Help Problem using headphone jack as aux

[ej67]

I tried using the jack to hook up to the car and a portable speaker system. When I did, the phone went crazy and the voice dialer screen came on the tried dialing a number from my contacts. Has anyone had this happen or know
what's going on?

 

[superchaos]

Happened to me when I tried to plug full size head phones in. I think if it draws too much power, it goes haywire. It doesn't happen with my earbuds.

 

[milnivlek]

This problem has been reported by quite a few people. Something to do with the phone's electrical grounding, supposedly. I believe there was a lengthy thread about this here or in one of the sub-forums.

 

[necosino]

It also has to do with how far in you push the jack. If it goes far enough, it makes contact with the line for a mic'd headset, so it thinks you have a headset plugged in. Then when it gets feedback (from grounding, interference, etc) it thinks you are making a voice command.

 

[veccster]

I use a regular headphone jack to my truck's AUX-in and it works just fine. HOWEVER, I also have the VZW silicon case and that prevents the jack from going in the whole way.

Maybe don't push it in the whole way - or use a rubber band around the jack as a spacer.

When I hook it up to the AUX, I can use the phone handsfree. The sound comes through the truck speakers and the microphone on the phone picks up my voice. HANDS FREE!!!

 

[Asterdroid]

I had this issue myself. It was because of the cable I was using. I bought the gold-plated gigaware cable from Radio Shack, and it works beautifully now.

I got the 2 foot version of this cable: Gigaware Aux Cable

 

[mtollin]

Same here. I was using an old cable, went out to Best Buy, bought a coiled Griffin for around $9 (pretty rugged), and everything now works perfect.

 

[AaronBBrown]

Happens to me when using any of my 4 different sets of headphones. I have a support request to Verizon and HTC about it. Verizon told me to take the phone in to have it checked out, but I'm going to wait until I hear from HTC.

Please, please, please, if you are having this issue, submit it to Verizon and HTC so that they can log it and note it as a common problem.

 

[trekay333]

I am trying to get my DI to run through my car stereo. Can anyone recomend a 3.5 jack to RCA that works well with the DI?

 

[x0x]

I am trying to get my DI to run through my car stereo. Can anyone recomend a 3.5 jack to RCA that works well with the DI?

I believe there are two recommendations above (Radio Shack and Griffin). I can also add Monster Cable to the list, mine works without an issue.

 

[ej67]

Thanks for all the feedback. I will try a different cable and see if it works.

 

[keegan1014]

Mine works fine with my full size SONY headphones from walmart

 

[jfunk]

Using a random old cable from a set of computer speakers, I experienced this issue plugging into my wife's Civic aux jack.

Just playing with the cable in the jack a little made it go away. It only happens when it "detects" a microphone (I'm assuming because it turns on a bunch of voice command type stuff automatically). You can tell when it does this, because the icon in the notification bar will show a full headset.

I just wiggled the connector a little bit until I got just the regular headphones icon in the notification area and it worked fine after that. She uses it pretty regularly in her car now and hasn't had a problem.

Perhaps adding some kind of software toggle for mic on/off would be the simple solution here, so the user can just override it if it happens to erroneously detect a mic plugged in.

 

[Asterdroid]

Using a random old cable from a set of computer speakers, I experienced this issue plugging into my wife's Civic aux jack.

Just playing with the cable in the jack a little made it go away. It only happens when it "detects" a microphone (I'm assuming because it turns on a bunch of voice command type stuff automatically). You can tell when it does this, because the icon in the notification bar will show a full headset.

I just wiggled the connector a little bit until I got just the regular headphones icon in the notification area and it worked fine after that. She uses it pretty regularly in her car now and hasn't had a problem.

Perhaps adding some kind of software toggle for mic on/off would be the simple solution here, so the user can just override it if it happens to erroneously detect a mic plugged in.

That is actually an awesome idea. Maybe someone could develop a widget that toggles the microphone? Beautiful Widgets creator, I'm looking at you.

 

[AaronBBrown]

Thanks for all the feedback. I will try a different cable and see if it works.

Please let HTC and Verizon know. The concept that "a different cable" is the solution is asinine.

 

[Tommy360]

Sort of related....does anyone know of a way to play streamed music (Pandora) through the USB instead of AUX?

