Antec Solo and Headphones

[damien]

**Note to moderators** If this is in the wrong forum, feel free to move it.

Hello,

I know this isn't a troubleshooting forum per se, but this is probably the single largest community that uses the Antec Solo, and I bought one on the basis of this advice

My question is a simple one:

Does the Antec Solo supporting muting the speakers if you plug in your headphones?

My experience is, so far, not.

If you can report otherwise, can you just mention your motherboard in the post? I'm using a gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4

Thanks!
Damien.

[mentawl]

As far as I know, that's reliant on the sound card being used, rather than the case - my Sonata II supports headphone-muting with the new DFI 975 board I have in it, but didn't with my older P4 system.

[Devonavar]

This feature is motherboard dependent, not case-specific. You'll want to investigate a new motherboard if it bugs you that much.

[mattcoz]

After doing a bit of research, it sound like it does not support it. It is only supported with HD audio front panel ports, and the Solo has legacy ports. This is very disappointing as I was all set to buy this case, now I'm rethinking this.

edit: Hmm, now I'm confused. The Sonata II doesn't have HD audio front panel ports, but it works for you?

[nici]

How can a headphone jack be HD? It's either a 3,5 or 6,3mm analog miniplug, most likely 3,5mm. On my card i just go to the driver setting and choose if i want to have it mute the speakers when i plug in the cans or not. It's an xfi with the front panel thing.

Searching for "HD audio front panel ports" gets this Intel document as the first hit, and it says this: Note: Intel® High Definition Audio headers are pin-compatible with AC'97 chassis and connectors.

[mentawl]

Yeah, I've never heard of "HD audio front panel ports". A 3.5mm headphone jack is a 3.5mm headphone jack...

[mattcoz]

Well that's what it says in Asus' manual, I don't really know what it means either.

[Goldmember]

...Does the Antec Solo supporting muting the speakers if you plug in your headphones?... I'm using a gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4

Thanks!
Damien.

Yes, it should work. I think your mobo uses the Realtek HD Codec. Go into your Realtek driver settings in the control panel. It might be called sound effect manager or something else. There will be an option to mute the rear speakers when plugging in headphones.

Take care.

[damien]

It gets better:

I tried another case (well, I reached the cable across) and the same issue - does not sense the headphones plugged in.

I have tried playing with the utility provided by Gigabyte (realtek) and you have to DISAB:E sensing just to get sound out of the headphone.

Plugging and unplugging the plus does not cause the utility to "sense" the headphones. It's really quite frustrating.

No joy in Linux either: I;m usign Fedora Core 6, and it will not mute on pluggin in the headphones. Tried compiling a new kernel (2.6.20-rc3), no idea of the ALSA version, but the same story.

The realtek is indeed a HD codec, but, according to the gigabyte manual, also supprts AC97.

The funny thing is that AC97 should be able to detect headphones and this is driving me up the wall... not to mention that it's making my PC far less functional.

I'm going to get onto Gigabyte an await a reply. Their tech support takes a while, if at all though.

[mattcoz]

The funny thing is that AC97 should be able to detect headphones

Yeah that's true, I got confused between jack-sensing and jack-retasking, which does require the HD ports. There should be no reason why it wouldn't work.

[NapalmDeath]

The case and cable are just connectors to the MB for AC97.
The AC97 software/driver does the detection.
A lot of them use a single port for multi-use.

You might try updated drivers and check your cable to the mobo.