Broken headphone jack - options

mar2010

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
2
0
18,510
Hello all,

I was running my laptop sound out to my stereo through the headphone jack. The speaker wire ran across the floor and I tripped over it - several times.

The connector broke off with a piece inside the jack sound my laptop thinks the headphone jack is still in use. No sound from the speakers. For a while it would work if I jiggled the connector just right, but last night, it gave up the ghost. So I have a laptop with no sound. Since I watch all my tv on my laptop I'd like to fix this.

So I have a few options I guess.

1. Get a USB sound card.
2. Get USB laptop speaker. Will this override the headphone jack or will the computer still think there are headphones connected and keep routing sound to the headphone jack.
3. Fix the headphone jack - not really worth it for a six year old Acer 4730Z.