# Speakers only work when headphones are plugged in



## Deamion (Oct 19, 2010)

Hello everyone,

I have an HP z545 Digital Entertainment Center with a Realtek ALC 880 chipset.

I have just formatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP MCE 2005 with SP2. (I later installed SP3 but that didn't change anything)

When the SP2 CD’s completed and I only have a fresh install, I of course do not hear any sound, so I install the latest Realtek HD audio driver. (WDM_R253)

Upon rebooting the driver seems to install fine. Realtek software and speaker icon show up by the clock, device manager now shows Realtek audio device under audio devices, and there are no yellow exclamation marks related to audio. (There are others for network card etc.) So I uninstall the driver, reboot, and when the device is detected on boot up, I just cancel.

Now the weird part… I used WinRAR to unpack the Realtek driver, and manually installed the Microsoft MSHDQFE driver from the included folder. After that I could hear all windows sounds, but no more speaker icon or Realtek icon by the clock.

So I figured, why not try the drivers from HP? After downloading and installing them, I now only have sound from my speakers when the headphones are plugged in as well.
(Sound play through the speaker not headphones, but only when the headphones are plugged in) 

The other thing I noticed is when the headphones are plugged, the Realtek software shows “2.1 audio” in the speaker config, but when I remove the headphones, Realtek shows that the headphone are now plugged in. It’s backwards.

I should also mention that I have formatted the hard drive on this system twice already tiring different things before I came here for help.

Any ideas?

--Deamion


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

All of the drivers, including the audio drivers, should be available from HP. Typically, the speaker output working/not working when headphones are attached is a hardware issue.


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## Deamion (Oct 19, 2010)

Thank you Dogg and I agree,

The catch is the sound driver from HP did the same thing as the software from Realtek. It didn’t seem to matter which driver I installed in what order.
 
After reading my post again I realized I may have not been clear.
Details: After the first format, I tried the newest Realtek driver, when that didn’t seem to work, I uninstalled and tried the HP driver. No go there either.

I played around with it for about an hour and decided to format the drive again and start over. On the second install I first tried the HP driver with no luck, uninstalled them and then unpacked the Realtek driver (R253) with WinRAR to install the sound driver manually. (The MSHDQFE driver was first) and at this point I could hear the Windows sounds through the speakers without the headphones, but couldn’t change to 4.1, 5.1, 7.1 etc. because the Realtek software was not installed yet. So I installed the rest of the Realtek driver and now I can only hear sound from the speakers when the headphones are also plugged in.

Note: Everything worked perfectly before the format so I doubt it is a hardware fault. 

Does that help?
--Deamion


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

Then it would simply be a matter of trial and error until you can find a driver (new, or most likely older), that will function correctly. Sadly, there isn't a magical or easy fix. You just have to keep trying until you find one that works.

With that said, try the official drivers on a fresh install (XP w/SP2). SP3 should make no difference, but you are dealing with older drivers for that hardware.


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## Deamion (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks Dogg,

I kind of already came to the same conclusion between posts.

FYI, since my first post I formatted the drive and installed Win 7, the drivers from Realtek worked perfect the first time.
So I formatted back to XP MCE 2005 SP2, updated every driver and Windows Updates/SP, and then with the sound card as the last thing to do, I tried the HP driver from the web and it created the same situation as I described. Speakers only play sound when headphones are also plugged in. (But no sound comes out of the headphones)

So I formatted again, did all of the updates/SP/Drivers again, and this time used the newest Realtek driver from the web and same thing. No sound without headphones.

On any other computer, I would say the sound card doesn’t support Win XP MCE 2005. But this is the OS that shipped with the system from HP and I know it was working just before the first format. So I’m lost. Unless there is a third driver I can try, I’m going to disable the onboard sound and install a PCI sound card.

Thanks for the help.
Take care,
--Deamion


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

The only difference is likely driver versions. As you are doing a fresh install, the drivers you are trying to use now are all likely new(er). The drivers that were on the PC before the reboot were very likely an older version. So, as I already stated, all you can do is experiment until you find a version that works.


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## Deamion (Oct 19, 2010)

Thank you Dogg, but as in my first and second post I stated that I tried the newest and the original drivers and they both create the same situation. "Sound from speakers only when headphones are plugged in."

Don't worry, I'm going to install a PCI sound card and disable the onboard sound.
But thanks for tiring.

--Deamion


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