Headset's suddenly gone to mono

[crazy pyro]

I was listening to music earlier on this evening when I opened ventrilo and at the same moment ventrilo opened my headset stopped producing any sound out of the left earphone, I'd obviously like to fix this since the headset cost me £40 and I can't afford another one due to buying a new PC.
I've tried plugging my ipod headphones into the external USB sound card that I've been using with my laptop for the last few months (The internal soundcard was refusing to recognise anything that was plugged directly into it) and the ipod headphones worked fine apart from sounding a bit horrible due to being the cheap ones included with the ipod.
On a good note, the internal sound card seems to have fixed itself but the headset problem is still present through this.
I've tried taking the headset out and plugging it back in a couple of times, I've tried disabling it and re-enabling it as well.
There are no bare wires that I can see so I can't tell if the wire has become loose inside the left headphone (Had this happen to me with ear bud type ones before.)
Can anyone tell me if there's a way to fix this, hoping it's software related as it happened when I opened ventrilo.

 

[EviLZeD]

I have also had this happen to me a few times with some decent headsets its irritating i think a wire or something might of got damaged (its sheilding?) within the headset but i dont know anything for sure.

 

[crazy pyro]

I obviously don't want to take it apart since it doesn't look like it would go back together right.

 

[imperialreign]

try the jack with another real headset, or a speaker.

also, if you have another computer, or a diskman, TV, radio or something else with a headphone plug - jack the questionable headphones into that and see if it's still doing the same thing.

what kinda headphones are they, BTW?

 

[crazy pyro]

I've not got another real headset, I bought these as a replacement for my last logitech ones that got broke by someone sitting on them.
It's this headset:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/notebook_products/pc_headsets/devices/223&cl=us,en
The logitech premium notebook headset (I know I could have got a better one cheaper but I needed the USB functionality as my sound card was not working.
I've tried the USB soundcard with my ipod headphones as well as the Integrated jack and I get stereo through them but they don't have a headset attached +they sound horrible (only as horrible as normal though). I'll hunt my ipod down and check with that, I'll post back here later when I've checked that.

 

[JC316]

You have eliminated the possibility of it being the sound card, so find a source with a 3.5MM headphone jack and plug in to it with the headphones you are trying to get working again. Any MP3 player, TV, CD player, or radio should have one. If you get mono, then you know that there is an internal malfunction.

Personally, I think that something else is wrong, maybe a setting got goofed due to music and mic being used at the same time. I would recheck all sound card settings as well as Windows audio settings, make sure that the balance didn't shift.

 

[crazy pyro]

I just plugged it into my gran's TV and only got sound out of the right hand side exactly like with my laptop so this looks like I'm going to have to buy another one right?

 

[JC316]

I just plugged it into my gran's TV and only got sound out of the right hand side exactly like with my laptop so this looks like I'm going to have to buy another one right?

Hmm, make sure that the TV was a stereo source. I have had some older ones that only put out Mono sound. But it's not looking good.

 

[hat]

you should always try to fix it before buying a new one.

 

[crazy pyro]

It's only a couple of years old so I'm guessing it's a stereo TV and I've just tried it with my Ipod, same problem again and the sound card on that's definitely not screwed up.
@Hat, I'm thinking of repairing it since I really don't want to spend £20 or so to get a replacement and this one's nice and comfy too, just I'm pretty sure if I take it apart I'm not gonna be able to put it back together in one peice.

 

[hat]

well the headsets gone to shit anyway so either way it doesn't matter

 

[crazy pyro]

And If I fix it it will be the ultimate ghetto headset lol, I guess it's worth a shot at fixing it.

 

[Katanai]

This is a classic problem. The cable is most likely shorted somewhere. Try to bend it around until it works again. You must isolate the section where it's broken, cut it out, and put it back together again.

 

[imperialreign]

This is a classic problem. The cable is most likely shorted somewhere. Try to bend it around until it works again. You must isolate the section where it's broken, cut it out, and put it back together again.

I agree - 90% of the time if you lose audio from only one speaker, the wiring has broken somewhere . . . most of the time its right at the jack itself, sometimes it's actually at the driver.

It is repairable . . . but a bit tedious to do so.


If it was actually a speaker driver that went out, you'd either have a staticy, crackling sound being produced, a droning noise, or sometimes high-pitched squeals.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Usually its right were the wire comes out of the plug were it goes.

 

[crazy pyro]

Looks like I'm going to have a dismantled headset in an hour or so then.