When I plug in my headphones no longer do I get notification that I've plugged/unplugged them and nor do they work.
Please try connecting any other head phones / external speaker in order to check the functionality.
You might also try un-installing the audio driver from Device manager and re-install the same from our support site here http://dell.to/1hcxG98 . Type in the Service Tag, click on Drivers and select the OS type in order to install the audio driver.
the earbuds work just fine - I use them in my iPhone all the time.
The driver identified will NOT install properly. Now, I do not have a audiodriver installed!
Let us know if you tried connecting these headphones on any computer to check if the cable jack is functional.
the cable jack? I have never heard of such a thing. These are my iPhone earbuds. They work perfectly fine. I also plugged in other headphones - no sound from them either and the laptop speakers keep on playing.
the cable jack? I have never heard of such a thing.
I was wondering the same thing. I think it means the plug. In the U.S. we use the word "jack" to mean the female part that receives the plug, but that is an odd usage because "jack" is a male term. In other parts of the world "jack" implies the plug. To avoid confusion I try to use the terms plug and jack socket.
Anyway, I would test by switching from the vendor's audio driver to the Windows native driver. The vendor's driver is either Realtek or IDT, depending on which of the five 17R models you have.
Test using your earbuds if they worked with the laptop previously. If this is the first time you are using them with this laptop then test with headphones or buds of a different brand, because some Apple smart phone buds have non-standard pin assignments.
If you have the same symptoms with the native driver and with the vendor's driver, then there has probably been a failure of the hardware, perhaps the sensor in the jack socket that detects the presence of a plug.