don't know if it's related but MaxxAudioPro does not work on my system. Every time I try to open it, it says that the Waves audio driver is not supported by my audio codec. And today, my the speaker icon on the system tray also stopped responding to any clicks. When I left or right click on it, nothing happens. This is despite multiple restarts.

awesomeyodude · Accepted Answer

Thanks but this solution didn't work for me because step 7 is not applicable. There is no such driver available.

But I did manage to solve the issue, which was to manually go to the Dell website, search for audio drivers, and download and install the latest Realtek one. Despite repeatedly checking for new drivers using the Dell Update app, Windows updates, through Device Manager, AND through a third party app like Driver Easy, I was not shown any updates for the Realtek driver whatsoever. This is absolutely preposterous from Dell and Microsoft that despite so many ways to get drivers, I had to manually search for this on the Dell website.

AdrianG001 · Answer

If you have the Realtek audio driver installed, test the jack by switching to the Windows native audio driver.

1. Open the Device Manager (type devmgmt.msc in the Windows 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.
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, then no need to restart.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 1 and 6.]

If the jack works correctly with the native driver then the fault is with the Realtek driver -- buggy. If the problem continues with the native driver then probably hardware failure. You can get a usb audio jack as a workaround.

nyc10036 · Answer

@awesomeyodude wrote:

Thanks but this solution didn't work for me because step 7 is not applicable. There is no such driver available.

But I did manage to solve the issue, which was to manually go to the Dell website, search for audio drivers, and download and install the latest Realtek one. Despite repeatedly checking for new drivers using the Dell Update app, Windows updates, through Device Manager, AND through a third party app like Driver Easy, I was not shown any updates for the Realtek driver whatsoever. This is absolutely preposterous from Dell and Microsoft that despite so many ways to get drivers, I had to manually search for this on the Dell website.

I always manually search on Dell's website.

I don't use crutches like Dell's update app.

Vostro

Headphones not detected

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