Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
If you hear sound coming from only one speaker, check out these possible causes:
•
Monopluginthestereojack
—Acommonmistakeistouseamonopluginthesound
card'sspeakerorstereooutjack.Seenfromtheside,astereoconnectorhastwodarker
stripes. A mono connector has only one stripe.
•
No power to speakers
—Check the AC adapter's connection to the electrical outlet.
•
Loose speaker connection to some speakers
—When possible, use keyed and color-
coded connectors to avoid mistakes.
•
Speakers not set to same volume
—Some speakers use separate volume controls on
each speaker. Balance them for best results. Separate speaker volume controls can be
an advantage if one speaker must be farther away from the user than the other.
•
Loose speaker jack
—If you find that plugging in your speaker to the jack properly
doesn't produce sound but pulling the plug halfway out or “jimmying” it around in its
hole can temporarily correct the problem, you're on the road to a speaker jack failure.
To avoid damage to the speaker jack, be sure you insert the plug straight in, not at an
angle.
•
Incorrect sound mixer settings
—Most systems assume that you are using two-chan-
nel (stereophonic) sound, even if you have plugged in four or more speakers. Select
the correct speaker type with the Windows Speaker icon or a third-party sound mixer.
•
Additional speakers connected to the wrong jacks
—Make sureyouconnect the ad-
ditional speakers needed for four-channel, six-channel, or eight-channel audio to the
correct jacks. If you connect them to line in or microphone jacks, they won't work.
•
Incorrect balance settings
—Thevolumecontrolalsoadjuststhebalancebetweenthe
leftandrightspeakers.Ifyouhearaudiofromtheleftspeakersonlyortherightspeak-
ers only, the balance control needs to be centered with the Windows Speaker icon or a
third-party sound mixer.
Note
On some systems with integrated audio, audio jacks have multiple uses. For example, in six-
channel or eight-channel mode on some systems, the normal line in and microphone jacks
might be reconfigured to work with rear and center/subwoofer speakers. In such cases, the
mixer controls need to be reset.
Some Types of Sounds Play, But Others Don't
If you can hear CDs but not WAV or MP3 digital music, or you can play WAV and MP3
but not CD or MIDI files, check the following:
