Solved Audio only playing through headphones

Hi, I have an HP Pavillion DV6 3216 US entertainment notebook which does not currently have functioning audio. I have no audio coming through the built in speakers (I've tried fiddling with the playback device options/properties/testing the device to no avail) but do have audio when I plug a pair of headphones into the audio jack. I've tried updating my audio drivers and installing the latest through HP's website, but that didn't help. When I go to the system manager and view the properties --> details of Headphones and Speakers (IDT High Definition Audio) it says that no driver files are required or have been loaded for this device. However, when I open up the IDT sound panel click on the independent headphones setup and press test I get audio to play through the speakers for a few seconds until the test ends. I'd appreciate any suggestions to fix this, thank you in advance!

A little more obsessive searching about on the internet led me to an HP forum post by lgrangea while I was initially skeptical about fixing my laptop with a toothpick (or in my case a floss n toss) where the magic of software had failed me but this wisdom worked! I claim no credit for just spreading the good word to the many people of the world!

"I FOUND THE SOLUTION FOR THIS!

After being awake yesterday to 4h00 AM trying to reinstall drivers etc, I found this problem to be a hardware issue (SOLVABLE). I noticed a lot of laptops using IDT sound chips have this issue (I have a HP 8540p).

Basically something in the headphone jack is bent/twisted, making the PC think there's a jack connected. Just open the IDT control panel and get a toothpick. Gently poke inside the headphone jack picking the metal contacts. I did this for maybe 30 seconds until I noticed the IDT audio manager changed the headphones state to unconnected, and now I have speakers working!

Hope this helps, feel free to copy/paste this around forums, has a lot of people with Dells are complaining also."

There is an extra contact in the jack, for sensing, and when a headset plug is inserted it "makes" (closes) that contact and tells the PC there is something plugged in. If that contact does not open when the headset plug is removed, what happened in your case can occur.

As this happened once, it can happen again. If it happens again, spraying contact cleaner inside and then plugging in and out several times may fix it. Otherwire the jack will require replacing.

Thanks fireberd!