Audio doesn't automatically switch

[Teef0926]

Hello to whom it may concern. I am having severe audio issues. Where if the sound is going to speakers, I plug in my headphone jack to listen on headphones and it doesn't play anything but knows they're there. I noticed before it will play chat audio but the main audio for media, sounds, etc seems to go nowhere and vanishes. So when I unplug them for speaker usage again it doesn't play a single thing through speakers. I can't seem to get it to work in audio settings either. The input/output are on default, and on my computer it is set properly because if I plug in my headphones I can listen to youtube, etc but any time I swap audio devices I need to reset Secondlife with those in. Whenever I accidentally bump or move my headphones it glitches again, so I am stuck having to reset it all the time. Is there a way to fix this without having to restart the viewer all the time? 

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't think the viewer checks constantly to see which Windows audio device is the "default".  If that changes while you're logged in, it would appear the viewer is sticking with the audio device that was the default when you started the viewer.

The only way I can see to get around this is if you have a set of speakers with a headphone jack in them (like the ones I have).  That way, the Windows audio device does not change, whether you are using the speakers or the headphones.

[Teef0926]

Ah, figured. Game had me taking apart the PC trying to figure out the two "Detect" switches inside the jack. Was gonna cut them out, isolate them, and bypass them with a toggle switch. I also read somewhere of going into the registry and changing "Dynamic Device Detection" from 0 to 1 but probably, most likely would have also tricked the USB ports alongside the headphone jack. Which would mean I computer wouldn't detect keyboard or mouse either I think which I'm not up for. Would constantly think the keyboard and mouse are in and how they are now, I believe anyway... So was gonna trick the two switches inside the jack for detection into thinking headphones are constantly in with the bypass but seems that wouldn't work either. They are inside the jack itself and I'd need to break it apart to isolate them, and then attach 3 physical switches into the bottom to turn on and off the jack detection. I didn't know what it has though tbh. I tried using bluetooth headphones. Sony MDR-XB950N1 stereo headsets with dual microphones in each ear housing. Problem using those is SL seems to think they are a main device, 100% default media device, as they are set on my computer to both default media device, and communication device. See, they are separated into two portions.... Headphones and Headset. From what I know the Headphones handle media, like music, game, video audio, and the Headset is VC/communication channels, so only 2 of the 4 plugins were sent to it's headphone portion. Game audio and media both to Headphones, and then VC is sent to headset but it doesn't support both at once so I can only use one or the other at once. I assume because bluetooth only supports one at a time. This is a major pain.... I had to superglue a metal tube to my headphones jack to act as an anchor point, and then cut out two gills in the bottom of my computers cover with the vents, and superglue another anchor to them to attach a rubber cable which I am going to slide a lock nut onto to pull the wire tight to hold the headphones into the jack. All I have to do is thread this rubber cable through the eyelets, pull it tight and lock it in place using the two nuts I stole off a backpack and should hold the headphones in solid. Dunno if this is gonna break the headphones or not but they're resilient and this might help me with other applications. Still don't get why if the headphones are unplugged you'd think it'd continue sending to them when they're not there, but the PC closes the plugins used to send to them, actually almost all the plugins so everything is lost at the slightest bump of the jack. They should somehow implement a feature to fix this... Forgot to mention computer is a HP G440 Probook using Conexant audio so can't even disable the jack detection like Realtek. Still looking to trick the PC into thinking they're in when they're not but apparently Windows 10 with these drivers and audio card doesn't support it. I'd have to physically hack something like these anchor points, a switch, or something. Dunno anything else I can do about this but this is where they SHOULD just fix it themselves somehow. Dunno how the game client/audio works but I assume there's gotta be some way they could fix this. Such a pain xP tsktsktsk.... 

[Lindal Kidd]

Wow...you lost me when you went inside the jack!

Good luck!!

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Some programs just don't change their audio output when the device changes or disappears. They assign it on startup and just assume it's going to keep existing.

On Windows 10 at least, you can still go and manually change the audio output per program.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator