Thanks, James. From my days running an electronics store 35 years ago, I just assumed the headphone jack was nothing special and had that disconnect in it like you described. That's way scary if there is some exotic sensor and software doing something as mundane as headphone routing. But thanks for the idea.

I forgot to mention, this laptop has two headphone jacks that function identically. That, to me, reduces the likelihood of anything wrong in the headphone jack switching. But what do I know?

Yes, it's under warranty but my friend doesn't want to lose the use of it during repair, nor undergo the aggravation of backing up and reinstalling into a replacement unit. I recommended he ask HP to exchange his hard drive into an identical unit.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.