Repair Laptop?

[TVeblen]

My daughter has a Compaq F767NR notebook with a Conexant High Definition
Smart Audio 221 component. The built-in speakers stopped working. It is not
muted, the sound works through the headphone jack, the drivers are updated,
and the device is "working properly". I'm guessing that the switch that
turns the speakers off when a headphone jack is inserted is broken or stuck
in the open position.
I don't have any experience working on laptops, but I do have the
maintenance manual and it looks pretty straight forward (taking it apart).
Has anyone here done this repair (No speakers)? Do you know if you can
replace the phone jack alone? Or do you need to replace the sound board? Any
tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Paul]

My daughter has a Compaq F767NR notebook with a Conexant High Definition
Smart Audio 221 component. The built-in speakers stopped working. It is not
muted, the sound works through the headphone jack, the drivers are updated,
and the device is "working properly". I'm guessing that the switch that
turns the speakers off when a headphone jack is inserted is broken or stuck
in the open position.
I don't have any experience working on laptops, but I do have the
maintenance manual and it looks pretty straight forward (taking it apart).
Has anyone here done this repair (No speakers)? Do you know if you can
replace the phone jack alone? Or do you need to replace the sound board? Any
tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

What if this is a software problem ?

You say in your description, the device is HDAudio.
Those tend to have an output for each jack provided, and
don't traditionally "share" signals. The AC'97 chips,
on the other hand, shared Lineout with Headphone jack,
and used side contacts on the Headphone jack, to connect
or disconnect the Lineout. So the muting in that case,
was mediated by side contacts on the jack.

In the case of HDaudio, it is done via jack sensing.
If a load is detected on the Headphone jack, that
event is used by the software to disable the output
to the Lineout jack.

I downloaded an installer for a 221 (Waikiki) chip, and
here are a couple registry settings. This hints
at the software nature of control and available options.

HKR,GlobalSettings,HpShutsOffRearSpeaker,1,00,00,00,00 ; Headphone does not mute rear speakers
HKR,GlobalSettings,HpMode,1,01,00,00,00 ; Headphone is slaved to rear panel front channels

Another possibility, is there is a power amplifier to drive
the speakers. The HDaudio chip by itself, even if it had
a headphone output capability, might not have enough
output power for speakers, especially if your product
documentation claims they are 2 watt speakers or the
like (i.e. appreciable power). A separate chip may be
driving the speakers. To give clean audio, it may be
driven by a separate regulator. So there are other
ways to interpret the symptoms besides a pair of side
contacts on a jack failing. There could be more
circuitry after the Hdaudio CODEC chip.

Paul

 

[TVeblen]

What if this is a software problem ?

You say in your description, the device is HDAudio.
Those tend to have an output for each jack provided, and
don't traditionally "share" signals. The AC'97 chips,
on the other hand, shared Lineout with Headphone jack,
and used side contacts on the Headphone jack, to connect
or disconnect the Lineout. So the muting in that case,
was mediated by side contacts on the jack.

In the case of HDaudio, it is done via jack sensing.
If a load is detected on the Headphone jack, that
event is used by the software to disable the output
to the Lineout jack.

I downloaded an installer for a 221 (Waikiki) chip, and
here are a couple registry settings. This hints
at the software nature of control and available options.

HKR,GlobalSettings,HpShutsOffRearSpeaker,1,00,00,00,00 ; Headphone does
not mute rear speakers
HKR,GlobalSettings,HpMode,1,01,00,00,00 ; Headphone is slaved to rear
panel front channels

Another possibility, is there is a power amplifier to drive
the speakers. The HDaudio chip by itself, even if it had
a headphone output capability, might not have enough
output power for speakers, especially if your product
documentation claims they are 2 watt speakers or the
like (i.e. appreciable power). A separate chip may be
driving the speakers. To give clean audio, it may be
driven by a separate regulator. So there are other
ways to interpret the symptoms besides a pair of side
contacts on a jack failing. There could be more
circuitry after the Hdaudio CODEC chip.

Paul

Hi Paul - I thought I had exhausted the diagnostics on the software side of
things. (keep in mind that the speakers were working for a while, then
stopped unexpectedly) The only thing I did not try was to install an updated
driver - only reinstalled the original driver. But it certainly could still
be a software issue, as always.

Pity it can never be the simple solution - I was hoping it was just a jack
switch but from what you say, probably not.

I'll look into the separate power supply idea. But anything more involved
than switching out a module goes beyond my comfort zone. Not running down to
Radio Shack and getting out my soldering iron!

