Windows – Headphone playback not working

audiodriverswindows 8

I am using an Acer S7-191 with Windows 8.1, I had the system reinstalled with the same Windows version after an windows update crashed the system.

The problem is I cannot plug headphone to playback. In playback devices, there are only Speaker and Digital Audio HDMI even after I chose to display all disconnected and disabled device.

Here are what I have tried:

  • Install all recommended driver on Acer's website
  • Install and reinstall Realtek's software and driver
  • Update driver in device manager
  • Disable front panel jack detection in Realtek software provided by Acer (after that no "2nd Output" tab appeared)
  • Check if there is any device unrecognized or with warning mark, none found
  • Change a headphone to try the connector
  • Use Realtek official universal software instead of Acer's

The jack is a input/output hybrid one, standard 3.5mm, so are the headphones I tried (one is a phone/mic mix one, another is a playback only one).

I am running out of solutions, anything else I can try?

Don't want to get to Acer maintenance, they can only let me ship my unit back to Texas!

EDIT

I guess I have tried everything I could software-wise. At last I decided to sent the unit back in for repair, came out fine with a hardware repair.

Thanks YatharthROCK for the input.

Best Answer

This fixed my sporadic issues with Realtek on an ASUS laptop running Windows 8.1:

  1. Finish any pending Windows Updates (optional);
  2. Uninstall the Realtek software from "Programs and Features";
  3. Confirm that the Realtek sound controller is gone from Device Manager (Windows+X -> M);
  4. Reboot to let the Windows stock drivers take control;
  5. ???
  6. Profit!
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