5 speaker system, but only one jack socket on the PC!

Goldie

New Member
I have just replaced my old HP Pavilion tower with a Dell Optiplex 3010. I want to use my old 5-speaker system as before, which has 2 small jack plugs (a green and a black), but there is only one speaker port at the back of this PC (green), which only powers two of the speakers, plus the woofer. There are other ports marked for a microphone and something else, in which I have tried the second jack, but to no avail.
Is there an easy solution? (The speaker system is an old one from Cambridge Soundworks).
Thanks!
 

_Pete_

Active Member
Look around in your sound setting. Usually there is a way of changing the sound ports for different options.

Highly unlikely on this machine. This is a basic, quite old, small form factor, Dell general computer. I think if you want surround, theater or whatever they call enhanced stereo these days you will have to buy an addon sound card. As this computer is a small form factor computer you may have difficulty finding anything. You might be be able to buy an external box to simulate any sound enhancements but the bottom line is that this computer is stereo only. The three sound outputs/inputs are, green = stereo speakers. pink = stereo microphone and the blue = stereo line in.

It would be interesting to know what the black jack is for on your speaker system. My 3 speaker system only a green plug and a mains power plug. If the black plug is a power plug then that would need to go to a power supply of some sort. I think on your HP there was an auxillary power out jack socket on the computer power supply. the Dell wont have that so you will need to source a power supply. A five speaker sound system would need some sort of amplification as what comes out of the green socket on the back of your computer is not powerful enough to drive anything other than a pair of headphones or a very small speaker system. So even a standard pair of computer speakers have a small powered amplifier incorporated to boost the sound.

So there you have it. I reckon the green jack goes to the green socket on the back of the computer and the black jack needs to go to a power supply of some sort. it will probably be a 12 volt supply but without knowing which speaker set you have that is only a guess.
 

Goldie

New Member
Thank you Pete for your valued input.
As my first post was lacking some detail, below is a fuller description the "before and after" set-ups in question:

The speaker system has 2 jacks - green and black - to plug into the PC and my old HP tower had 6 coloured audio sockets thus:
Blue = in / Green = out / Pink = mic / orange = c-sub (speaker) / Black = rear (speaker) / grey = side (speaker).
I simply plugged the green into green and the black into black (rightly or wrongly!) and all five speakers worked to good effect.

Now my "new" Dell has just 3 audio sockets thus:
Blue = in / Green = out / Pink = mic.
I have the green speaker jack plugged into the green socket, leaving the black now unconnected, which operates two of the speakers only, plus the woofer.
The system is powered by a mains cord to the remote woofer box.

Any further advice that may be possible following this update, would be appreciated!
Barry.
 

_Pete_

Active Member
In that case I'm afraid you cannot do it with what you have got. You could look for a higher spec audio card but it would have to be small form factor and I haven't seen one to be honest. The speakers you have would be general or mid range frequencies X 2, tweeters X 2 and base X 1. you could buy a jack plug combiner such as this:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-3-5MM...h=item3a8f8abced:g:VNAAAOxy2CZTXIxX:rk:7:pf:0

But that wouldn't separate the various frequencies. Having said that a base speaker is large and hence tends to reproduce and boost bass sounds better than other frequencies. Tweeters are small and tend to reproduce and boost high frequencies better than others and the mid range speakers will reproduce everything thus enhancing the other two sets of speakers. So whilst not ideal I think that combiner is the way to go. At least all your speakers should work. To be honest I suspect that was what you were doing when you had all the jack sockets on your HP.

That was the Brit Ebay but I'm sure that the American Ebay sells those combiners if that is where you are. You do have to be careful with speaker impedances. If you do buy a combiner and the sound is distorted then don't use it. On board sound chips on Dells, or any other computers for that matter, are delicate and you could end up damaging it. If that happens then you will have no option but to look for a sound card.

Oh and I know this sounds a bit abrupt from me but you try this at your own risk. I have given you advice on how I would do it. If it doesn't work or it breaks your computer (not likely to be honest but there is a chance) then that's the risk you take. Good luck.
 

