Puzzler - Is there a way to detect when an external headphone or speaker is plugged in?

I have a puzzler, and my initial question is simply, is there a way to see via Windows if/when an external headphone or microphone is plugged in, or is that all an electrical circuit independent of the OS?
Background: (not necessarily the question I'm asking, but providing anyway):
The background is this: Dozens, Hundreds, I think Thousands of owners of Toshiba Satellite owners with Conexant sound devices (including myself) the world over have this problem where the sound stops working about 1 to 2 minutes into playing non-stop
sounds/music/videos. In spite of all the experts telling these poor people to run a system restore and wipe out the past years of files and everything on their computer, the problem prevails no matter what. Some have even installed Linux, and the
problem persists. To me, it seems that the problem doesn't occur if the only sounds are the occasional bing or bong from a system warning, it seems to fail after 1 to 2 minutes of continuous play (but this particular observation is mine only, nobody else has
taken the time to point that out).
A few have claimed success via blowing the jacks out with compressed air, but that's not repeatable universally. Most people end up keeping external speakers plugged in permanently. In other words, it seems a lot like a hardware problem; However,
{edit 3}, my addition of "Edit 2" below makes it seem less like hardware.
One interesting thing: Headphones/speakers work permanently, there's no problem. More curiously, when the sound goes out, plugging any form of headphone/microphone jack into
EITHER the headphone
OR the microphone jack turns the sound back on too. This includes male-to-male extension cable with nothing installed. If nothing is on the other end, the sound will go out
again shortly, but jiggling or removing the male to male turns it back on.
EDIT 2: When the sound goes out, another way to get it back: From system tray, right click the speaker item and choose SOUNDS. The virtual VU meter shows that audio is playing (in tandem with the song, etc.), and is still showing audio
playing. The tabs available are Playback, Recording, Sounds, and Communications. When the sound does stop (assuming I was watching Playback), I click the Recording tab (just the tab header), and sound starts again.
P.S. What's the difference between "High Definition Audio Controller" under System Devices, and "Conexant SmartAudio HD" under "Sound, Video, and Game Controllers", in Device Manager? The "conexant smartaudio hd"
points to the latest Conexant driver, the "High Definition Audio Controller" points to a default windows driver. Just curious
I've Binged this extensively: Toshiba doesn't acknowledge the problem and nobody has fully solved the issue. I'm just curiously trying a few things myself, and I'm not sure if there's a way for the system to tell me an external mic/speaker has been
plugged in.
So to recap: My main question, can I detect when the computer thinks a headphone or microphone is plugged in? (My theory, if I can prove that the computer THINKS something is plugged in, it's a start).
Only secondarily, if anyone's interested, feel free to suggest ideas (here's what dozens of other posts have disproven: System restore; windows reinstall; outdated sound driver; outdated video driver; remove and re-detect sound and device via device manager;
malware; BIOS upgrade; Flash and/or the Flash/Firefox/Hardware Acceleration issue (problem happens with MP3, Flash, WMA, HTML5, Games, everything).
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: One person (theirs was under warranty, mine's not) ended up getting a new motherboard & speaker via Toshiba warranty, diagnosis ""machine intermittent no sound due to PCB faulty". I'm still interested in troubleshooting,
though. Link:
One lucky person, who got their motherboard replaced (they were under warranty, most of us aren't)

Hi,
If there are any headphone or speaker plugged in and detected, it will show in audio device manager console.
Type mmsys.cpl in Run, it will open Sound console.
Have you tried Hardware and Sound troubleshooter?
Andy Altmann
TechNet Community Support

Similar Messages

Is there a way to detect when Windows is being shutdown?

I am writing a LabView program that will run in the background, hidden from the user. I was wondering if there is a way to detect when Windows is being shutdown or restarted?
Thank you for your help!

If you put your VI in the Windows STARTUP group, and then in the VI execution properties, set it to RUN MINIMIZED, you should achieve the desired result. As far as LOGGING when windows is opened or closed, that is a different matter. You might be able to extract that information from one of the BIOS tools.
Eric
Eric P. Nichols
P.O. Box 56235
North Pole, AK 99705

Is there a way to detect when flash is being suppressed?

Here is the dilemma. I need to detect if Flash is on the page in the viewport playing or is being suppressed below the fold.
I've tried numerous tactics to detect if flash is playing properly or is being suppressed to no avail.
ThrottleEvent is inaccurate since flash must render in view, then go out of view for this event to be triggered. It is not automatically dispatched if flash is below the fold.
Detecting a reduction of frame rate: Also inaccurate for the same issue. Flash if renders below the fold, the frame rate is going to read as if it is not suppressed. Flash must scroll into view then out of view for the frame rate to read properly as suppressed.
Event enter frame for frame rate also inaccurate for issues above; needs to be in view and go out of view to see the slow down.
Activate/Deactivate -- needs focus so that doesn't help. I need to detect without focus.
Event.Render...useless.
Timer... no help there.
I've gone through tons of permutations of those above, combinations but nothing seems to be accurate enough. I know that Flash is being suppressed but I can't detect it. If I could know that Flash is playing at its proper operating speed (not suppressed) as in the viewport I could know the alternate.
Does anyone know how I can go about this?
Thanks,

If you put your VI in the Windows STARTUP group, and then in the VI execution properties, set it to RUN MINIMIZED, you should achieve the desired result. As far as LOGGING when windows is opened or closed, that is a different matter. You might be able to extract that information from one of the BIOS tools.
Eric
Eric P. Nichols
P.O. Box 56235
North Pole, AK 99705

Is there a way to detect motion and set markers automatically?

