What’s causing my weird audio problems?
Q I have a strange problem. I use external desktop speakers with my PC. I also have a pair of old headphones that plug into a pass-through jack on the speakers. This setup has worked well. But recently one headphone speaker stopped working, and so too did one desktop speaker — both at the same time! I thought it must be a fault with my PC, but if I plug the speakers into a different computer the problem is the same, and ditto with the headphones. But when I plugged a different set of speakers into my PC, they worked fine. I also plugged my smartphone’s earphones into the PC audio jack and again, they work fine, but not when I connect them to the speakers. So this is a mystery. What could have caused both the speakers and the headphones to go wrong at the same time? Is there any way to fix it? It’s the left speaker but the right headphone cup that’s affected, if that’s at all relevant. Alex Smethurst A
This did seem a mystery, and we puzzled over it for a long time. But your last line sparked an idea that we think explains this weirdness: the tip of your headphones’ 3.5mm jack connector has snapped off in the socket and is stuck there.
You can confirm this by looking at the connector on your headphones and comparing it with the 3.5mm jack on your smartphone’s earphones, or our picture (below left). Look closely and you’ll see that the connector is actually made up of several distinct segments, each separated by a tiny plastic insulating ring. These segments provide the electrical connections for both the left and right speaker channels. The key to our theory is that the very tip of the jack carries the signal for the left stereo channel. It’s also the part that gets ‘locked’ in place by a sprung clip in the socket, when the plug is inserted.
If we’re right then the effects would be exactly as you describe. The left speaker won’t work because it’s sending its signal to the stuck tip. It’ll also stop the 3.5mm jack on your headphones from going all the way in, preventing its tip from reaching the base of the socket, so you’ll get the left channel’s audio through the right cup.
The solution is to remove the tip from the socket, although that’s easier said than done. Carefully open the affected speaker to see if you can use a pinhead to push the stuck tip out. Or, if the socket enclosure is inaccessible, you might get lucky from the outside: apply a minuscule drop of superglue to a pinhead, and very carefully insert it into the socket and let it adhere to the stuck tip. Allow it to dry for 24 hours then pull slowly with firm pressure. Hopefully, the stuck tip will pop out.