No Sound Whe Playing Sony CDRW with Headphones

Hi Gang,

I have a SoundBlaster PCI 128 card. It was attached to a Sony CDROM via a cable. It worked fine.

However I swapped out the CDROM for a higher functioning NEC DVDRW. When I attached the cable to the DVDRW the sound through the earphones didn't work.

I have tried changing cables, I have tried attaching the cable to the CDRW (Also Sony) and still no joy.

I have tried also switching plug-ins on the sound card from CDROM to AUX and still no joy.

I have also triedth downloading the most recent drivers from Soundblaster for this card, still no joy.

When I use a different set of earphones and with a disk in the CDRW and turn up the volume I can't hear music but I can hear a sound like wind blowing, so the earphones are working.

When playing with speakers everything is fine, this only happens when I try to play with earphones.

What can I do? :confused:

Orangeman????

In device manager, pull up the properties of the dvdrw. On the properties tab there should be a check box "Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device". If it is checked, then the cable to the sound card is not being used and is not the problem.

Which jack are you connecting the headphones to (headphone jack on the sound card, on the pc, on the dvdrw, etc.)? You could plug directly into the jack on the dvdrw to rule out a headphone problem. The PCI 128 has multiple jacks on it, some of which can be configured for either headphones or front/rear speakers. Check your sound card configuration settings to see that you haven't disabled something.

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Originally Posted by hudsonsmith

In device manager, pull up the properties of the dvdrw. On the properties tab there should be a check box "Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device". If it is checked, then the cable to the sound card is not being used and is not the problem.

Which jack are you connecting the headphones to (headphone jack on the sound card, on the pc, on the dvdrw, etc.)? You could plug directly into the jack on the dvdrw to rule out a headphone problem. The PCI 128 has multiple jacks on it, some of which can be configured for either headphones or front/rear speakers. Check your sound card configuration settings to see that you haven't disabled something.

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Hi Hud,

I checked the box for "Enable digital CD Audio for ...." and no joy. BTW, I'm using Win98 and it was located in the control panel.

Also, I am connecting the headphone jack to the drive itself, not to he speakers or the back of the unit.

As far as configuration is concerned I am using the same configuration I used for CDROM. I don't believe it has a special setting for CDRW.

Thanks,
Orangeman.. :)

So its nothing to do with the computer... it is the earphone socket on the drive that is not working....

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

So its nothing to do with the computer... it is the earphone socket on the drive that is not working....

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That's right Noo...:confused:

so it's a hardware problem... something that cannot be fixed without taking the drive apart and replacing the damaged socket.

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

so it's a hardware problem... something that cannot be fixed without taking the drive apart and replacing the damaged socket.

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Yeah it can :p .. it could also get 'fixed' (from orange's perspective) by returning the damn thing as faulty & getting a replacement as its 'new' ..(though reading back it mayn't be new at all, just 'newer', if there is any warranty left I'd recommend you make use of it, as it mayn't be the socket itself, "When I use a different set of earphones and with a disk in the CDRW and turn up the volume I can't hear music but I can hear a sound like wind blowing, so the earphones are working." - nah that's static you can hear, so the socket is intact but not correctly joined to other components between the drive mechanism & the socket itself, there's generally a pre-amp circuit or similar there linking to the volume control {that's the usual 'not working' bit} ).

While I'm 'ear (sic :D), I'll just add a note about DAE (digital audio etraction) - its very 'intensive' & will fill your pci bus especially if you are doing any processing on the signal, for general users I say use analogue unless you are a real audiophile ..

The only problem with the 'socket not working' explanation is that the socket isn't working for both the DVDRW and CDRW. Perhaps lightening does strike twice but I think their might be something I'm not doing.

I'll turn off the 'enable digital CD' think in my Multimedia section of my Control Panel...:D

errr if you have that problem on both, then suspect the headphones themselves, or perhaps the jack is not seating correctly. Ooooh... do you have a little wheel on the front of both the drives? That's the volume control....

Other than that, I have never heard of a unit that cuts out the earphone socket.

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Originally Posted by Orangeman

The only problem with the 'socket not working' explanation is that the socket isn't working for both the DVDRW and CDRW. Perhaps lightening does strike twice..

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It will strike twice if the volume control is busted ! - its not so un-common .. (My DVD recorder has a busted volume control {or some part of that circuit}- its stuck on 'full whack' - I never noticed at all, until I started 'pratting about' for orange :D - {my headphones can plug into my speakers thus auto muting them})

So I'm still of the same opinion as Noo, nothing to do with windows at all, test in a.n.other beastie, if you are still reluctant to believe that - much simpler than trying all the zillions of things that could affect it in windows on your own machine ..

BTW headphonne socket will generally only play audio cd's - no confusion going on with what we are trying to play ? - I was sat looking very blankly at my pc for several seconds as I wondered why I couldn't get it to work :D