Goldie

New Member
Thank you for that Pete. I shall try the combiner as you suggest (at my own risk!).
I am in the UK.
Regards,
Barry.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
I have just replaced my old HP Pavilion tower with a Dell Optiplex 3010. I want to use my old 5-speaker system as before, which has 2 small jack plugs (a green and a black), but there is only one speaker port at the back of this PC (green), which only powers two of the speakers, plus the woofer. There are other ports marked for a microphone and something else, in which I have tried the second jack, but to no avail.
Is there an easy solution? (The speaker system is an old one from Cambridge Soundworks).
Thanks!

Look around in your sound setting. Usually there is a way of changing the sound ports for different options.

Did you try the suggestion StrangleHold mentioned?

Even older computers had the ability to change the pink microphone jack into a stereo-out or rear-speaker jack; it was purely software based.

Check your sound settings.
 

_Pete_

Active Member
Did you try the suggestion StrangleHold mentioned?

Even older computers had the ability to change the pink microphone jack into a stereo-out or rear-speaker jack; it was purely software based.

Check your sound settings.

Rather that sitting in front of your keyboard making cryptic remarks it might be a good idea if you told him (and me) how. I have four computers here along with a network and I have been working with computers for years and I cannot find any settings on any of my computers, especially on a Dell with on board audio, to change a microphone input into a speaker output. So come on put your "experience" where your mouth is and let us know the secret of changing a microphone input into a speaker output on a Dell Optiplex 3010 with onboard audio. Also if there is a way, which I seriously doubt, it will use up an input, be a massive faff and it will still only do the same job as using that adaptor that I linked to. For the sake of £2.99p what is the point of chasing your, probably impossible, faff around.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Rather that sitting in front of your keyboard making cryptic remarks it might be a good idea if you told him (and me) how. I have four computers here along with a network and I have been working with computers for years and I cannot find any settings on any of my computers, especially on a Dell with on board audio, to change a microphone input into a speaker output. So come on put your "experience" where your mouth is and let us know the secret of changing a microphone input into a speaker output on a Dell Optiplex 3010 with onboard audio. Also if there is a way, which I seriously doubt, it will use up an input, be a massive faff and it will still only do the same job as using that adaptor that I linked to. For the sake of £2.99p what is the point of chasing your, probably impossible, faff around.

If you have the Realtek audio manager (as 90 percent of computers do) follow these steps:

***Disclaimer*** -Realtek audio managers allow for audio jack reassignment (or retasking) and has been available since at least the early 2000's. However, not every computer is capable of this, but most are.

STEP 1:

open-control-panel.jpg img_5807262c6b07d.jpg

STEP 2:

win_7_1.jpg

STEP 3:

Untitled.png

STEP 4:

realtek-hd-audio-manager-remapped.png

STEP 5:

f33cbe5e_Capture.PNG

Done.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Rather that sitting in front of your keyboard making cryptic remarks it might be a good idea if you told him (and me) how. I have four computers here along with a network and I have been working with computers for years and I cannot find any settings on any of my computers, especially on a Dell with on board audio, to change a microphone input into a speaker output. So come on put your "experience" where your mouth is and let us know the secret of changing a microphone input into a speaker output on a Dell Optiplex 3010 with onboard audio. Also if there is a way, which I seriously doubt, it will use up an input, be a massive faff and it will still only do the same job as using that adaptor that I linked to. For the sake of £2.99p what is the point of chasing your, probably impossible, faff around.
Realtek audio manager does it. Do some research on it.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Yep, my rinky dink 10 year old Asus M4A785-M (AM2+ socket) motherboard allows me to reassign the audio jacks. My new Z370P D3 also allows for this. I'd be surprised if the OP's Dell or any one of Mr. Peter's four computers were incapable of this incredible undiscovered technology!
 
Last edited:

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Rather that sitting in front of your keyboard making cryptic remarks it might be a good idea if you told him (and me) how. I have four computers here along with a network and I have been working with computers for years and I cannot find any settings on any of my computers, especially on a Dell with on board audio, to change a microphone input into a speaker output. So come on put your "experience" where your mouth is and let us know the secret of changing a microphone input into a speaker output on a Dell Optiplex 3010 with onboard audio. Also if there is a way, which I seriously doubt, it will use up an input, be a massive faff and it will still only do the same job as using that adaptor that I linked to. For the sake of £2.99p what is the point of chasing your, probably impossible, faff around.
You can cool it with the hostility man. It's getting old.
 
Top