[davo]

Just got my long awaited new Dell Dimension and just set it all up. Everything on it is terrific with the exception of the phone jack on the front panel. I can't get stereo on it with any of my 'phones', regardless of the depth of insertion of the plug. It seems to only get the right channel because if I fade the sound to the left, I get nothing. I do get sound on both sides, but it's mono and apparently only the right channel.

Any ideas?

Incidentally, it's the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz board which seems to be quite good.

TIA for the help.

 

[se7enty7]

Those Dell jacks are usually fubar. I am a systems support specialist at a company based here in Atlanta, and we have about 400-500 Dell Dimensions and Precisions... We regularly get complaints regarding those front panel things. Try calling Dell, they are always coming out with revisions to the damn things. I recommend running it right off the sound card.

Good luck,
se7

 

[LTUCCI1924]

I also have a dell pc and I found that the speakers that came with it were cheep. I also found that the headphone jack had little power. So I whent out and bought a new set of speakers with subwoffer, yamaha yst-ms50. The speakers are very big for a pc and have a lot of power and sound very very good and best of all they have a headphone jack with lots of power

 

[davo]

Thanks guys. I have tried Dell Customer Supoort via e-mail to little avail. They have what they call artificial intelligence that fields the inquiries apparently triggered by certain key words...so I know a lot about CD drives and DVD drives and their headphone jack, but I still have no resolution to my problem.

I did buy the speaker upgrade for the Harmon Kardon with subwoofer and the seem okay, but alas no jack.

I might try it directly from the sound card on the back panel. Damn, that front panel jack is so convenient though!

Thanks again. I might go in and rewire that jack. I can't help but feel that it's either shorted or mis-wired to the different sections of the jack base.

 

[Driftwood]

you could rewire it and put a nice little cmoy in there while you are at it. Then you would be sure to have nice sound.

Driftwood

 

[davo]

Driftwood...

Outstanding idea! Oh well, another project on my list.

Funny, I was just reading your review on the Stax SR001. Nice job on that. Too bad they're so expensive.

 

[chych]

I got the Altec Lansing THX speakers with my Dell (which was free, dont ask

) and it has a headphone jack... sucks a lot though. I suggest getting a cmoy and running it out of the line out, WAY better than the crap you get on computers/for computer products these days.

 

[legoman]

I don't use headphones a lot on my new Dell tower (w/ Santa Cruz), but my front panel headphone jack works, although it is a pain in the @&& to angel the plug right to plug it in, and even with 501s I have to put the volume on superlow. The el cheapo HK speakers are not too bad, but that headphone jack on these speakers, really sucks. I haven't yet tried to crawl under the desk and try to plug it in the soundcard directly. It is just too inconvenient.

 

[Driftwood]

thanks davo.

I know the SR-001 is expensive, but at least you can get them for about $300 which is a lot better than the US list price of $455.

They are out of the price range of most people though I think (including me, honestly!)

Driftwood

 

[RMSzero]

It wouldn't be hard to put a medium quality amp in a drive bay, with a hole drilled in the front for a jack. You'd have to use the PC power supply though which means you might want to use voltage regulation or at least a capacitive filter or something, I don't know what switched power supplies are like for audio.

 

[Persiflage]

Holy Frazkranaus! A fellow CWRU student! Neat!

 

[davo]

Appreciate the suggestions guys. I got hold of a tech support guy who led me through all kinds of diagnostics as well as uninstalling the Santa Cruz and reinstalling it as he thought I might have lost the driver for one channel (right side). Nothing worked and he was dumbfounded. The speaker jack on the rear panel works fine. He finally concluded that the daughter card from the motherboard to the front panel is verschtunken. Hes going to schedule a service guy to come and take a look at the system. Oh joy!

I do like the idea of putting a cmoy or equivalent somewhere in the circuit so I can listen to quality music while on the PC.

Thanks again for the inputs.

 

[Persiflage]

Quote:

Originally posted by davo I do like the idea of putting a cmoy or equivalent somewhere in the circuit so I can listen to quality music while on the PC.

I can just imagine trying to explain that to a tech support guy.



You may want to make sure that you're not voiding your warranty (particularly if you bought a long one to go with your system).

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by RMSzero It wouldn't be hard to put a medium quality amp in a drive bay, with a hole drilled in the front for a jack. You'd have to use the PC power supply though which means you might want to use voltage regulation or at least a capacitive filter or something, I don't know what switched power supplies are like for audio.

that's actually a really great idea. you could market that and make millions! where'd todd when we need him?

imagine that though.. a head amp that runs off your psu and has a simple input on the inside and the outside is a pot and 1/4" jack. make it the size of a 5-1/4" drive bay and i think that's a great idea. bet it'd sound a hell of a lot better than that crappy sound blaster live! platinum jack..

 

[davo]

Thanks for the head's up on that. That thought had actually crossed my mind, in that a service guy is supposed to call in the next 24 hours to arrange a meet so he can diagnose the prob. (I still think it's a miswired jack, althought they think it's the daughtercard.) I did opt for the 3 year in-home service. My experience with my former PC showed me that I could not always diagnose and debug the issues that arise in the system and that I needed supergeek help. 3 years is about the lifetime for my PC's anyway, before the lust for the faster, higher, stronger system hits me.

If I do go the amplified route for this 'puter', it'll be hanging off an umbilical cord to the jack.

Thanks again.