Surface Pro 3 headphones don't mute speakers

[Bill_Ohio]

Hi - this is just my second post. I'm a new Surface Pro 3 owner, but have been using Microsoft operating systems since MS DOS days. (yeah, I'm older than dirt!)

I just noticed that when I plug in my headphones, the speakers don't mute. (I don't use them very often) Searched around and found a "fix" by selecting headphones as the default. Worked fine. However, when I unplugged the headphones, the speakers didn't work. Tried to reset the internal speaker as default, but still wouldn't work. Rebooted the system, and the speakers are now working.

Is this how it's supposed to work, or do I have a faulty headphone/mic jack? Really don't want to send this back to the factory, but for what I paid, I expect everything to work!

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Bill_Ohio]

I think I may have answered my own question! Not sure why, but apparently simply plugging in headphones doesn't necessarily start them working and turn off the internal speakers. It needs to be done in a certain order, as follow:

1. Make sure that sound is configured to recognize the headphones as the default device when they are plugged in. To do this:

a. Go to “Search” from the Start page and select “Settings” from the drop down.

b. Type in “adjust sound”, and select “Manage Audio Devices” from the list. It should be the last one

c. Select the “Playback” tab. You should see an icon for speakers which should be marked “Default Device”. Plug in your headphones. A second, headphone icon should appear. If it is marked “Default Device”, close the dialog box. If it isn’t, highlight the headphone icon and select “Set Default” from the bottom of the dialog box. Click “Apply” and “OK”.

2. Headphones on the Surface Pro 3 apparently do not automatically disconnect the internal speakers when plugged in, nor reconnect them when unplugged. Before you start the audio playback you want to listen to through your headphones, you need to PLUG IN THE HEADPHONES FIRST, then start the audio playback.

3. If you want to change from headphones to internal speakers during the playback, you need to STOP the playback, unplug the headphones, and then re-start the playback.

4. The last step didn’t always work for me. Easiest thing to do is re-boot. However, if the speakers won’t work, stop the playback, plug in the headphones, start the playback, stop it again, unplug the headphones, and re-start playback. It seemed helpful to go slowly when changing back to speakers from headphones.

 

[Sanjay]

I am having the same issue with the sound not switching automatically when plugging in the headphones. Sorry to say this is obviously a bug that Microsoft needs to fix. Any workaround, is just that, a workaround that is.

 

[Bill_Ohio]

So, this headphone jack issue seems to be affecting more than just a few of us. Hey, Microsoft - anyone out there listening?? Would be nice to get this taken care of, hopefully with a driver update.

 

[jnjroach]

So, this headphone jack issue seems to be affecting more than just a few of us. Hey, Microsoft - anyone out there listening?? Would be nice to get this taken care of, hopefully with a driver update.

This isn't an Official Microsoft Forum, for more official response you stand a better chance here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum?tab=question&status=all

 

[Bill_Ohio]

This isn't an Official Microsoft Forum, for more official response you stand a better chance here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum?tab=question&status=all

Thanks! I'll give that try! (although it would be nice if the folks in Redmond would monitor this site, if nothing else, just to see if there are any issues that could be addressed.)