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About an hour ago I installed new RAM into my laptop. I closed it up and all seemed to work fine, however, I noticed a bit later that audio is only coming out one side of my headset. I know that it is not due to the headset, since the headset works fine on other devices and since for different headsets the audio is also only coming out one side. I have tested whether it is due to some balancing issue or anything other software related, but the only possibility which I see that is left is that I somehow broke the audio jacket when removing the laptop case. In order to confirm my suspicion I would like to know whether it is possible to damage the audio jack in such a way that audio will only still be transmitted through one side of a pair of headsets. Is this possible? If so, is there a way to fix this?

Thank you in advance.

Anon
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  • If it is a 4-pole TRRS headphone and your computer has a 3-pole connector then it might be that it doesn't connect properly. https://superuser.com/questions/945628/are-there-desktop-3-5mm-jacks-that-can-interface-with-smartphone-trrs-headsets https://superuser.com/questions/315070/distortion-on-human-voices-but-not-music – Mokubai May 26 '19 at 13:21
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    One of the most commonly seen issues with analog jacks is that when you reseat them, you don't reseat them properly, causing them to move slightly further inwards. This causes the plug to not fully be inserted, and thus not making contact with the furthest lead, causing mono sound over one speaker. You would want to open up the laptop and see if you can get stereo sound without it being in its case. If so, its a reseating issue. If not, you really did damage it. – LPChip May 26 '19 at 13:39

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Analog audio is transmitting for each (left and right) channel over it´s own wire, so this is possible if you (mechanically) damaged one of it.

Kr15
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  • Is it possible that the RAM itself has caused the issue? I currently have two different sizes of RAM in my computer, one of 8gb and one of 4gb. Could that maybe be causing the issue? Or a difference in brand or voltage? – Anon May 26 '19 at 13:43
  • No, ram cannot cause this. The only thing that can have caused this is bad handling when you opened the case that somehow disconnected one of the leads on the jack. This is highly unlikely and for that reason, I disagree with this answer. But it is technically correct, so I won't downvote it either. – LPChip May 26 '19 at 13:45
  • I cannot imagine it`s because of different size or specification (brand/voltage) of the RAM sticks nor i can imagine it´s because of extending the RAM itself generally. But whenever you do something with hardware there always can happen electrostatically charge based damage. Like mechanical damage also can always happen if you´re not careful enough. – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 13:52
  • Electostatic damage to a chip maybe, but not a jack plug. – LPChip May 26 '19 at 15:03
  • @LPChip: who wrote that electrostatic damage can happen to a jack plug?! come on.. you downvoted because you interpreted something in my answer which is not there. – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 15:12
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    I have confirmed that it wasn't the RAM causing this. The audio jack also does not look damaged... altho damage obviously might not show itself to the naked eye upon simple inspection. I'm going to try and reinstall my audio drivers to see if that fixes it. Inserting headphones while the case is open did not change anything, sadly. – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:18
  • You can try reinstalling drivers, but i think it´s just a loose contact which you can proof with a continuity test if you have the equipment. – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 15:24
  • Is the onboard sound working in stereo? Are you able to check this? – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 15:26
  • I can check this. What would be the advantage of that? Also, when I opened it up and inspected the audio jack I actually noticed one of two copper... pins hanging out instead of being inside the audio jack thing, that must sound super clear. Anyways, I pushed it back in but it had no effect. It does seem like I've somehow damaged it since for the microphone jack I can see that a little bit of plastic holding a small copper piece into place has broken off, making the microphone jack face slightly more upwards than the audio jack since it isnt held in place that well. Microphone works though. – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:41
  • Same advantage like reinstalling drivers, to exclude the possibility that the cause is somewhere else in the system (what i personally don´t think). – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 15:49
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    I fixed it! Here's what I think what happened. When I opened up my laptop case, I used a card to 'loosen' it as it may so that it would come off more easily. However, I think that when doing this I 'stabbed' the card into the laptop too deeply and damaged something on the bottom side of the audio jack (so, when looking at the hardware, the part which you cant see). What I damaged was some copper pin looking thing. I saw this when taking pictures of it with my phone so that I could have a better look. What I noticed was that there were 2 copper pin looking things coming out of the audio jack. – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:53
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    One of those copper pin looking things was in much deeper than the other. So, as I said in my previous response, I pushed it in further and tried to see if my audio came back. It didnt. Then, just now, I pushed it in MUCH further to see how far it could go, and it went in all the way. So far that in fact you cannot even see that it is a pin anymore. I suppose the 2 pins were both for one part of the audio, and that they connected to whatever part of the jack was responsible for the audio. Since one was loose, it didn't transmit. I put it back in, and it works again. – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:55
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    I must have accidentally smashed it out of whatever it was in with the card I used to open up the case. My own stupidity. Can't say that I am not a little proud of figuring that out by looking at it though; I am by no means a hardware expert and this in fact was the first time I ever opened up any pc or laptop to change anything. Thank you for your help! – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:57
  • Should I type this response into a separate answer and select it as the correct answer, since it is in fact the correct answer? I don't use stackexchange that much. – Anon May 26 '19 at 15:59
  • So, you indeed damaged it mechanically. You're welcome. – Kr15 May 26 '19 at 16:02
  • @Kr15 I did not downvote you. But did you really downvoted me twice? One on the answer I've given, but removed, and then a second time on an unrelated answer? I already said I did not downvote you. Although I do not agree with your answer, it is not technically wrong. – LPChip May 26 '19 at 17:00
  • @LPChip: Now i saw this comment.. i did not downvote you. – Kr15 Oct 05 '19 at 09:53