Sound trouble A500

[oldhamtrader]

Speakers suddenly stopped working on A500. Headphones work. Volume control is up. Tried loading Vplayer and MXplayer codecs. Tried pinhole reset. Any other ideas?
Sorry if this is a duplicate post, tried posting before but cannot find.

 

[Spider]

Hi oldhamtrader, welcome to the forum. Built into the jack, where you plug in the headset, is a switch that disconnects the speakers when a headset is plugged in. I suspect the switch is sticking/defective. You could try gently poking around in the hole with something non-metallic like a toothpick to see if you can un-stick it. Also, I'm moving your thread to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 Forum to see if anyone who has an A500 can make any other suggestions. Good luck!

 

[oldhamtrader]

Thanks for the welcome. Tried poking with toothpick to no avail. Headphone emblem shows at bottom of page when I have them plugged in. I assume it would show if button was stuck. Also I never use headphones, I just plugged them in to see if the sound would work.

 

[Douvie]

Are you sure it is the speaker/sound jack problem?

I have a few issues with the media players. Sometimes I can hear sound but no pictures/video. Sometimes the pictures are there but no sound. Other times nothing at all. Yet
I have no problem with my HTC phone. I think there is something missing on th tablet that stops it from working.

 

[oldhamtrader]

Not sure what is causing problem. Just know there is no sound coming from speakers. Tried several different media players.

 

[sopranosv]

Did you run any sort of update? Newly installed apps? I would go for a hardware issue, but sometimes software might be the one to check.

 

[oldhamtrader]

It is my wife's tablet. She does not know if there has been a recent update or newly installed apps. Is there a way to check that? My wife is a newbie with computers and I am pretty much lost as I am still in the Windows world.

 

[Douvie]

It is my wife's tablet. She does not know if there has been a recent update or newly installed apps. Is there a way to check that? My wife is a newbie with computers and I am pretty much lost as I am still in the Windows world.

First we need to know whether you're running HONEYCOMB (or HC ) or ICECREAM SANDWICH (ICS). If you tap the area in the bottom right hand corner, where the digital clock is, a box will pop up with the clock in it. Tap that box a 2nd time and another box will popo up under the time. On the bottom line of that box you will see SETTINGS. Tap SETTINGS and will take you to another screen. Look for ABOUT TABLET and tap that. What you will see before you is an information screen about the tablet and it should tell you what OS is on the tablet. 4.0.3 or something like that will be ICS. 3.2.1 will be HC.

TO test the tablet quickly - try video something with the 5mp camera and speak in to the "mic" (middle screen where screen meets metal case). Then play back the video short an see if you can hear any sound.

 

[Douvie]

You may have to do a reset. Especially after the upgrade from HC to ICS. How long has your wife had the tablet? If still under warranty get it replaced.

Another thing the sound may be turned OFF acidentally. I'm just throwing you a few options to try.

 

[oldhamtrader]

Thank you so much for your help. Sadly tablet is out of warranty.
Did as you said and it still has 3.2.1, checked for updates and said "No update". Is there a way to update manually?
Once again Thanks!

 

[oldhamtrader]

Also, the sound shows full bars(like it is turned all the way up)

 

[Douvie]

Also, the sound shows full bars(like it is turned all the way up)

Just give it a week or two and the OTA UPDATES should arrive soon. It may take a while. Did you register your tablet with ACER?

If not do it now. You should get the update. Don't try to force it. It will come when its ready.

Check to see if the speakers haven't been "muted". It will still show full bars even if muted.

 

[Mrhelper]

Douvie's right. Don't worry about ICS for now, you'll get it soon enough. You don't need to do anything special for that.

The OS version appears to have nothing to do with this problem. ICS is not going to fix your speaker problem if a factory data reset does not, so discussion of it is just a distraction from solving the actual problem.

Before doing anything else, backup your important data, and do the factory data reset to wipe you tablet, and boot with a clean factory image. It's under settings/backup & reset. If there is a software problem causing this, that will clear it and the speakers should work immediately after the boot completes. If that does not do it, there's nothing you can do with updates or software to fix this. At that point you can be certain that it is hardware.

Spider gave you the best advice. The problem may be hardware, and most likely something mechanical in the headphone jack. These jacks take quite a bit of abuse from normal use, and repetitive mechanical stress can even cause connections that may not have been well soldered to break loose. It is most likely some kind of foreign substance in the switch for the speakers though, holding the contacts for the speaker circuit open. If you open the case, you may find a fragment of paper or other debris in the switch. If it is caused by a broken connection on the board, and you are handy with a low temp soldering iron, and brave enough to open the case, you may be able to easily fix that problem yourself also. Look online for examples of how to open the case. That was one of the first things I looked for when I bought mine -- for examples on how to change the battery -- which looks very easy by the way.

 

[oldhamtrader]

Thanks for the info Mrhelper. Was not sure if the ICS would help but was willing to try anything. Did the reset and still no sound. Opened it Saturday and did not see anything loose. Will try to open again and delve a little deeper.

 

[oldhamtrader]

Opened it back up. Checked wiring for speakers. Unplugged and plugged them back in. Still no sound. Did not see any broken connections. Is there a sound card?