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Any pair of headphones I plug into my laptop's audio jack only has the audio come through its right side. I've read this thread and tried all of the tests mentioned in the original post to confirm this behavor. They are pasted below:

  • Tried a different set of headphones with the same results.
  • Tried both in another device and the audio came through both sides.
  • Made sure that the connector was plugged all the way into the jack.
  • Checked the audio balance: it is set to the middle.
  • Unplugged the headphones and the audio was normal through the built-in speakers.

The suggested solution of adjusting the master volume does not work for me.

I am using a Lenovo Y50, a stereo laptop running Windows 10. This behavior was present ever since I've had it. From my description, it sounds like a hardware issue, but I believe it to be some sort of software issue due to the strange behavior mentioned in the title:

While plugging in any pair of headphones into the jack, at about 3/4 of the way fully in, the sound briefly behaves correctly and the audio is heard through both sides for about a second, before two short and quiet static sounds (like the sound you hear when you unplug headphones from a jack while listening to them) are heard and then the operation appears to "switch" to just sending sound to the right side.

What's very strange and makes me think this is a software problem is the fact that this effect is absolutely repeatable. The time of the "proper functioning" part and the sound of the two static noises are always the same duration and timing.

Remnants of this effect are even heard if plugging in the headphones in one motion, as normal. When doing so, the right ear is only heard, but then the sound briefly drops out, and comes back again as if it is changing sound modes, restarting an audio device, or something like that.

What could be causing this effect? Is this a software issue? How would I fix it?

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    Did you try the pluging headphones in 3/4 on the other devices? Many of the connection ports for the 3.5mm stereo will do the same thing, when the connection for one channel sits on the 2 connections (L+R) on the plug that you are inserting. If that was occuring you are only hearing Mono through both channels and a stereo test file would prove that. I do not think you have described anything (yet) that points to anything other than the jack on the board itself is not connecting proper , somewhere.
    – Psycogeek
    Jun 2, 2016 at 20:50
  • @Psycogeek I wasn't aware of that. I'll try out the 3/4 thing on another device and report back. Jun 3, 2016 at 1:28
  • @Psycogeek Sorry for the delay. I just tried plugging the headphones in 3/4 of the way on other computers, and was not able to reproduce the effect of "temporarily stereo and then mono" that I'm getting on my laptop. Does this still mean it could be a hardware issue, or does it rule it out? Jun 10, 2016 at 22:52
  • Well you could test using a stereo test file. You can make a stereo test file with any audio program, or 2 mics or other ways. I would wonder if there was some way to Easily test with a different OS , which would be completely different drivers for the audio, so you can test the software aspect of it.
    – Psycogeek
    Jun 11, 2016 at 8:58
  • @Psycogeek I did before open up a GarageBand-esque program and create a simple track with one distinct sound on each ear. This confirmed for me that when I was only hearing audio through one side that I was not hearing a mono mix of both sides, but was hearing only that side's audio. Jun 11, 2016 at 21:49

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