Help me fix my notebook
 

I bought an Acer travelmate c300. and shortly after, while listening to music with headphones, i accidentaly steped on the cord and the audio output jack must have broken off the motherboard. i still get no audio even trough the built in speakers.

i took it to the fine people at acer, seeing as how im still under waranty but they wanted to charge me 500$. they said the only way was to replace the whole mobo.


crazy thought... is there any way to redirect the audio output trough the audio input jack? (with out sodering. software preferably)

i also have this other mysterious jack next to the audio output/input. dont know what it is, looks rectangular, like the small end of a USB, but smaller. has 4 pins and its simply labled 1394. is this an audio output as well?

1394 is firewire, which usually allows connectivity between data storage devices and digital video cameras.

I think the only way of going about this is to look for a usb laptop sound card. Here's just one example of one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...MP=KNC-INKTOMI

i would look through your warranty specifics and see why they won't replace it under warranty...

if you did indeed break it off of the motherboard, that will be a costly fix, and you cant redirect the output (to my knowledge) through the input..

the cheapest route (if you cant get the warranty thing to work out) would be as Zero2 suggested. Buy a usb (or a firewire) soundcard type thing..

like the soundblaster extigy (external soundblaster, pretty much)

manufacturers warranties dont cover damage.

You break it, you pay.

from Acer:

s Warranty guarantees service (parts and repair labor, as stipulated) for products which fail under normal working conditions. However, Acer and its Warranty Service Locations are not obliged to repair or replace a failed product if that failure is a result of physical breakage, improper installation or connections, external electrical faults, accidents, misuse, software-induced problems (e.g. virus attacks), abuse or modifications to the product. Any service, repair or replacement not within the scope of ITW coverage shall be subject to Acer or its Warranty Service Location's rates and terms.

Same thing happend to my toshiba laptop. I went for about 6 months without sound, untill i finally decided to take it apart and see whats wrong (not my laptop, its for a school program, so i don't care about the warranty). I noticed that the output connector was broken on thie inside. It was cheap plastic thats supposed to hold metal plate type thingy's that was broken. Imagin your left fingres are the metal, and your right are the plastic. Now cross your fingres, and thats how its supposed to be. The problem with mine was, it wasen't set properly, and 2 of the metal peices were touching. All i had to do was use a pin to get the metal peices back in position, then crazy glue the plastic part down. I haven't had a problem since. Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense, I just don't know how to describe it. I'm pretty sure if you take it apart you'll see what I mean. Don't know if this will void your warranty, but i'm pretty sure it will fix your problem. Its better than spending $500 in my opinion.

Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure Acer wouldn't want him doing that to his laptop if he plans to keep it under warranty.

thanks alot for all the help. i went for the usb sound card and it works great! maybe even better than the built in.

i've seen usb speakers before. look into it.

Always buy an extended warranty that covers accidental damage on a laptop :)

hehe glad it worked out for you.

as far as better than the built in, that is more than likely true, because most sound cards included in laptops aren't all that great, but the external sound cards are generally closer to high end.

i still prefer internal pci cards, but that is generally just for the wider support range, although sometimes having a usb sound card would be helpful :)