Help me fix my laptop

You don't need a sound card, if you have a spare USB port then you can buy some USB headphones and plug them into the USB port, they will work just the same as ones plugs into a headphone jack. They are pretty cheap too.

I wouldn't use that cheap sound card if it makes your headphones warm

Are you sure the socket is causing the problem or is it the headphone jack? Try your headphones on another PC or device, if they work then it must be the laptop audio jack like you said.

The socket on the laptop just contains a few metal contacts so might not cost too much to get them fixed up

Thankyou for the reply!

Its definitely not the headphones as several have failed to work. The main reason I really want this fixed is I picked up a pair of expenive headphones pretty cheap recently, and their not USB based, which sucks as I'd love to use them with my laptop in all their glory? Is there an efficient way to do this?

Thanks again!

I had a hunch you had a good pair of headphones and USB was a no go  

I only know 2 options but there could be more. The first is what you have already tried which is a external sound card, maybe a better one would not heat the headphones up.

There is also female 2.5mm socket to USB adapters you can get. I know nothing about their purpose though so I am not sure if they work for music so it would be worth researching. If they do work for music then that is a $3 - $6 solution right there. Don't buy it until you research, it may not be for sound.

There could be other solutions but those are the only two I can think of at this time.

Thanks for your help! Just figured out I can remove the cable from my headphones as there is a socket (silly of me), so all I really need is a USB - Audio cable!

So pleased thats sorted!

what headphones are they? I'm interested to see how the cable disconnects, it sounds quite epic if it can do that

Their the WeSC chambers by RZA Street. Picked them up for near half price!

nice score!.

do you know for sure if a usb cable is supported on those headphones? There's bound to be a cable i would imagine, have a look around now you know what to look for. if you have no luck, then you know where to post  

goodluck

I did the same thing to my laptop and I fixed it myself. If you have steady hands, good vision, good equipment and are good with a soldering iron this is the way to go.

There are quite a few more contacts for where this module attaches to the motherboard, more than you would think necessary and the contacts are very close together so it's very easy to solder two together by mistake. So if your not good at this type of thing you should not attempt this by your self. Have a professional do it instead.

This should not be a real expensive procedure as far as repairs like this (soldering something to the motherboard) go and you might be able to save quite a bit by taking the motherboard out first and just taking that to a repair shop and telling them while pointing to the module I need this replaced or re-soldered (depending on the condition of the module).

Most likely it just needs re-soldering. The worst case scenario but, also fairly unlikely is motherboard damage. If you already have your Motherboard in hand any good electronics repair tech can re-solder the connectors he/she doesn't have to be a computer repair tech. The key word here is "good".

And a good electronics repair tech is more likely to fix the motherboard where your avg computer repair tech will just want to replace the motherboard which can be fairly expensive.