Only one speaker working when I connect my notebook to my receiver.

[Immortalisland]

I have a Dell Latitude D600 Notebook nothing upgraded except maybe the memory up from 512mb to 1GB memory. I am trying to play a movie on my notebook through my TV, I have an S-video cable connected from the notebook to the TV directly and that is working fine.

My problem is my audio, I have a regular red and white RCA jacks with headphone connections, and I have those connected from the headphone jack on my notebook to the RCA jacks on my receiver. I get sound from only one speaker. If I reverse the red and white cables I get sound only from the other speaker. I'm not trying to get surround sound as I only have two speakers connected to my receiver, I just wanted to be able to hear from both the left and right speakers. I've tried replacing the RCA cables and I also tried an RCA cable that has the yellow video on it as well (even though i didn't need to use the yellow) I only used the red and white cables. Same problem. If I set the receiver to radio I can hear from both speakers at the same time. I've also tried updating the codecs on my notebook to the latest klite codecs pack with the same results.

The receiver is an older Pioneer VSX-D509S I can switch between analog and digital on certain settings like the CD setting, DVD setting, and a couple others. Well that's the problem from everything I can remember, if I didn't include something its late and my brain cells have receded for the night so I'll answer any questions on the morrow, thanks for any help/suggestions in advance. Almost forgot, if I play the movie from the notebook only I hear both left and right on the notebook, and it is a stereo movie, but I've tried other movies and I have the same problem, songs do the same, I also tried putting it on majic 102.7 to stream music live and I get the same results.

[ZippyP.]

Have you tried plugging in a known good set of headphones? Can you hear both channels through them? If yes then your stereo splitter is to blame, if no then your laptop is to blame.

[jagabo]

Make sure you are using a stereo to dual RCA, not a mono to dual RCA, adaptor/cable. The stereo version has three or four metal sections on the pin plug. The mono version has only two.

[SLK001]

I also tried putting it on majic 102.7 to stream music live and I get the same results.

South Florida guy, eh?

Make sure that your plug is plugged all the way in. Actually look at the plug. If you can see any of the metal plug, then it is not plugged in all the way.

It sounds stupid, but some of the jacks latch so hard that the user believes that it is all the way engaged. The symptom of a "half-way" engaged plug is only one speaker playing.

[Immortalisland]

Tried the set of headphones i use on my zune player and I can hear sound coming out of both sides (listening to Lyfe Jennings, [you think you got it bad]), checked the cables I'm using and the pin/plug has 3 metal sections on it, so does the replacement I got.

As for the plug being all the way in, I had not checked that before, but checking it now the plug is all the way up to the black rubber section of the plug, no metal can be seen at all.

I have also checked today, the sound settings on the notebook and have tried them all, including "stereo headphones". It was originally on "desktop stereo speakers". I shouldn't have to restart my computer after each of those changes but I did for stereo headphones just to be sure.

[jagabo]

Well, you've verified that the computer is putting out audio on both the left and right channels with a pair of headphones. You've verified the amp is producing sound from both the left and right inputs by reversing the cable leads. That leaves only one conclusion: the cables are bad -- even though you've tried two and they appear to be the correct type.

[Immortalisland]

Two sets of bad cables?, definitely possible, I guess ill have to go out and get another pair. Does it make a big difference if the cable has the yellow video on it as well, or should i specifically get just the red and white cable?

[jagabo]

Two sets of bad cables?, definitely possible, I guess ill have to go out and get another pair.

I would go over you entire troubleshooting process again. Maybe you made a mistake at some point.

Does it make a big difference if the cable has the yellow video on it as well, or should i specifically get just the red and white cable?

The yellow video cable doesn't make any difference to the audio cables. It's a completely separate cable within the plastic shielding.

I like to use little stereo pin plug to RCA converters along with standard RCA-RCA cables:

[Immortalisland]

Make sure you are using a stereo to dual RCA, not a mono to dual RCA, adaptor/cable. The stereo version has three or four metal sections on the pin plug. The mono version has only two.

Well I ended up replacing the "stereo Y adapter" or so it was called at walmart, and it fixed the problem. The picture you posted was the only type of y adapter that I could find at three different stores and all of them only had 2 black sections on the metal plugs.

Even though it was only 2 black sections it still works fine and I can hear from both sides. So my movies are working alot better now, thanks for all the help everyone.

[jagabo]

Even though it was only 2 black sections it still works fine and I can hear from both sides. So my movies are working alot better now, thanks for all the help everyone.

I was referring to the metal sections, not the black band. Two black bands give you three metal sections: ground, left, and right. One black band gives you only two metal sections, ground and signal.

Now that you have sound on both speakers you should verify you have stereo (two independent channels), not dual mono (the same sound on both sides).

[Immortalisland]

Other than looking for a movie that has two different sounds from each speaker at the same time, how else can I test if I have stereo and not dual mono?