Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R8K1 headphone jack is only playing the left channel at normal volume

I bought the laptop for my daughter back in February. Up until now everything has been working fine. For some reason, a couple weeks ago, the right channel when listening through in-ear earbuds (headphones), sounded like it quit working. It actually just got very very quiet. So quiet in fact that the right channel has to be turned up to 100 (while the left is at 8) to even hear the slightest whisper coming from it. And even then it is barely audible. The headphones work just fine in a different device and the sound plays just fine when played through the speakers. Also, other headphones suffer the same fate when used in the laptop so I assume it has to be the jack. The headphones that are being used with it are Skullcandy Ink'd and have the TRRS configuration. I even tried my Bose in-ear Sport earbuds and they only played sound through the left one and they also have the TRRS configuration. All the drivers are up to date and this started happening before any Windows updates for May so I can't imagine that it is a software issue but I could be wrong. Any other ideas that might be able to fix this?

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

Open Device Manager. Click sound video etc folder. Post screenshot of result if possible.

xrayman75

Picture of what you asked for...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/6o/dodubcvdmsti.jpg

JackE

Right click on each Audio driver and uninstall. Then exit Device Manager wlithout re-installing anything.

Then open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable' near the top of the next pane. Scroll down and make sure the box for fast startup is UNchecked.

Shut down Windows normally.

Then turn it on again and check both channels.

xrayman75

Obviously both reinstalled themselves upon turning it back on. When running the sound test, the left channel can be heard just fine and the right channel can no longer be heard at all even though it shows the test happening. I double checked the headphones in a different computer (just in case) and both channels could be heard.

AnhEZ28

@xrayman75 try to twist or unplug and plug the 3.5mm jack in a few times to get a better connection. Do you still have the Realtek Audio Console app? You can try changing different outputs like headphones or headsets.

JackE

Does the headset mic work?

xrayman75

@AnhEZ28 Short of blowing compressed air into the jack I did try physical connection issues first. And switching between headphones and headset in the app had no effect.

@JackE Yes, the inline mic on the headphones does work when turned on. I normally have it set for apps to be unable to use the mic since she does only use it for listening. And out of curiosity, I just plugged in the headset I use on my computer (Razer Kracken Ultimate, USB) and I could hear sound through both sides using just the Realtek app

JackE

>>> the right channel can no longer be heard>>>

I'm gonna guess the jack's slider for the plug's right ring was somehow bent or otherwise wasn't making good contact with the ring. Now the slider doesn't seem to be making any contact or maybe broke off inside if you can't hear anything. Jack probably needs to be replaced under warranty which can be a hassle. If it was mine, I'd probably buy her a BT headset or give her my Razer and buy myself something better.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ye/0cm0zme2of2w.jpg

xrayman75

Yeah, that was my thought as well after testing my headset. And the weird thing is that it just stopped working. She doesn't abuse her stuff, the laptop never moves and she very rarely unplugged her headphones. Which is why I was at a loss. Thank you for your help though. Both of you @JackE @AnhEZ28 I appreciate it. She is not a fan of the over the ear headsets like I have so we're going to look around at options. Thanks again