My PC does not like my headphones anymore

Mellow · May 26, 2026, 10:29am

This is very weird, like really. It started 4-5 days ago. I started my PC like almost every day and suddenly there is no sound.
I rebooted, re-plugged and all that, nothing. I also updated, still, nothing. Thought my headphones broke, plugged them into my ROG Ally (running SteamOS), my Switch (running SwitchOS i guess), my Laptop (running EOS). They work.
So I tried different headphones, also don’t work. Tried another set of 15+ year old cheap headphones that have a “very good sound-quality” where you definitely don’t get ear cancer… THEY WORK?!

So to clarify, the 2 Headphones, that out of nowhere don’t work on my PC anymore are:

Razer Kraken X Lite
Razer Opus

But these super old in-ear i don’t even know what brand headphones work. I’m sad.
They also use the same port (idk how its called in english 3.5mm Audio port? Not USB just the standard thing) so the port isn’t faulty, and the headphones are also good as they work anywhere else.

What I noticed from troubleshooting so far:
I have this couple days old screenshot that i put here on the forum to explain something and how it looks on my side (where it still worked)

This is how it looks now:

I am missing stuff. And none of the given options work. Guess I really NEED my Analog Stereo Duplex back.

Screenshot of how it looks on Laptop where it works (seems to be entirely differently built)

If I go into this weird program here (on the internet everyone talks about “pavucontrol” and when i type it, “Lautstärkeregler” pops up so i guess this is it) i see my Analog Stereo Duplex but i cant select it as it isn’t connected for whatever reason, it is connected but my PC thinks it isn’t.

I have also tried running systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber as it was suggested somewhere on the internet.. Nothing happened.
And because of this weird trend that both headphones that don’t work are from Razer, I tried deinstalling the openrazer-daemon and polychromatic which I had installed but of course due to my luck it also didn’t change my situation.
(think its just for controlling lights anyway, but it appears the openrazer devs have some issues currently with the Kernel (cant build module etc) so I thought it may be related).

I also installed the LTS-Kernel due to my history with Kernels, but also no change.
No idea why it works on my Laptop but not on my PC as I set everything up similarly (I just didnt install openrazer on the Laptop) but i never mess with sound, or anything that just works out of the box to be fair. (I also said something similar when my Laptop made problems while my PC was fine,.. right? Maybe I get lucky and it fixes itself again, hopefully sooner though and not after 10 months)

Some info about that PC:

inxi -FAZ --no-host

System:
  Kernel: 6.18.33-1-lts arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.5 Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B760M-K v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends
    v: 1805 date: 10/30/2024
CPU:
  Info: 20-core (8-mt/12-st) model: Intel Core i7-14700KF bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP cache: L2: 28 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1030 min/max: 800/5500:5600:4300 cores: 1: 1030 2: 1030
    3: 1030 4: 1030 5: 1030 6: 1030 7: 1030 8: 1030 9: 1030 10: 1030 11: 1030
    12: 1030 13: 1030 14: 1030 15: 1030 16: 1030 17: 1030 18: 1030 19: 1030
    20: 1030 21: 1030 22: 1030 23: 1030 24: 1030 25: 1030 26: 1030 27: 1030
    28: 1030
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA AD103 [GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER] driver: nvidia
    v: 595.71.05
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.22 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.11
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting
    gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1920x1080~144Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,nvidia-drm,swrast
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.6 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 595.71.05
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.350 drivers: nvidia surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD103 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.18.33-1-lts status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.5 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: 08:bf:b8:d5:2d:ad
  Device-2: Realtek 802.11ac NIC driver: rtw88_8821cu type: USB
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 1c:bf:ce:eb:fc:e3
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel RST Volume Management Device Controller driver: vmd
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.64 TiB used: 701.84 GiB (18.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 PRO 2TB size: 1.82 TiB
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Kingston model: SNV2S2000G size: 1.82 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.78 TiB used: 701.84 GiB (38.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 1022 MiB used: 636 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 1.78 TiB used: 701.84 GiB (38.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 1.78 TiB used: 701.84 GiB (38.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 34.24 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.12 GiB used: 5.41 GiB (17.4%)
  Processes: 519 Uptime: 55m Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.40

inxi -Aaz

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_avs,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7a50 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD103 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22bb class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.18.33-1-lts status: kernel-api
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.6.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

So, if anyone has an idea on what is wrong please send help (I hate getting ear cancer, and love listening to good music with decent sound-quality)

Edit:

Stuff from comments for those who dont want to dig through them:

I tried to disable Auto-Mute in alsamixer (it already was disabled)
when I force pavucontrol to use the “Analog Stereo Duplex (unplugged)(unavailable)” my headphones work… but only in KDE Settings where i can test my headphones “front left” “front right”. anywhere else they dont work, like spotify, Youtube, games on steam…
I also deleted wireplumbers local state with rm -r ~/.local/state/wireplumber/ that didnt change anything either
I also tried hdajackretask nothing changed
Also tested a 4th set of headphones (Sony) they also dont work, so its not just Razer now. Why this 1 set of heaphones work and all the others dont, will remain a mystery it seems.

milkytwix · May 26, 2026, 10:58am

Just a shot in the dark: Can you try pro audio?

(Sagt man shot in the dark statt schuss ins blaue? …)

thefrog · May 26, 2026, 11:01am

These were recently updated. Can you downgrade and get the headphones to work?

raiin · May 26, 2026, 11:42am

i do have regression in the past update of pipewire 1.6.5-1 so i downgrade it to 1.6.4-1 but with the latest release 1.6.5-2 it has been fixed. maybe try to update/downgrade or maybe try ALSA instead of PulseAudio maybe it is there what you are looking for.

