Headphones Not Working on a Lenovo Laptop? Try These Fixes

Using your headphones with your laptop makes it easy to listen to music and videos without everyone around you hearing. Finding that your headphones are not working can be annoying and cause you not to be able to work properly. 

If the headphones are not working, manually set the audio to headphones by going into Systems, then click Sound, choose Output Device, then choose Headphones. There are also some other solutions if this doesn’t work. 

We will go over all the solutions to headphones that aren’t working in this article. 

Why Aren’t My Headphones Working on My Lenovo Laptop? 

There are many reasons your headphones might not be working, but most of the solutions are easy fixes. Try the three solutions below before resetting the laptop or calling support. 

Manually Setting the Audio to Headphones 

If you notice your headphones are not working, you might need to manually set the headphones as the default device. 

Try these steps to set up the headphones:

1. Right-click the Windows icon under the Start setting. 
2. Select System. 
3. Select Sound. 
4. Check the Output Device under Output. 
5. Select Headphones. 
6. If the headphones still won’t work, unplug them and then plug them back in. 

This is usually the easiest way to fix the headphones, but you have to follow some other methods if you find that your headphones still aren’t working. 

Using the Audio Troubleshooter

Lenovo laptops that operate on Windows 10 have an audio troubleshooter that you can use if your headphones are not working to see what the potential issue might be. 

To use the troubleshooter, use these steps:

1. Right-click the Sound icon in the taskbar. 
2. Select Troubleshoot Sound Problems. 
3. You can also right-click the Windows icon under the start menu. 
4. Select System. 
5. Select Sound. 
6. Select Troubleshoot under the Output menu. 

The computer will run a test and see what the potential problem might be. It might give you some steps to solve the issue depending on what the troubleshooting system says. 

Your audio drive might also be the cause of the issues and you should try to update it. 

Updating and Rolling Back Audio Drivers 

If your headphones were working before an update to the computer, the problem might lie with the update. Sometimes headphones stop working because the driver hasn’t been updated or the driver updated and now there is a bug in the system in the audio driver that’s causing the headphones to not connect properly. 

Follow these steps to fix the audio driver:

1. Right-click the Windows icon under the Start Menu. 
2. Select Device Manager. 
3. Find the driver under the Sound, Video, and Game Controllers section. 
4. Right-click the headphone driver. 
5. Select Properties. 
6. Select the Driver Tab. 
7. Select Roll Back Driver. 

If there is a choice to roll back the driver, this means the driver was recently updated and might have put a bug in the audio system. If the rollback option is grayed out, then you might need to update the system instead as the old system could be causing the audio issues. 

Click the Update button in this case and let the computer run through the update cycles. 

Why Isn’t There Sound Coming from My Headphones? 

There are several reasons there might not be sound coming from your headphones. First, you need to isolate the issue to see if the problem is with your headphones or the computer itself. 

Check the Headphones 

The problem might be with your headphones and not your computer. Try plugging the headphones into another device and see if they work. If they aren’t working, try another pair of headphones with your computer and see if they work. 

You can also follow these tips for testing the device:

1. Make sure the headphones are plugged completely into the computer. 
2. Make sure the headphones are charged if they require a battery. 
3. Adjust the volume on the computer’s speakers. 
4. See if the audio works without headphones directly from the computer. 

By following the steps above, you should be able to tell whether the problem is with the headphones or the computer. If the computer has audio issues, you will need to completely uninstall the audio driver. 

Uninstalling the Audio Driver 

Follow these steps to uninstall the drive so you can reset it:

1. Under the search icon, search and open the Device Manager. 
2. Open Sound and Gaming Controllers. 
3. Click Audio Device. 
4. Right-click it and choose Uninstall. 
5. Click Delete the Driver Software. 
6. Restart the system. 
7. Check Device Manager again. 
8. It should now say High-Definition Audio. 

This brings you back to the generic drive. Try using the headphones and see if they work now. 

In Summary 

Now that you know some basic fixes for your headphones not working, you’re hopefully back to listening to your music and podcasts. Checking the audio troubleshooter on the Lenovo laptops and updating the audio drivers are both easy ways to ensure your headphones are always working. 

If you would like to learn more about your Lenovo Laptop, check out this article.