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DS Misc > Switch broken in headphone jack?

#118127 - Mr. Picklesworth - Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:09 am

Sorry, I'm a tiny bit off topic here, but this seemed the best place.

So I was watching a video with Moonshell today, using headphones. I'd say the headphones were in the DS for a total of 2 hours, and at no point were they stressed or weirdly positioned. Everything went fine, sound was good, nothing wrong...

However, upon removing the headphones, restarting and even running official software, sound was not playing out of the speakers! Rather, the speakers were dead silent. (Silent to the point that the little clicky noise when the DS shuts down did not happen).
This is odd, because the speakers were not given a chance to die (at least not in the heroic way); they were not used, and they certainly were not abused.
So that rules out one thing...

My guess: The DS is constantly outputting audio to headphones because some switch has been damaged, thus making it think that headphones are always inserted. That would explain why sound comes through headphones, but never the speakers.
This would be the perfect opportunity to get the thing replaced under warranty, but alas, the warranty is long dead...

Of course, I'm not a hardware person so my absurd guess of a phantom broken switch is as far as I can get. What do you think the problem could be? Is there some way that I could better diagnose this problem? (And, most importantly: Is there a nice way to fix it?).

This is on the DS Hevy, by the way.

Thanks in advance!
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Last edited by Mr. Picklesworth on Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

#118128 - felix123 - Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:28 am

The switch is generally part of the socket, not a separate component. I don't know if it has to do with your problem though. Read Wikipedia for more info.
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#118192 - Jeremysr - Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:42 pm

This seems to have happened on my brother's laptop. It works 75% of the time though, and when it stops working he seems to be able to fix it by plugging in his headphones a certain way and taking them out again...

#118201 - Mr. Picklesworth - Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:53 am

Hm... Shall try playing with the headphones then.
I'll try not to stress it too much; Looking into that port, I guess this could be the sort of thing that magically fixes itself after a while.

So how is it that jack plugs have this little jamming problem, and yet continue to use the same old switches?!
Isn't it possible for a switch that is triggered when electricity can be conducted across the port via the inserted headphones?

I guess it is too late for them to make any changes to the standard at this point, so someone will need to invent a good excuse for why regular headphones are obsolete.
Oh well, some day...

Thanks for the article, Felix! I've always wondered how those things work, and I never thought to check Wikipedia :)

Edit:
Hooray! I removed the headphones for a moment today and it was working again. That was weird!
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#118233 - freemaan - Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:02 am

Strange.. I had the same problem once.
I could fix it by removing&inserting the plug several times.