John, yes it is I. Sorry to say that Dell has not changed for the better but then neither have I so I am still manning the laptop audio board.

Matt, it's either the jack, the speakers, or a loose/broken connection to the speakers. For what it is worth, on the Dell models with 2 headphone jacks when the sense pin becomes a problem then in the audio control panel one of the jacks will be marked that it is "in use". [The purpose of the 2 jacks on those models is that they and the mic jack can all be configured as 5.1 surround line-out jacks.]

In the Dells there is a bootable diagnostic partition that runs outside of the Windows operating system. If the speakers work in that diagnostic environment then one knows that there is not a hardware problem with them and that leaves the jack as the culprit (or software but by this point one would have already reinstalled the audio driver and doubled checked configurations etc). That pretty much nails it but the diagnosis can be completely confirmed by restoring the computer to its original factory configuration which eliminates all possibility of a software issue (because the speakers did originally work in that configuration).

Conversely, if the speakers do not work when running the bootable diagnostic test then that confirms that there is a hardware failure, and one knows the failure is after the signal reaches the jack so the speakers or connection is the culprit. The possible failure of the sense pin does not affect the way the Dell diagnostic test works (ie the speakers will be tested whether or not the sense pin has failed) because the switching software is part of the Windows driver and Windows and the drivers are irrelevant to the test. So if HP has an equivalent diagnostic partition it could prove useful. If there is one then HP support will probably have your friend use it anyway before they authorize repairs.

Last edited by jimco; 04/25/10 08:12 AM.