No sound

Trig0r · 09-08-08, 06:46 AM

I've had a search thru the site and found that a common cause of this is the switch in the headphone jack.
Well I've tried plugging in and out an external speaker connection and its still not working (sound works fine thru ext speaker), so, does anyone have a cutout diagram of the headphone jack, I'm gonna see if I can poke something else down there and clean it out as its damned annoying having no sound

ta

Trig0r · 09-08-08, 08:57 AM

Have taken the Ax to bits, cant see anything obv wrong with the headphone socket, gonna see if I can wire up an old PC speaker to see if its the actual speaker bit itself...

johnhu_2005 · 09-08-08, 03:17 PM

We will see your results.

By the way, did you know you avatar says "dragon"?

Trig0r · 09-08-08, 06:04 PM

Well I removed the ax's speaker and tried another one on the 2 small connectors that the speaker sits on and got nothing, I'll try the unit's speaker 2moro and see if thats working.

Yeah, didn't have a Fire Dragon pic I could use as an avatar so just went for the dragon instead...

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 05:16 AM

Right, the units speaker works.
I can get sound out of the ax by having a speaker plugged into the headphone jack.
I can get sound by touching wires on the contacts on the PCB for the headphone jack.
I cant get sound from the ax's 2 contacts where the speaker touches (2 small copper "spring" type contacts under where the speaker sits).

So I'm guessing its either a stuck headphone socket or a faulty one.

Thinking I might break the soldering iron out and take the headphone socket off, gonna give it a clean up first and see how that goes..

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 06:20 AM

Right, I've cleaned the headphone socket out, still no sound from the 2 contacts under the speaker, I dont think its the headphone socket anymore.

Theres 4 contacts just to the top left of the ax's screen where the headphone socket (HS from now on, getting bored typing it out), with an external speaker plugged into the HS you get sound by touching the left contact with any of the 3 right contacts (seperate wired up speaker), if you take the external speaker out of the HS then you only get sound from the bottom 2 of the 3 right contacts, that'd say to me that the switch/contact or whatever it is thats in the HS works.

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 07:08 AM

Think I've found the problem, on the headphone socket theres a small contact, when you plug something into the HS it breaks that contact, however when taking out whatevers in the HS that contact should then make contact again, obviuosly over time the bit of metal will bent slightly, this is what I believe has happened.

However, I cant test it now as I've broken my ax

I'm hoping its just the battery thats ran out but its not looking too good, no lights at all and its looking pretty dead..

Get ready for the spares or repairs thread

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 07:36 AM

Just plugged it into my cradle in the car.

Dead

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 08:23 AM

Seems both of the led on the top board light up when its plugged into the cradle and the unit gets warm...

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 08:59 AM

Put it all back together again, still dead.

Took it back to bits...

IT LIVES!!!!

Gonna try shorting out the HS now to test the above theory

Get ready for another dead post...

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 09:21 AM

Ok, theory tested and proven.

if you look at the picture below of the HS you can see that theres a small contact within the HS itself, this contact is broken when the jack plug is plugged in.
I'm pretty sure that over time the small bit that is moved when the jack is plugged in bends slightly meaning it no longer makes contact when the jack is removed, hence no sound...

The actual contact point itself is tiny so its also possible that you could get a bit of fluff in there or something else that'll stop it making contact so I'd recommend trying to blow out the HS first or trying the common plug in/out before you take your ax to bits, you know, just on the off chance you balls something up and brick your ax like I thought I had done

johnhu_2005 · 09-09-08, 03:22 PM

Yes, it reminds me of blowing dust out of your computer for maintenance.

Trig0r · 09-09-08, 05:14 PM

Yeah, shame its not a better design really but I dont suppose Dell were thinking about people still using them after this amount of time.
The actual contact patch is smaller than the . on the keys of your keyboard (infact its about the same size as a . on the screen (1680*1050)).
There are options of course, find a replacement jack and replace it, leave it as it is, means no sound unless you have external speakers/headphones or you could drop a bit of solder on it, this would mean that even when you have external speakers/headphones plugged in you'd still get sound out of the main unit which would defeat the object for many people..