headphone jack not working on Alienware m14x and kubuntu 12.10

[rpattie11]

I recently bought an Alienware m14x and have it set up to dual-boot. Most things are working however the most annoying thing that isn't is the headphone jacks.
When the headphone plug is inserted into the jack the system does not react. I think, once while toying with settings in the audio setup GUI i was able to get sound
out of the headphones, but the sound to the main speakers was not cut off. I haven't been able to reproduce this, so for now I'm assuming I was just hearing the output
of the main speakers bleeding through the headphones. I'm not really sure where to start looking for this, any help would be appreciated.

[dmeyer]

S/P DIF or normal analog headphone?

[rpattie11]

normal analog headphones. And i test things out again and found the using the System Settings -> Hardware-> Multimedia Phonon Audio Hardware Setup I can get the test sounds through the headphones if I use the built in audio and have the speakers activated in the device configuration menu. But this doesn't kill the sound to the speakers. If I activate the headphones in the drop down menu then i get no sound. I'm using simple cheap ear bud headphones so there's no volume slider or anything like that. Also this only works for one of my headphone jacks.

[dmeyer]

Hmm, have you tried pushing it further in? It sounds silly but it is a valid concern especially with a new computer whose port is still a little too tight.

Also, if they are cheap headphones I've noticed to save money some manufacturers take shortcuts and only one ear's stream provides the sound to both ears i.e. mono sound from stereo output (I'm taking about dirt cheap stuff here.) The pc can identify this as meaning its not properly plugged in.