Headphone jack on my Dell crapped out

[zillazangel]

So, what do I do? Call Dell and get a replacement part? Can I buy one somewhere else? Its an Inspiron 9400 laptop. 17" screen. I listen to music obsessively and I run it through headphones or our stereo and I guess the jack just done wore out. Any suggestions? I am computer stupid.

[JustinB]

There will be no replacement part, unless you consider the motherboard to be a replacement part.

Call dell. If it is under warranty, they will come out and fix it. If not, if you have a mechanically inclined friend, they may be able to fix the contacts on the jack (there isn't much there to break).

Good Luck.

[Scott Pruett]

if you cant get it warrantied, get a USB (external) sound card. I broke off the tip of a miniplug in my powerbook's headphone port & tried everything to get it out, to no avail... the internal sound card still thinks something is plugged into it.

I don't know what the current USB offerings are, but a couple years ago I bought a M-Audio 7.1-channel digital card - Sonica Theater (or something like that) - works great.

[jon 0]

are you sure it's the jack and not a frayed wire inside the headphone cord?

[metronycguy]

the jack should last the lifetime of the computer,hopefully it is still under warranty

[dan_nc]

Should still be under warranty. Even though Dells are no longer offering the kind of service they used to be famous for, they still offer limited mail-in service for their parts. Don't we have a dell factory here in NC?

[FellinBarcelona]

i had the same problem with my 9300. what i found was that if i wiggled it for a while it would come back on. so what i did is you know those seals for bread bags. the plastic things that have jaged edges and is like a circle? well, i used one of the little jagged edges to push the hole over a bit, so that the connection reconnected.


(O) imagine the O is the hole, and the colons are connected for a full circle around it. the space obviously isnt that big around the hole, but the hole should be able to wiggle a bit. if you wedge something between the colons and the hole, it might reconnect the connecters in the input... if that makes any sense, then i pat myself on the back. :)

good luck. i was worried i had lost it all too, but this has fixed it great. i just have to readjust the wedge every once in a while.

[zillazangel]

Thanks everyone .... this helped alot. (btw, I tried it on two stereos with different cables going into the computer + my headphones so its definitely the jack).