My video includes walking around with the camera. I walk, then stop and hold the camera in one area, then pan, then continue walking (and repeat).
While panning, there is some annoying flicker of vertical objects (beams, poles, whatever). I can use a horizontal fast blur to fix this, but I only want the blur applied when there is panning (not when the camera is relatively still). Doing it manually is cumbersome.
Is there a way to detect when motion is going on (over a certain threshold)? I would like PP to tell me when there is significant motion, and place markers in the points where it begins and ends (when motion goes over a threshold and then when it falls below the threshold).
Thanks, experts!

One thing you can try is to bring your footage into Prelude - it will lay out the entire clip so you can see thumbnail snapshots for the whole clip at once - that might give you a good start to see where there is a lot of motion. Then, you can add markers very easily at all of those points - and when you send it over to Premiere, the markers will show up on your clip.
Not automated, but a good workflow to achieve what you are looking for.

Is there a way to detect a bad http client handle before it locks up LabVIEW?

The attached VI demonstrates a simple way to hang LabVIEW such that the only way to recover full use of it is to kill the LabVIEW process. LabVIEW version is 11.0.1f2 and this problem will occur in both WinXP and Win7.
Is there a way to detect when an HTTP Client Handle refnum is stale and should not be used?
Is this a known bug?
Attachments:
Hang after Bad HTTP Client Handle.vi ‏15 KB

Have you tried the bad reference comparator?
Mike...
Certified Professional Instructor
Certified LabVIEW Architect
LabVIEW Champion
"... after all, He's not a tame lion..."
Be thinking ahead and mark your dance card for NI Week 2015 now: TS 6139 - Object Oriented First Steps

Any way to detect when a NotificationListeners MBean is removed?

If I have an MBeanServerConnection through which I register a NotificationListener, is there any way to detect when either the MBean that the NL is registered for is removed or destroyed?
Specifically, I fire up a process, register an MBean.
A client connects to the process, and registers a NotificationListener.
Finally, I destroy the original process. How can I be notified that this has happened in my NotificationListener Client?
Is there something else I can use to monitor the JMX connection?

It sounds as if you are looking for a notification when an MBean is unregistered. To get that, you need to register a listener on the MBean Server Delegate. See MBeanServerDelegate and MBeanServerNotification.
Regards,
Éamonn McManus -- JMX Spec Lead -- [http://weblogs.java.net/blog/emcmanus]

Is there a way to detect all the photos already transferred to double (or triple) in iPhoto, so do not occupy space unnecessarily? Thank you from France.

Is there a way to detect all the photos already transferred to double (or triple) in iPhoto, so do not occupy space unnecessarily? thanks from France

Look in you main photo library. Are there doubles or triple photos there? If so delete the extras.
All photos are stored in the photo library. When you move a photo into an album the photo is not duplicated. The album contains a pointer back to the original photos. These pointers or aliases take up very little space.

Is there a way to detect two keys at the same time?

Is there a way to detect the keys if the user is holding two keys down at the same time?

yes, but you'll have to check outside of the event loop (i.e. don't check for it in the keyPressed method).
just use an array of keys that keeps track of which keys are currently down and which are up. you could use a boolean array but I use an int array because... Im not sure I've just done it probably because of my C background. anyway, basic setup:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
public class MultiKey extends JFrame {
     int keys[];
     public MultiKey() {
          super();
          keys = new int[256];
          Arrays.fill(keys,0); // 0 = key is up
          enableEvents(AWTEvent.KEY_EVENT_MASK);
          show();
     public void processKeyEvent(KeyEvent e) {
          // the 0xff below binds the key code to below 256
          int key = (e.getKeyCode()&0xff);
          if (e.getID() == KeyEvent.KEY_PRESSED) {
               keys[key] = 1; // 1 = key is down
          else if (e.getID() == KeyEvent.KEY_RELEASED) {
               keys[key] = 0; // 0 = key is up
     protected boolean isKeyDown(int key) {
          return (keys[key] != 0);
     protected boolean isKeyUp(int key) {
          return (keys[key] == 0);
}so now at any time in your code you can check key state by using the isKeyUp and isKeyDown methods. this is about as close as you get to input polling in java unless you use LWJGL or something similiar ;)
you can try out a full executable example at my site here - just open up the jar and start holding keys down :)

Is there a way to view when gift cards were added so you can see what they were spent on?

