Re: setting up headphones with mic, in alternate speaker ports

If I've understood you correctly, there's two sets of plug connectors, front
and back. The front appear to not work. Perhaps they've not been properly
connected to the motherboard inside the case?

That aside, the back ones work but in order to use the headphones they must
unplug their speakers. So ...

1 : Do the speakers have their own headphone jack on them? Most do. You'll
find most speakers automatically turn themselves off if you plug headphones
into that connection. If that isn't good enough, e.g. they want speakers to
remain on then ...

2 : go to radio shack and buy a y-connector/adapter (e.g. headphone
"sharing" etc. might be an acronym), plug that into the back of the pc and
then plug the speakers into one side and the headphones into the other. That
allows them to turn on/off the speakers using the speakers power button.
Caution as one should test if the sound card max's out the headphones volume
during normal "using speakers" mode, If so and there's risk of that
happening then they should be normally disconnected. Common sense prevails,
set sound card volume to what headphones like and use speakers own volume
control to adjust speakers as desired "should be safe enough". If instead
they elect to disconnect headphones normally then it might be easier to also
buy a short headphone extension cable (if y-connector/adapter is just the
"stubby" plug type), plug that into back of pc and then the
y-connector/headphones/speakers into the end of that. Saves messing behind
box as it's usually not that covenient plus easy to use either one or both
at users convenience. This is basically what I do to route my pc to my
stereo.

"Trev" <Trev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B9B32363-0DA6-4F2F-A03F-50EBE469CEDD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ok, i need a little help here. a friend of mine has just recently bought a
> set of headphones with a built in microphone. they have both ports in the
> face, and the rear of the box. if the headphones and mic are plugged in at
> the back, they work but they have to unplug the main speakers. i'm not
> sure
> if the ports at the front work or not but it appears they don't, or the
> ports
> just aren't set up properly. i'm not sure how to set up the front ports
> and
> i've tried using the headset in the front ports with unplugging the
> speakers
> at the back. although the point is that they'd like to use the headphones
> and
> mic while the speakers are plugged in still, it would be a nuisance having
> to
> unplug the speakers at the back just to plug the headset in.
>
> if anyone has an idea or knows how to fix the problem then the help is
> greatly appreciated.. Thank - Trev


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