Mellow · May 26, 2026, 1:25pm

I tried but it doesn’t work either

I think so, probably.. yes

Mellow · May 26, 2026, 1:43pm

Do I have to fear problems with it as it is like a lot of dependencies with it and I am not shure what other packages also depend on it?
Does downgrade handle that or do i need a list?

well i currently have 1.6.5-2 but that got installed like yesterday or so, so whatever fixed it for you didn’t change anything for me. so if previous version i had was 1.6.5-1 that may have introduced this issue for me.. maybe, idk. could be something else too, who knows.

I completely forgot how to switch, i knew it like 2 years ago or so but forgot.. damn have to look into it again (might have been some tool garuda had but endeavour doesnt have it)
Also i think im running Pipewire, not PulseAudio as you say (unless i’m reading wrong)

raiin · May 26, 2026, 2:54pm

pulseaudio is bundled with pipewire.. since i saw pipewire-pulse
maybe you should wait a little longer as it is declared in arch repo outdated
and pipewire is now 1.6.6 but if you cant wait.. i just pacman -Qe | grep pipewire list all of them including libpipewire dependency and execute all in one line. sudo downgrade pipewire libpipewire… to bypass restriction in downgrading.

Mellow · May 27, 2026, 2:10pm

Ok sadly the 1.6.6-1 update didn’t do it for me either.

But. As I continued trying to search for a fix (thinking i cant be the only one) the AI overview output caught my eye, so i tried it out (as it doesnt mess with configs, so i thought it cant hallucinate me into a broken system)

And yes, it worked… well, partially.
Going into “pavucontrol” and forcing it to the analog stereo output worked, as i now get sound when clicking the “test” button in the kde settings.
Problem, it only works there. so i still dont get sound when using spotify, youtube or any game or anything else (just as i wanted to celebrate).
so i guess other programs dont get the message to use the thing that isnt supposed to work.

(I also tried using a splitter for the 3.5mm audio port, but that also didnt change anything, which was suggested on some sites)

On the Arch wiki there is a section about “auto-switching” not shure if that is relevant for my issue (i have no idea what they mean with “auto-switching”)

Not shure if i should try that (seems to be bluetooth related when u click on “this comment” but i dont know if it could also help in my situation or if it is even related as i dont understand the term itself? this is the very reason i dont like reading the arch wiki btw, many complicated words with no explanation)

Mellow · May 29, 2026, 9:53am

Update: Have now also tried hdajackretask as this is mentioned a lot online… But it also didn’t change anything

… really it is so weird that forcing the “unplugged” analog stereo output “works” in settings but not anywhere else. i really dont know what to do about it. like IT WORKS, but at the same time it doesnt.

Mellow · June 1, 2026, 10:10am

man, i finally found someone who looks like they had the exact same issue like me.. but its old… and it got locked after just 2 months without solution… why…?

like why… if they did manage to get a solution.. they couldn’t even answer

smokey · June 1, 2026, 10:35am

A lot can change in arch linux and its derivatives in a couple of months and when people respond to old threads it can muddy the waters and make it hard to solve things.

raiin · June 1, 2026, 11:38am

this might be another case of faulty jack sensing.

either there is rust, stack debris or worst broken jack sensing.

Mellow · June 1, 2026, 11:53am

Please read again. It is impossible to be a physical/hardware issue. If I force it through pavucontrol it works in kde settings. Just not anywhere else, in the settings themselves it also looks buggy but the headphone test works, just no sound in other programs. The issue is software

raiin · June 1, 2026, 11:54am

have you tried messing with alsamixer as suggested by AI.

Mellow · June 1, 2026, 11:56am

I did the step 1 as well if you mean the screenshot I posted which mentions alsamixer. The automute was disabled out of the box

raiin · June 1, 2026, 12:01pm

last resort might be forcing to use ALSA instead of pipewire

Mellow · June 1, 2026, 12:03pm

Yeah that would be very last resort to try using something else, be it alsa or pipewire or anything else

casten · June 8, 2026, 4:46am

I think i’m also having a similar issue - headphones definitely worked last month, didn’t use it in a little bit but now, i’m not sure which update, but it doesn’t look like my headphones are being used.

pavucontrol shows it switched to headphones (plugged in) but the sound doesn’t switch

alsamixer shows something similar

i deleted the saved state for wireplumber/restarted, tried the auto headphone switcher config, nothing seems to work

has anyone found anything that works?

Edit: seems like if i use a usbc dongle from my phone and connect my headphones that way, it works.

Mellow · June 9, 2026, 10:11am

Well, that is a difference to what i am experiencing.
Mine says something like Analog Stereo Duplex (unplugged)(not available) which are my headphones. and when i force it to use it anyway it works,.. but only in kde settings, not anywhere else. (That is the case in 3 out of 4 headphones for some reason, I tested another set of headphones recently, sony, they have the same issue as my 2 razer headphones)
Your headphones on the other hand get detected, just doesn’t switch to it. The things you tried are the things I would have suggest you to try, so I dont know what to do here either. Sorry.

Schlaefer · June 9, 2026, 12:14pm

The clue is indeed in the plasma volume settings: It shows two active cards, which usually means the default hasn’t moved.

The plasma test sound works, because it connects directly to sink. I bet if you route audio manually from an app to that sink e.g. in qpwgraph it will play audio too.

Something is holding up pipewire to accept it as valid audio default output. You could try from the CLI with wpctl status and wpctl set-default <id>.