Switching mic jack to a headphone jack on a PC/laptop

[Joseph Dove]

Does anyone know if this is possible? I don't really know anything about computers, but the jacks appear to be the same... I was wondering if the only thing keeping them different is programming/drivers or are the different jacks connected to different things?

Case in point, my headphone jack recently stopped working (it only plays one side of the headphones/speakers and I have to wiggle it to play on both). I've looked into USB speakers, but it'd be easier to just open it up and swap them, or find a way to switch them around via programming (if possible).

Anyone know anything about what I'm sayin' here? I'd appreciate the help.

[Animaezing]

Well, I'm pretty damn sure that the actual wiring into the motherboard for the mic jack and the headphone jack is differant for each, which is what marks them as what they are, and has nothing to do with programming or software.

So no, I'm pretty sure you can't just switch them around. One's an in, the other's an out.

If it were a prgramming thing you'd think that someone would've long ago made it so that they were like USB ports and you can switch between them at the push of a button.

[Joseph Dove]

Dang... Well, maybe if the jacks are identical I can just open the old beast up and swap them around. Doesn't seem like it'd be a hard task. You think the actual jacks are different, too?

[Animaezing]

No, I'm saying that they're two completely seperate circuits on the sound card or motherboard, too which they are soldered, as in cannot be moved.

There will be no switching. Sorry if saying wired confused you, but there's no actual wires involved.

[RubyEclipse]

Animaezing is right, the ports may look the same on the outside, but the sound card itself is wired differently. Even if it is remotely doable, it would probably be much more work than it's worth.

[Joseph Dove]

That's depressing.

[Lunacara]

If your laptop is still under warranty, I would suggest sending it off for repair. IMO, you don't want to messing in there. In order to access it, you'd have to COMPLETELY disassemble the unit... which voids the warranty, and may be impossible to reassemble.