T460s - No 3.5mm jack audio output, but working speakers and jack detection

[Sanras]

Really weird issue here. I recently received and rebuilt a T460s with a dead iGPU, replacing the motherboard with a better one from a laptop that was missing the screen and had a super beat up chassis. Everything seems to work great, except for lid close detection, and audio jack. I've found the lid close to be caused by a missing magnet in the bottom of the chassis, so I'll go ahead and replace that. I can definitely trigger a sleep event by putting a magnet near the sensor, so that should fix it. (Although I do wonder why it's not there. I checked my parts laptop and it does have the magnet, but it's like welded in there. I can't pry it out no matter what I do.)

However, the audio jack issue has me stumped. I have no clue what can be causing it. If I play audio from say, Spotify, that works fine over the speakers and the audio plays fine. If I plug in some earbuds, I hear some crackling while plugging them in, then speakers turn off, and I hear nothing on the earbuds. Operating system shows earbuds as plugged in. I tested this on both Windows 10 and Linux (EndeavourOS), and they both do jack detection fine, but never play any audio over the 3.5 mm jack.

Now, I thought maybe the old laptop's 3.5mm and sd card reader daughterboard was the issue, as those two things are on their own little board that connects via ribbon cable to the mainboard. So, I went ahead and replaced the 3.5mm jack daughterboard with the one from the parts laptop. (So now the mobo and 3.5 daughterboard are from the same laptop) Aaand, the same thing happened again! Jack detection works, but no audio is routed via the 3.5 mm jack. I tested the SD card reader as well just to see if the daughterboard is working fine, and yes, the SD card shows up in the file explorer fine. It seems like everything on the 3.5mm+SD daughterboard works fine, except audio.

I highly doubt this is anything software related, as speakers do play audio when the earbuds are unplugged. The issue also occurs on both Linux and Windows. Any ideas?

[RealBlackStuff]

How about trying some other earbuds/headphones?

[Sanras]

How about trying some other earbuds/headphones?

Tried multiple, same result every time. I also know that all of the audio devices I tested work fine.

[Sanras]

How about trying some other earbuds/headphones?

I also now tried booting my old broken mobo with the bad iGPU, and was able to get it to play an MP3 off my usb drive. The audio jack worked perfectly fine, and I know I had tried that daughterboard before and it didn't work. So, I can only assume there is some sort of problem with the audio jack output on this mobo.

[RealBlackStuff]

Start digging with the help of these schematics.

[Sanras]

Start digging with the help of these schematics.

Thanks, I'll try taking a look at that. Gonna bookmark for now.

[keithsketchley]

In the T480 there's a zoo of settings/turnons needed.

Two different audio programs, and don't overlook F1 Mute.

It's User Hostile.

[Sanras]

In the T480 there's a zoo of settings/turnons needed.

Two different audio programs, and don't overlook F1 Mute.

It's User Hostile.

No, I don't think this is software. Speakers work, only headphones don't. When I insert headphones, they crackle and hiss, not something that's supposed to happen. Both Linux and Windows display the same behavior.

I have working headphones on my bad motherboard when booting Linux and Windows. I am almost certain that the hardware for the headphone jack in my main motherboard is faulty somehow. For now, I've gotten myself a USB 3.5mm adapter that plugs into a USB port, so I've basically got a working headphone jack on the side of the laptop so long as I plug it into that USB card.

This is my setup currently: https://i.imgur.com/eHoUqYY.jpeg

[RealBlackStuff]

Maybe you can replace that audio-jack?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/201989906393

[Sanras]

Maybe you can replace that audio-jack?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/201989906393

Definitely won't help, as I've already tried this, in a way. Remember, I have two 3.5mm+SD card reader daughterboards, one from this laptop and one from a parts laptop. Each daughterboard has it's own jack.

I've tried both boards in my main laptop, and neither worked, Linux or Windows.

I then tried one of those daughterboards in my bad iGPU mobo, and booted into Linux from the same iso I tested on my main. Sound worked perfectly on the audio jack right out of the box.

I checked the ribbon connector for the daughterboard that goes into the main mobo, and it looks perfectly fine to me. The SD card reader on the same daughterboard as the 3.5 jack also works perfectly, so I assume the ribon connector for the daughterboard is also fine.

I think some chip on the mobo itself is dead. It can't be the RTL audio chip itself as speakers work, but whatever pipes audio to the jack is likely dead.

[axur-delmeria]

Some thoughts

1. It's possible that the Realtek sound chip is mostly working, but with nonfunctional parts.
I was given a Sound Blaster Live which worked great except for the bad line inputs. Since the owner liked to record music from his vinyl records, it was useless for him. So I helped him find a replacement, and got a generic Crystal Soundfusion CS4280.

2. Try scouring the web for schematics of the T460s who knows, maybe there's an opamp or other component that may need replacing.