Pulling audio cable kills laptop instantly

shotgunefx · 04-03-2007, 01:53 PM

So I'm buttoning up my umpteenth take at my laptop install and I notice something odd that also happened to my last laptop install.

BTW, I'm running a laptop+dock, originally powered by an inverter, now a dell friendly auto-air .

I ended up yanking out the audio cable by mistake. I go to plug it in and POOF, the laptop has the power cut instantly. It only happens when the 1/8" jack is inserted while the laptop is running. (The audio is hooked up to a GLI and then a PAC-Turbo line driver which is wired to the amp)

This also happened on my first laptop (an older dell + dock) and it might have been it's death knell. On my first system, the audio stopped working (Don't think I had the GLI back then). Like it was burned out. Unfortunately, the dock jack wasn't supported by linux then (might be now), so I was using the headphone jack which got zapped, so I had to scrap it.

It's not a problem per-se as it's easily avoided, but I am curious.

Any one every have this happen or care to suggest possible explainations?

MatrixPC · 04-04-2007, 10:31 AM

Does it happen with the headphone?
If it is, I'll probably want to talk to DELL tech people to see what they said.
I'm going to try plug/unplug the headphone on some of the Dell we have in the office to see what happen.

shotgunefx · 04-04-2007, 10:41 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by MatrixPC

Does it happen with the headphone?
If it is, I'll probably want to talk to DELL tech people to see what they said.
I'm going to try plug/unplug the headphone on some of the Dell we have in the office to see what happen.

Sorry for not being more clear. It only happens when powered in the car. Either by an auto-air adapter or inverter. I'm not going to try it again as I said, think that killed the audio on my latitude that I was using at first.

I'm going to guess it's some ground potential issue or something.

GEN_ORION · 04-04-2007, 01:06 PM

laptops are very sensitive when connected to powered items. I fried 2 laptops at work by just static alone.

shotgunefx · 04-04-2007, 01:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by GEN_ORION

laptops are very sensitive when connected to powered items. I fried 2 laptops at work by just static alone.

Weird, I mean, a lineout jack, that's what it's for, you would think they would design it better. Or maybe they have cause this one didn't die, and the previous one was damaged LOL.

96CalibraYE · 04-06-2007, 01:56 PM

speaker outputs are line output, meaning that they are not amplified as such, plugging in or unplugging things into this jack shouldnt do any harm, as it should not be powered.
if you have a multimeter it would be good to test the jack to make sure you are not getting any feedback or anything through the audio connector.