Broke audio in jack, configure mic jack to audio in?

[andrew pogue]

Hello, unfortunately for me I managed to break the audio in jack on my laptop. Basically I applied a sufficient leveraging force to crack the plastic that holds the jack being plugged in, so now I can't get a good connection when I plug anything in. Is there any way that I can configure the microphone jack to work as my now-defunct headphone jack?

Any replies are greatly appreciated, as I would love to be able to listen to my tunes without bothering the entire floor, or having to get my computer fixed/replaced.

 

[Guest]

I can't think how a mic input could be made to work as a headphone output.

Fortunately a headphone jack is usually a standard component so fixing it should not prove too expensive.

 

[soundguruman]

resoldering, repairing the track on the circuit board, (it rips up off the fiberglass sometimes) replacing the broken jack can be done by an experienced bench tech.
sometimes, depending on the motherboard, a software fix can configure the jacks, but not usually on a laptop.

 

[andrew pogue]

Best answer selected by andrew pogue.