How To Connect Speakers Or Headphones To A Dell Computer

Desktop computers have three or more audio connectors at the back (Figure 1) and some desktops also have a headphone and microphone, or a headphone/microphone combo connector on the front panel. Audio connectors on desktops and plugs on the sound card are color-coded to help connect the speaker correctly. On a Dell all-in-one computer, the speaker, headphone, or line-out connector are located at the back or the side of the computer. To learn model-specific information about the location of the audio connectors, see the documentation of your Dell computer.

NOTE: The front panel audio and USB connectors can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS or System Setup. See the documentation of your Dell computer to learn how to navigate to the BIOS and enable or disable the front panel audio ports.

Most laptops have one headphone/microphone combo connector (Figure 2).

1. Verify that the speakers are powered on. NOTE: Depending on the type or model, the speaker may use an AC adapter, USB cable, or batteries to provide power. See the user manual of the device to learn more.
2. Connect the speaker or headphone jack to the 'line-out' or 'speaker-out' (green) connector on the computer. NOTE: To learn more about the different type of audio connectors on a desktop computer, see the documentation of your Dell desktop.
3. Set the volume using the volume knob on the external speaker. For headphones, volume control is either through the application (media players like Windows Media Player or VLC, online video players like YouTube, Facebook video players and so on, or communication apps like Skype, Zoom, Discord, and so on) that is being used or the main Windows volume control in the system tray.
4. Set the volume on the computer.
5. Go to the next step to set the default audio playback device in Windows.

Figure 1: Illustration of color-coded audio ports on the back of a desktop computer. For model-specific information, see the documentation of your Dell computer. Figure 2: Illustration of a combo audio port on a laptop. For model-specific information, see the documentation of your Dell computer.