 

[Mike Painter]

My daughter has a Compaq F767NR notebook with a Conexant High
Definition Smart Audio 221 component. The built-in speakers stopped
working. It is not muted, the sound works through the headphone jack,
the drivers are updated, and the device is "working properly". I'm
guessing that the switch that turns the speakers off when a headphone
jack is inserted is broken or stuck in the open position.
I don't have any experience working on laptops, but I do have the
maintenance manual and it looks pretty straight forward (taking it
apart). Has anyone here done this repair (No speakers)? Do you know
if you can replace the phone jack alone? Or do you need to replace
the sound board? Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Hard to say. when you plug earphones in do you hear anything from th
speakers?
If it's just bent connections it may be fixable but if not will probably
need board level work to replace if you can find the part.

 

[TVeblen]

Hard to say. when you plug earphones in do you hear anything from th
speakers?
If it's just bent connections it may be fixable but if not will probably
need board level work to replace if you can find the part.

There is no sound from the built in speakers under any configuration, not
even clicks or static (It's dead Jim).
Sound comes through the earphones just fine.

 

[Paul]

There is no sound from the built in speakers under any configuration, not
even clicks or static (It's dead Jim).
Sound comes through the earphones just fine.

Do you have a Linux LiveCD available ? Maybe you could boot with
an alternate OS and enable the sound system and test it there.

Paul

 

[TVeblen]

Do you have a Linux LiveCD available ? Maybe you could boot with
an alternate OS and enable the sound system and test it there.

Paul

No, but I could get one. Daughter is back at school now. I will deal with
this when she comes home in 3 weeks. Plenty of time to get a game plan
together.

 

[Michael Cecil]

No, but I could get one. Daughter is back at school now. I will deal with
this when she comes home in 3 weeks. Plenty of time to get a game plan
together.

You could back up or image her system, then use the system's restore disc
(if it came with one) to revert it to its original condition to see if it
works that way.

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

My daughter has a Compaq F767NR notebook with a Conexant High
Definition Smart Audio 221 component. The built-in speakers stopped
working. It is not muted, the sound works through the headphone jack,
the drivers are updated, and the device is "working properly". I'm
guessing that the switch that turns the speakers off when a headphone
jack is inserted is broken or stuck in the open position.
I don't have any experience working on laptops, but I do have the
maintenance manual and it looks pretty straight forward (taking it
apart). Has anyone here done this repair (No speakers)? Do you know
if you can replace the phone jack alone? Or do you need to replace
the sound board? Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

One of the best ways I've found to rule out a possible Windows operating
software problem is to boot one of the LiveCD's containing Linux. You can
find a list of them at http://www.livecdlist.com/ .

I have used the Ultimate Boot CD and Puppy Linux with success when testing
suspect systems. If either of them give you sound out of the speakers it's
a Windows issue, if not it is just about confirmed to be a hardware issue.

 

[Peter]

My daughter has a Compaq F767NR notebook with a Conexant High Definition
Smart Audio 221 component. The built-in speakers stopped working. It is not
muted, the sound works through the headphone jack, the drivers are updated,
and the device is "working properly". I'm guessing that the switch that
turns the speakers off when a headphone jack is inserted is broken or stuck
in the open position.
I don't have any experience working on laptops, but I do have the
maintenance manual and it looks pretty straight forward (taking it apart).
Has anyone here done this repair (No speakers)? Do you know if you can
replace the phone jack alone? Or do you need to replace the sound board? Any
tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Was just given a laptop with the exact same problem. I was able to
confirm that the latch inside the headphone jack wasn't causing the
problem by having software installed for what was a realtek soundcard
that monitored the jack and informed me when a jack was inserted or not.
As soon as I inserted a jack it would appear which told me the latch
wasn't the problem because otherwise it would have made not difference
to the software. Perhaps there is something similar for your soundcard.

Unfortunately, I was unable to do any more from this point as I'm no
electronics expert.

 

[TVeblen]

One of the best ways I've found to rule out a possible Windows operating
software problem is to boot one of the LiveCD's containing Linux. You can
find a list of them at http://www.livecdlist.com/ .

I have used the Ultimate Boot CD and Puppy Linux with success when testing
suspect systems. If either of them give you sound out of the speakers
it's a Windows issue, if not it is just about confirmed to be a hardware
issue.

That's a great idea, thanks to you and Paul for that suggestion.
I have a copy of XUBUNTU here that has 2 ogg files on it. So when she gets
back that will be the first thing I do.