Solved Headphones disappear from playback devices for no reason.

[Keybladeguy]

Hey everybody, new forum member here. So here's the scoop. I use my headphones for a lot of stuff. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, and when I booted up and plugged in my headphones, nothing happened. The sound came from the speakers. I don't like that. So I open up my playback devices, and my headphones are mysteriously not there. I unplug them, and they appear again, listed as "Not plugged in". I plug them back in, and they disappear. Nothing works with them. The pair are Cirrus Logic High Definition Audio earbuds.
OS is 8.1

Any help you can give me? This is extremely frustrating.

 

[lmaneke]

Could be a bad port, however, it could be something as simple as the audio driver is not installed or configured to run headphones or the external ports.

Right click on start menu button
Click on device manager
Click on Sound, audio or game controllers, and check the audio device.

If it says High Definition Audio device, you will need to go to the dell website and download the drivers.

If it has like Realtek High Definition Audio, or some other audio controller,

Right click on start menu,
Click on Control Panel
Change from Category view to Large icons,
Find Realtek audio control panel, or whatever audio control panel you have.
Make sure that the external ports are properly configured.

 

[Keybladeguy]

Could be a bad port, however, it could be something as simple as the audio driver is not installed or configured to run headphones or the external ports.

Right click on start menu button
Click on device manager
Click on Sound, audio or game controllers, and check the audio device.

If it says High Definition Audio device, you will need to go to the dell website and download the drivers.

If it has like Realtek High Definition Audio, or some other audio controller,

Right click on start menu,
Click on Control Panel
Change from Category view to Large icons,
Find Realtek audio control panel, or whatever audio control panel you have.
Make sure that the external ports are properly configured.

Unfortunately, this wasn't any help. The device doesn't show up in Device Manager either.

 

[lmaneke]

Could you post a screenshot of your device manager?

 

[Keybladeguy]

Could you post a screenshot of your device manager?

Here it is.

 

[Keybladeguy]

Um....not to be impatient but.....I kinda need to fix this.

 

[lmaneke]

The problem is, the audio device is not changing the audio port source automatically as it should. There should be a cirrus logic audio control panel within control panel in Windows. If you can find it, go in there and find your audio port settings to make sure that it's set to change ports.

If you can't find anything, I suggest you go to the Dell website, download the audio drivers from the website.

Uninstall your audio drivers by going to programs and features in control panel.

Install the new cirrus drivers and retest your headphones. If it doesn't work, then there is a possible hardware problem. Hard problem to diagnose.

 

[Keybladeguy]

The problem is, the audio device is not changing the audio port source automatically as it should. There should be a cirrus logic audio control panel within control panel in Windows. If you can find it, go in there and find your audio port settings to make sure that it's set to change ports.

If you can't find anything, I suggest you go to the Dell website, download the audio drivers from the website.

Uninstall your audio drivers by going to programs and features in control panel.

Install the new cirrus drivers and retest your headphones. If it doesn't work, then there is a possible hardware problem. Hard problem to diagnose.

Where in control panel would I look for that? And where on dell's website for the new drivers?

 

[Keybladeguy]

The problem is, the audio device is not changing the audio port source automatically as it should. There should be a cirrus logic audio control panel within control panel in Windows. If you can find it, go in there and find your audio port settings to make sure that it's set to change ports.

If you can't find anything, I suggest you go to the Dell website, download the audio drivers from the website.

Uninstall your audio drivers by going to programs and features in control panel.

Install the new cirrus drivers and retest your headphones. If it doesn't work, then there is a possible hardware problem. Hard problem to diagnose.

It worked! I had to reinstall the drivers! Thank you my friend!

 

[lmaneke]

You're welcome. Glad to help