1645 audio/headphone problem.

I noticed this a few days ago since i was gaming in my school library and my friend wanted to hear. I happened to have a spare set of headphones and the SXPS has two headphone jacks which is awesome, but I noticed that when I started playing a song on WMP and went to watch a vid on youtube, one source of audio (the song) went through one pair of headphones and the youtube video went through the other. Now I've noticed that, now when it's just me and my one pair of headphones, if there is more than one program generating audio one will play through the speakers and the other through the headphones. Or just randomly even if there's only one audio source it'll play through the speakers...you can see why this would be problematic.

 

I had that exact same problem with my old Studio XPS 1640.

It was quite odd. I would hear people talking from Ventrilo on the laptop speakers, yet music through my headphones. And it'd be very sporadic, then the sound service would crash. Dell's audio drivers are crap, I think. On that computer, my sound service always crashed and I had very funky things happen with the sound, especially like you described.

I'm not sure of any way to fix it. I tried to reinstall the drivers multiple times but continued to have the problem. My solution in the end was get a refund and not buy the XPS line anymore.

 

...Not exactly helpful.

Bump.

 

I noticed the same thing a couple of days ago. It seems that the audio jack closest to you when the laptop is in front of you actually plays through an "Independent RTC headphones" output instead of the standard "Speakers/Headphones". Try disabling the "Independent RTC headphones" output, or setting the sound output to the "Speakers/Headphones" output on an application-by-application basis.

 

I actually realized this on my own the other night, but thanks for the actually helpful reply. How do I disable the Independant RTC headphone output?

 

Open Control Panel->"Sound" - there you'll find the Playback tab, and you should see several devices listed there includiing ATI HDMI Output, Speakers / Headphones, and lastly Independent (R.T.C.) Headphones. Right-click it and choose disable. I've never tested this solution but it's also my best guess as to why it occurs.

 

Thanks.