Need help with sound! (Think it's the audio out on my monitor)

This has caused an absolute nightmare! Imagine being stuck in bed all evening with your wife with NO sound! One night - sure you can hump. Two, three, four nights now of having to go downstairs to watch some tube and/or movies! Aaaaah!

Here is my situation. I am using a S2740L. It's one of dells cheaper panels but it's new and plenty nice to use as a television. We currently have no tv after just moving and the monitor has been working as such via an HDMI coming from the cable box (uverse if relevant). I then plug a pair of logitech desktop speakers into the audio out and use the cable box remote to adjust the audio from the cable box.

From time to time, we swap the hdmi from the cable box to the laptop and play movies via vlc, again with sound coming out the speakers connected to the monitors audio out.

This worked perfectly until either A) I went to bed one night, woke up and had no sound or B) woke up and muted the sound for a phone call and after un muting I had no sound. I am unsure which but it boils down to sound one night, none the following AM.

After calling my wife to find out if she messed with anything, I began troubleshooting. First I tried hdmi from tv - nothing. Then I tried hdmi from the laptop - nothing. I then swapped out the hdmi cable thinking perhaps the audio portion somehow went bad - nothing. After that I checked the menu on the display thinking perhaps their was a mute within the menu that accidently got hit when the wife turned it on/off, unfortunately - nothing.

At this point I assumed the speakers died as I had problems with them before. I swapped them out for another set and still - nothing.

I'm lost! What are my options here? A new tv is out of the cards at the moment. Did my audio out actually die? Isn't that basically all that is left? If not what else can I do to be positive that is my issue?

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? The monitor isn't even a year old! If this is the problem, is it fixable? Do I have any other options to get sound? Cheap ones I mean! I tried googling it but it literally seems like I'm the first one to ever kill an audio out jack?

Any help that can be offered would be amazing. Not having tv in the bedroom just plain sucks! Our ancestors had it bad

so... is it still under warranty?


also:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...t_Display/dell-s2740l_User's Guide2_en-us.pdf

might want to look here and do the factory reset... can't hurt (other than having to reset any options afterwards).


i mean it seems like you have tried the obvious stuff..sometimes stuff quits working, if it is under 1yrs old seems like it should be in warranty and trying to get it RMA'd might be in order?

Oh - i did the factory reset as well thought I listed that.

As far as age, im not POSITIVE but it very well may be under a year. I mean i know its not much older if it is, i just cant remember when i purchase things these days. Besides I no longer have the receipt so who's to say

Either way - perhaps I'll contact dell and see if they will help me if no one else has any other suggestions.

I do have one idea which wont help for the TV, but may help for using it to play video with sound. Will a headphone jack send audio to desktop speakers? Could I technically play video via VLC with the laptop connected to the monitor. Drag the window to the monitor so it appears on the "tv" but use the headphone jack connected to the speakers for sound? Or will this not even work?

Other than that - i guess i better start looking into a possible warranty replacement or somewhere that can offer me a repair.

I know someitmes things quit workig just in my experience its not often with no sign at all, nor is it while its off I figured this is what happened right away but when I find ZERO other cases via google, i began to second guess my assumption.

Anyways, anyone with any other ideas/suggestions and a comment regarding my "solution" lol?

Thanks guys - as always!

Well.. the speakers do work via the headphone output onthe laptop.. so i atleast have "some" video entertainment that way

I guess that means the audio out went bad on the monitor for sure. Does anyone know what part goes "bad" on those and if its repairable? Ie: if i could take it in to a repair shop for an easy fix or im just stuck/screwed w/ a handicapped display? Its not high end or anything (S2740L) but it is new enough that im stupefied it just went out like that. Especially considering I hadnt even began using the audio out portion up until about 6 months ago.

Oddly just one of those things I guess. Either way if anyone has any suggestions... ie: if theirs a potential solder in there that broke or if we're talking like.. burned out baby amp that needs replacing or something.. Im clueless as to the inner workings of an audio pass thru but im certainly not afraid to crack it open if pointed in the right direction

until next time!