Mic in to laptop 3.5mm socket and now no sound from speakers
Mic in to laptop 3.5mm socket and now no sound from speakers
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TorqueDirty

Original Poster:

1,910 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
OK guys - help needed.

The wife has just spent a bucket of money of some fancy Rode wireless Go microphone for her online yoga teaching.

Thing is that when she plugs the Rode 3.5mm mic cable in to her laptop 3.5mm socket there is no sound from the speakers. She uses a splitter cable that has a socket for the mic and a socket for headphones - whihc I assume cane with the mic but I'm not sure. The headphone socket of the splitter cable is not used because she does not want to use a headset preferring to use the laptop speakers for sound.

On her laptop there is only one 3.5mm jack which can be used for both headphones of a mic.

Now surely this is not a unique situation. This being the likely case what does she (read ME) need to do to get the mic working and still have the laptop speakers providing the sound from the students on the zoom training video call?

Normally I'd piss about for hours trying to figure it out but I think you guys might be a safer bet.

I see you can buy a 3.5 to USB adaptor. Might that be the way to go? Help needed as the wife is losing her st and I'm losing the will to be helpful as a result.

Thanks in advance.






SS2.

14,712 posts

268 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
You probably need one of these.

TorqueDirty

Original Poster:

1,910 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
SS2. said:
You probably need one of these.
Thing is that is exactly what she has got and is using. Maybe it is a dud? Or maybe there is a software setting that needs to be enabled / changed?

Do these systems always assume that if there is a mic plugged in then headphones will also be used? Seems odd if that is the case.

Munter

31,331 posts

271 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
I have a 2x3.5mm into USB adaptor. Works fine. Is that what she needs? It was only a couple of quid from memory.

Scrump

23,947 posts

188 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
She may need to buy some separate speakers and plug these into the headphone socket on the adaptor.

GregK2

1,723 posts

176 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Scrump said:
She may need to buy some separate speakers and plug these into the headphone socket on the adaptor.
This, or Bluetooth speaker.

TorqueDirty

Original Poster:

1,910 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
GregK2 said:
Scrump said:
She may need to buy some separate speakers and plug these into the headphone socket on the adaptor.
This, or Bluetooth speaker.
Good call. We do have a bluetooth speaker somewhere so will give that a whirl.

Might also buy a 3.5 to USB adaptor to see if that solves the problem.



TheVankce

160 posts

75 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
TorqueDirty said:
OK guys - help needed.

The wife has just spent a bucket of money of some fancy Rode wireless Go microphone for her online yoga teaching.

Thing is that when she plugs the Rode 3.5mm mic cable in to her laptop 3.5mm socket there is no sound from the speakers. She uses a splitter cable that has a socket for the mic and a socket for headphones - whihc I assume cane with the mic but I'm not sure. The headphone socket of the splitter cable is not used because she does not want to use a headset preferring to use the laptop speakers for sound.

On her laptop there is only one 3.5mm jack which can be used for both headphones of a mic.

Now surely this is not a unique situation. This being the likely case what does she (read ME) need to do to get the mic working and still have the laptop speakers providing the sound from the students on the zoom training video call?

Normally I'd piss about for hours trying to figure it out but I think you guys might be a safer bet.

I see you can buy a 3.5 to USB adaptor. Might that be the way to go? Help needed as the wife is losing her st and I'm losing the will to be helpful as a result.

Thanks in advance.
You can force laptop speakers to be default output device by disabling everything else (safest option).
In Windows taskbar right click on the Speaker icon>Sounds>Playback and there select each option other than laptop speaker and right click>Disable on each one of them (have the Rode mic/splitter plugged in when you do this).

Mr Pointy

13,418 posts

189 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
It may be that plugging in the combined mic/headset connector physically breaks the signal to the speakers. If you're lucky & it's not a physical break but detected by Windows you might be able to force it to use the speakers as indicated above.

TorqueDirty

Original Poster:

1,910 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Thanks guys. Will give the disable thing a go later. Works on my desktop so that is a positive sign.

Failing that the Bluetooth speaker has been dusted off and is being charged up as a fall back.

Already had to reprogram the garage roller door today so that it actually shuts rather than shuts and then opens up again by a few inches - I'm having a technology day!

TorqueDirty

Original Poster:

1,910 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Sorted.

Disable option did not work - it just killed all audio output independent of output device BUT the bluetooth speaker works fine when plugged in to the splitter cable.

Thanks guys.