A Headphone is Not A Speaker

Question

This is so amazingly silly.
When I plug the headphone in, it not only announces that I have plugged in a headphone, it originally expected me to acknowledge that I'd plugged in a headphone.
Given that, why does it then blast sound in my ears at the level needed to hear the system speakers?
Right? You try to adjust the sound level, and all it says is "speakers/headphone". Not speaker volume | headphone volume" as any machine built past 1995 should have. Just "speakers/headphones volume".
This is so amazingly stupid, I can't believe I am typing it.
What gives?
Ed

Answer 1

EdJones1
"In any case there is not much to be done about it."
Ed, normally I have better insight into issues when I know the model of the laptop under discussion. You didn't identify your model but I tried to puzzle out which audio system you have. Most of the reports of overly loud headphone volume come from owners of models with Realtek audio. On the other hand you said you have Speakers/Headphones, which is typical of models with IDT audio.  I considered asking you to supply the name of your model but I decided that would cause an unnecessary delay since I I don't have the solution anyway, no matter what the model might be. That's what I was thinking when I carelessly wrote "in any case". 
I see now that you have one of the Inspiron 15's. There are 27 models in that line so far. I believe they all have Realtek audio except for 4 models from 2010 & 11 that had IDT.
EdJones1
Well, what is the point of coding a headphone detector into the driver?
I think the point is to automate jack configuration. Intel set the specifications that manufacturer's have to follow when designing the HD audio codec (the chip on the MB). It has to be able able to support configurable jacks (but the laptop manufacturers don't have to implement configurable jacks -- that is their choice). Personally I think that maybe the codec is over-engineered. Some of the options can lead to otherwise avoidable problems. I see what they were aiming for and agree that it works great in certain situations. For example on the Dell laptops with 3 jacks -- 2 for headphone and one for mic/line-in -- if you plug a speaker into the mic jack, it detects that it is not a mic and assumes that you are going to be using a 5.1 surround speaker system. Then the mic jack re-configures to be a 3rd output jack, for a total of 6 channels of audio, 5.1.That usually works pretty good.
But in a laptop with only one headphone jack I don't see the need for detection. It should always be a headphone port with no need to re-configure. Windows uses detection to trigger software switching to switch the audio signal routing between the jack and the speakers, but detection is just a extra layer of complication. Linux does not use software switching (just uses the normal contact switches in the jack) and avoids the problems that arise when an impedance sensor fails.
EdJones1
I already know I plugged in a headphone.
On most models with Realtek, Dell replaced the Realtek HD Audio Manager with its own Dell Audio Manager. That's one of the problems because the original manager had an option to show a separate volume control for headphones. Anyway, if your model has Realtek, look for Dell Audio Manager in the Control Panel. There is a box to check to block the detection notification. I think it is in the Settings Advanced tab.
EdJones1
To hear the speaker on any Dell laptop I've used, a volume of ~80-90 is required--even at bent-arm's length.
In the latest Inspiron 15's Dell has started limiting the max volume in the BIOS (to prevent damage to the under-engineered speakers). Dell seems to have gotten it exactly backwards -- too much headphone volume and too little to the speakers.
To elaborate on what I said earlier about the Windows native audio driver. It used to be that when that driver was installed you would get a separate Headphones in the list of devices. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. In my Latitude E5420 with Windows 7, the driver shows me 2 playback devices, both named just "Speakers", one of which is "not plugged in". When my laptop is on its dock, that "Speakers" becomes "ready". When I set it as the  default it routes the audio signal to the dock's audio jack, to which I have connected a set of external speakers. When I set the other "Speakers" to be the default device, the audio signal is routed back to the laptop's internal speakers/headphone jack. The volume level of the laptop's speakers and the dock's jack can be set independently of each other. Unfortunately I have not found a way to set the levels of the laptop's speakers and its own jack independently of each other.