So I have a brand new computer,
DELL XPS720
XP OS
Creative SB X-Fi sound card.
Head phones work, but the speakers don’t. Other speakers don’t. Plug the speakers into the head phones port and they work. Just the speakers port doesn’t.
Are your speakers powered, in other words, do they have a built-in amplifier? If not, you’re never going to get any sound from the ‘speaker out’ jack, as it’s a passive, low power signal.
As it turns out though, it was something just as bad as not plugging in power…
The machine comes with a sound chip on the mother board. I was plugging into that set of jacks.
However, I bought it with a better sound card installed. I was plugging into the wrong set of jacks. Once I plugged into the card’s jacks all was well.
I think that is one of those things where, if they are out of ideas, they say: go reinstall the OS. If nothing else it will get the guy off the phone for a while. When he calls back it will be someone else’s problem.