Is there a way to view when gift cards were added so you can see what they were spent on?

No, you can't view a list of gift card redemptions, you can only view your account's purchase history : log into your account on your computer's iTunes via the Store > View Account menu option, you should then see a Purchase History section with a 'see all' link to the right of it, click on that and you should then see a list of your purchases - if you select a link on that history then it should show how it was charged e.g. mine show 'Store Credit' as I only use gift cards

Is there a way to "force-mount" an external drive that doesn't show up on it's own when plugged in with firewire?

Hi, is there a way to "force-mount" an external drive that doesn't show up on the desktop? I have a new Hitachi SATA III 2 TB Ultrastar that won't show up like all the other drives when plugged in. So I can't partition, repair, format etc with Disk Utility, Disk Drill, Tech Tools etc. How do I make it visible?
I use the FW 400 to 800 adapter and a FW hub.
Thanks,
W.

ok, I did find the log in Diskutil of what happened, I just can't figure out why it happened and how to start over:
2014-04-20 13:42:08 -0400: Disk Utility started.
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400: Preparing to erase : “Terra 8”
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:           Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:           1 volume will be created
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     Name                    : “Terra 8”
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     Size                    : 2 TB
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400:                     File system          : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2014-04-20 13:44:30 -0400: Unmounting disk
2014-04-20 13:45:00 -0400: Creating the partition map
2014-04-20 13:45:01 -0400: Waiting for the disks to reappear
2014-04-20 13:45:01 -0400: Formatting disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Terra 8
2014-04-20 13:45:26 -0400: Initialized /dev/rdisk2s2 as a 2 TB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 155648k journal
2014-04-20 13:45:26 -0400: Mounting disk
2014-04-20 13:45:29 -0400: Erase complete.
2014-04-20 13:45:29 -0400:
- That was it, gone.....

Is there a way to detect a other iphone near me

Is there a way to detect a other iphone near me with a app or any other functionality of the iphone

Just any iPhone? or one in particular?
Find my Friends will allow you to locate people who have iPhones and have explicitly agreed to share their location with you. There are some third party apps which will allow you to locate people as well.
Other than that, no.

Is there a way to detect if Excel is busy?

I have a VI that is testing three products at the same time, and writing data to three different excel spreadsheets. If more than one subvi is writing to Excel at the same time, I get an error. Is there a way to detect if Excel is busy, and wait until it is not busy?
metzler CLAD

The correct answer is the one that Putnam (and others) suggested: Encapsulate all the logic to perform a single write into a VI that is used wherever you need to write to an Excel file. This structure will guarantee that the code will only be writing to Excel from one place at a time.
If you don't want to have the different sections of the code waiting for their turn to come up, a variation on the theme would be to create a separate stanalone process that does nothing but write to Excel files. The rest of the code would pass it the data to be written using a queue. With this approach everybody seems to write at the same time, but the standalone process is actually serializing the Excel operations. This approach could even be extended to include the ability to read from files, but that is as they say, "...left as an exercise for the reader..."
Mike...
Certified Professional Instructor
Certified LabVIEW Architect
LabVIEW Champion
"... after all, He's not a tame lion..."
Be thinking ahead and mark your dance card for NI Week 2015 now: TS 6139 - Object Oriented First Steps

Is there a way to detect the end of a video?

Is there a way to detect the end of a video.. .mp4 or youtube? I want to be able to detect the end of a video and then have it do something...ie play on timeline or go to and play symbol.

For youtube the code would be something like this:
view-source:calkaweb.herobo.com/video.html
for HTML5 videos for youtube replace &version=3 with &html5=1 in the youtube URL
I have no idea how to impletent the youtube code into Edge tho other than an iframe but that wouldn't work I've tried :
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1285212
You would need to place all of the youtube codes into edge in order for it to work but I duno how to do that and no1 answered the question in the thread I made about it.
as for MP4/HTML5 video you can use
var video = document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0];
video.onended = function(e) {
/*Do Something*/

Is there a way to see when a plugin was last used so it could be determined if that plugin could no longer be needed?

is there a way to tell if a plugin is no longer needed. In other words is there a way to tell when it was last used to determine if it should be deleted. for instance iphoto6,

the 4-5th digits of the serial number indicate week of production
ie 82327 = week 27 of the year.

Is there a way to new when phone numbers have been added

is there a way to new when phone numbers have been added

I have a Contact that I created called "Do Not Answer" All the phone numbers that I do not need to answer are placed within this contact.
I created a 10-Second-Silence ringtone that is used for this contact. Set Vibration to "None" and Text Tone to "None" as well. This will shut down any tones or vibrations if you receive a call or text.
Add any appropriate "NO' sign as a contact picture if you like as a visual reminder to not pick up the call. I use this:
Any callers listed under this 'Contact' will be eventually sent to your email without disturbing you. Other then that, there is no easy "Kill-file" within the iPhone of which I am aware.
Best of Luck

Puzzler - Is there a way to detect when an external headphone or speaker is plugged in?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for