# Computer not recognising headphone



## jackivist

Hello all,
First and foremost, My apologies if this has already been asked however I didn't find it so I am starting my own thread. I'm brand new to the community 

Ok, so moving on to the problem. When I plug my headphone in, they are not recognized by my windows 7 computer. I'm sure that the headphone are working as I use them with my mp3 player. I'm also sure my sound card is working as my speakers are working. 

When I go to the playback devices in sound control panel, there is only Speakers and Realtek digital output. There is no headphone, which I've seen on other threads(I've been looking for a solution. No answer found yet)

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.


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## Dngrsone

Is this a desktop computer?

What I'm reading is that you plug in the headphones, but the sound continues to come out of the speakers, no?

This may be a simple case of the headphone jack not being plugged into the motherboard (or sound card if the sound card is an add-on) inside the case.


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## diduknowthat

You might have to manually tell the computer to switch to headphone jacks. I know that some soundcards have autodetect front panel and some doesn't. Take a look a the Realtek control panel and see if you can enable auto detection.


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## DCIScouts

I know that sometimes my headphones just stop being recognized by Windows 7 as well, I reboot and then they're there again.  Have you ever been able to use the headphones?


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## jackivist

Dngrsone said:


> Is this a desktop computer?
> 
> What I'm reading is that you plug in the headphones, but the sound continues to come out of the speakers, no?
> 
> This may be a simple case of the headphone jack not being plugged into the motherboard (or sound card if the sound card is an add-on) inside the case.


You are correct about the scenario. When I plug in the headphones, it won't even show on the playback devices list.

So it's a hardware problem? not a software problem? If I open my case and look inside, how will I tell if it's plugged in or not?(not tech savy sorry)



diduknowthat said:


> You might have to manually tell the computer to switch to headphone jacks. I know that some soundcards have autodetect front panel and some doesn't. Take a look a the Realtek control panel and see if you can enable auto detection.


err...how do I enable it?



DCIScouts said:


> I know that sometimes my headphones just stop being recognized by Windows 7 as well, I reboot and then they're there again.  Have you ever been able to use the headphones?


Yes. They do work. They worked on my pc(when it was vista 6 months ago AND i use them on a daily basis with my ipod)


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## Dngrsone

If you open the case, you need to look at the backside of your headphone jack.  There should be three or four wires there.  Make sure all the wires are still attached to the jack, then follow them back to the motherboard (they are likely twisted together) and ensure that they are all connected to the motherboard.


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