Headphone/Speaker jack-Do I need to replace? HELP!

[lsjinkins]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1721 I just bought from a private party about a week ago. Originally it came with 32-bit Vista, but this person upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit. The on board audio works fine, but when I try to use my USB powered external speakers, they don't work. They work fine on my other laptop so I know it's not the speakers. The audio drivers are installed and up to date, so for some reason the headphone/speaker jack port is not working. I'm not sure if I just have a setting I need to change, or if I need to replace the audio jack board. I did find the part, and it is replaceable, but if anyone has a way I can find out for sure it's not just a problem from the OS upgrade, I would love to not spend $40 and a lot of time replacing a part. Thank you!
-Stacy

[Calandar]

The thing is that you have just installed Windows 7 64-bit and hence I think that the issue is because of the DRIVERS. If at all the issue gets solved with the latest drivers then I am sure that you will be able to save your $40. IN addition to this see if the jack or the port that you have on the laptop is not damaged and it is working there. If any of the above things do not go in your way then you can go with the replacement. Make sure that you go for the installation of the drivers in the clean manner and then see if the sounds come out after that.

[lsjinkins]

I thought of that, since the board is a separate piece, it's not part of the main board. Dell has NO drivers for this model for Windows 7, and I thought maybe the vista 64-bit would be compatible, but still cannot find a separate driver for that board in particular. I will keep looking before I replace it though, thanks!

[lsjinkins]

Ok, now when I plug the speakers in it asks me what I plugged in? This is very confusing, because I am still getting no sound. I need to use my speakers, the on board speakers are crap....

[Elijah]

You should check if your card is having the breakout box which occupies a drive slot on front of the case? If that is the case then you will have to connect the speakers to right jack (this should be green one if that is color coded). There is one possibility that the card which you are using may not be getting enough power and that is the reason that it is showing you the issue.