 

[knowsomething]

Please let HTC and Verizon know. The concept that "a different cable" is the solution is asinine.

The grounding/electrical issue doesnt sound like something that can be fixed by a software patch, seems more like a hardware issue, and if so, I doubt they would come out and replace hundreds of thousands of phones since it seems like it happens to everyones. Best that would come out of it is improving it on the next model or edition.

Then again I could be wrong and it could be a software issue. Hmmm..I wonder.

 

[jfunk]

Please let HTC and Verizon know. The concept that "a different cable" is the solution is asinine.

Not necessarily. The fact that different cables demonstrate different behavior shows there is a good amount of wiggle room in the spec. When a new variable is added to a situation and a problem arises, that doesn't always mean it's that new variable's problem. Often the new variable is just exposing an existing problem that wasn't previously detected. This happens constantly in the software world. It's less common in hardware, as specs are usually more rigid, but it's not at all rare.

I'm not saying that's the case here, I'm just saying it's certainly possible. The cables exhibiting this issue could indeed be out of spec, but they've just gotten away with it because no popular device has been as "picky" in the past.

 

[AaronBBrown]

The grounding/electrical issue doesnt sound like something that can be fixed by a software patch, seems more like a hardware issue, and if so, I doubt they would come out and replace hundreds of thousands of phones since it seems like it happens to everyones. Best that would come out of it is improving it on the next model or edition.

Then again I could be wrong and it could be a software issue. Hmmm..I wonder.

Making them aware of the issue is important, otherwise they don't even know.

 

[AaronBBrown]

Not necessarily. The fact that different cables demonstrate different behavior shows there is a good amount of wiggle room in the spec. When a new variable is added to a situation and a problem arises, that doesn't always mean it's that new variable's problem. Often the new variable is just exposing an existing problem that wasn't previously detected. This happens constantly in the software world. It's less common in hardware, as specs are usually more rigid, but it's not at all rare.

I'm not saying that's the case here, I'm just saying it's certainly possible. The cables exhibiting this issue could indeed be out of spec, but they've just gotten away with it because no popular device has been as "picky" in the past.

I have 4 different sets of headphones. ALL of them experience this problem. They range from $10 cheapos, to Apple earbuds, to a $100 Shure set. It's not a problem with the cable and Verizon/HTC need to be made aware.

 

[jfunk]

I have 4 different sets of headphones. ALL of them experience this problem. They range from $10 cheapos, to Apple earbuds, to a $100 Shure set. It's not a problem with the cable and Verizon/HTC need to be made aware.

Are you sure you don't have something preventing the cable from being inserted all the way?

You post made me curious so I just grabbed 4 different audio cables from my box 'o junk and tested them out.

I can recreate the problem every time by not pushing the cable all the way into the jack. As long as I give a little force and make sure it's ALL the way in, it only detects as headphones with no mic. One of the cables has an end that is too fat and I had to take my body glove case off to get it to push all the way into the slot. It LOOKS like it's going all the way in with the case on at first, but if examined closely I can see that it's hitting near the bottom of the sloped cut-out in the case.

 

[AaronBBrown]

Are you sure you don't have something preventing the cable from being inserted all the way?

Yes, I'm sure. Also, it doesn't always happen. Sometimes it will take a half hour of listening to music before the icon flips to headset or it starts bringing up the voice dialer, or randomly skipping tracks, etc, etc.

Read the forums here...this problem is fairly common and given that every other device ever manufactured does not have this issue, it seems like there is either a software bug or a hardware issue with the device itself.

 

[SingJsong]

Just don't get a cheapo cable and everything will work fine. Simple as that...

 

[renesis22]

Purchased a cheap ol' Scosche retractable male to male 3.5mm and it works fine. The only thing that doesn't transfer as well is the bass (this may be attributed to the fact it's streaming from Pandora) so I have the bass turned all the way up~

The only real problem I have run into was when I was dialing out, Pandora didn't automatically lower the volume. Got really confusing with music and trying to talk to my friend. On the other hand, when it's an incoming call, Pandora automatically mutes and it's just like having a Bluetooth system in the car.

All in all... Awesome!

 

[TheBeardedMann]

I use Pandora and Last.fm at work via my Incredible and have the same problem when I connect it to my desktop speakers. And no I can't change the wires since its hardwired into the speakers.