Audio playback through headphones and speakers

Anonymous
2009-10-25T00:30:33+00:00

Headphones or speakers in windows 7, Can't have both?

Looked over the other questions, nothing seemed close.

My machine was dual boot, XP and Vista ultimate, now XP and Windows 7. In both XP and Vista I could have the speakers and the headphones plugged in together, both playerd noise, and I could use one or the other by plugging them into the front and back audio jacks.

This enables me to play games during day with speakers, and then at night with head phones, and no reaching round under my desk to remove cables.

Now I am using windows 7 and amongst the many other problems I have with it, I can't play with speakers or headphone until I have gone through a silly lot of clicking to disable one or choose the other as default. Why has this been changed in windows 7 after Vista, it seems an utterly pointless logic. I can turn my speakers off with the power button and get the headphones working. Now I am either or. So my brand new IR head phones are wasted. Please someone tell me there is a work around?

It's little meddling silliness like this that make me want to remain in XP.

Much thanks in anticipation someone has figured a work around.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-05-18T17:05:27+00:00

I've got both my Jabra GN9350 and my laptop speakers playing audio at the same time. :)

Here's the trick (and it's been verified on 3 other Win 7 systems):

  1. R click on your speaker icon, select 'Recording Devices' (if you have the sounds dialog up, it's the 2nd tab 'Recording')
  2. R click in the white space, be sure that BOTH "show disabled devices" AND "show disconnected devices" are checked.
  3. **Now this step is going to take a little bit of thought for each computer being used: on my laptop (HP Elitebook) I get a device "Stereo Mix", ENABLE this device.
  4. Click on Properties, go to the tab 'Listen'
  5. Check the box "Listen to this device", also change the drop-down box below "Playback through this device" to be your second audio device

-- To verify that you've done this correctly, go back to the Sound dialog tab Playback, you should now see both of your audio devices showing the little green graphs moving.

Here are the specific settings that I have on my laptop, maybe this will help with your settings:

Speakers- GN9350 (Default Communications Device)

Speakers- SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio (Default Device)

Stereo Mix- 'Listen' feature points this  device to my GN9350 headset.

Paul

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Anonymous
2009-12-02T19:11:46+00:00

Right. Your hardware has not found a driver that works in Win 7. You will have to keep checking for updates for that to use the device in Win 7 the way you want it.

Rating posts helps other usersMark L. Ferguson MS-MVP

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-05-15T02:33:18+00:00

    Hey there,

     

    I use to have sound come out of speakers if no headphones were plugged in OR just headphones and no speakers when headphones were plugged,

     

    now I have sound coming from the headphones and the speakers at the same time and don't know how this started

     

    • any idear of how to fix this it would be much appreciated if somebody could let me know. thankyou.

    Guten Tag,

    Lower Right Corner see a little speaker,

    Right Click and select Record OR Playback

    then you are dealing with the basic device drivers.

    You can select (assuming VIA or REALTEK)

    just about any of the combinations you so desire.

    Just be aware that most likely the artistic devious oriental

    mind has done the programming and not someone

    from the more logical western world.

    ALSO,

    The particular program you are using may have a

    device section of its own which means both

    the driver and the software you are using

    must be configured to properly interface.

    The rest is up to you and your learning curve.

    If you have a 64 bit OS you must also have ALL 64 bit drivers.

    You will have to make sure all your drivers and

    BIOS and INF files are up to date.

    None of it is easy to do right.

    BUT, win7 Ultimate Retail x64 is by far the best OS I have seen since WIN3.1.

    I expect to be dead before Windows is what you might say USER FREINDLY.

    but it is the best out there to date.

    Gut Luk Comrad.

    geoff

    PS: Oh Yeah, there is a second program you might use to help you with

          Realtek or VIA but you got to find where its located. When you invoke it

    it has a skin to it like the hoaky third person programs, but it

    gives you additional options to control things. It will be in the

    PROGRAMS area or System 32 area under Windows Folder.

    You can somehow configure it to show on the taskbar or

    simply create a shortcut on your desktop.

    Get the DRIVER from your motherboard manufacturer

    it may have more features than one from Realtek or VIA itself.

    But I'm not Really sure.

    These problems all stem from the ability of the various connections to be

    configured as Outputs OR Inputs and you NEVER, NEVER, want to

    connect two outputs together at the very same time.

    If the manufacturer would take a random connection approach

    the results would be easier for everyone to understand.

    I think they have made detection automatic since damage can

    be done to the hardware if two outputs are connected directly to

    each other.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-04-27T11:49:22+00:00

    Hey there,

    I use to have sound come out of speakers if no headphones were plugged in OR just headphones and no speakers when headphones were plugged,

    now I have sound coming from the headphones and the speakers at the same time and don't know how this started

    • any idear of how to fix this it would be much appreciated if somebody could let me know. thankyou.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-03-23T06:45:54+00:00

    Headphones or speakers in windows 7, Can't have both?

    Looked over the other questions, nothing seemed close.

    My machine was dual boot, XP and Vista ultimate, now XP and Windows 7. In both XP and Vista I could have the speakers and the headphones plugged in together, both playerd noise, and I could use one or the other by plugging them into the front and back audio jacks.

    This enables me to play games during day with speakers, and then at night with head phones, and no reaching round under my desk to remove cables.

    Now I am using windows 7 and amongst the many other problems I have with it, I can't play with speakers or headphone until I have gone through a silly lot of clicking to disable one or choose the other as default. Why has this been changed in windows 7 after Vista, it seems an utterly pointless logic. I can turn my speakers off with the power button and get the headphones working. Now I am either or. So my brand new IR head phones are wasted. Please someone tell me there is a work around?

    It's little meddling silliness like this that make me want to remain in XP.

    Much thanks in anticipation someone has figured a work around.

    There is one way to always record the analog output of most any machine.

    create an adaptor (Stereo or mono cord) to patch the audio signal directly into

    the Line Input or Microphone input.

    Then select the line input as your recording device.

    In the case of realteck you might have to play somewhat

    with the manager program to get it to record and play the way

    you want. The past was to have total control of

    the inputs and outputs, but today they seem to be

    stopping all that. which is a crime against the human intelligence.

    You need microphone cord or shielded audio cable

    or you might suffer from power noise (60Hz or 50Hz or 400Hz Hum).

    It is interesting to note I can no longer find microphone cable at the local stores

    whatever they be called.

    I choose to use 1/8 inch plugs since that's usually whats on the audio cards.

    I use a 1/8 inch coupler to join  two patch cables together.

    Some motherboards place a small voltage on the microphone jack.

    If it is configured as a line input there should be no such voltage.

    If you wire things wrongly the voltage present might cause

    damage (not sure tho).

    Be careful And,

    Gut Luk KomRad,

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