I have an HP ze4145 (Laptop) and my headphone jack after 2 years has broken on me. Before it completely broke I would have to move the plug around inside the jack to try and get the right connection. Now that im completely missing a headphone jack I have two questions. First, is there any way i can disable the jack and force all of the audio to come out of my laptop speakers? and Second, Would i be able to buy a new jack or soundcard and how much would it cost on average? Thank you to anyone who can help.

In case anyone else was having this same prob with the broken jack... i dont know how healthy this is for the comp, but i just got back from lunch and i had a peice of foil left, so i folded it up and jammed it in where the jack goes and success!!!!!!!!!!

I had the same problem with my IBM Thinkpad. I took the whole thing apart and found the mic jack had the same manufacturer's part number as the headphone jack. With great difficulty, and a small soldering iron, I was able to remove both jacks and install the mic jack where the headphone jack was. It works great. Just a note to be careful of what you let the soldering iron get near--the heat will destroy resistors. I did damage one of the pins on the mic jack, but was able to get it into the hole far enough to make a solder joint. You might want to get some low-temp solder to make that part easier. I tried to find a replacement jack given that I had a part number, but cannot find it anywhere. If you don't have the skills for this, I think a repair shop should be able to make the swap for a nominal charge.

hey guys..
i have the same kind of problem.. when i was playing around one day, i carelessly pushed my headphone jack into my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop. Now, when ever i try to play sound, my laptop believes that it has headphones in, but i can't plug any in due to the fact that the jack is broken. So i have no sound on my laptop which really sucks coz im away at boarding school and need to be entertained!! HELP!! Is there anyway i can bypass the headphone jack without having to dissassemble the laptop itself??