Welcome back, in today’s video I’ll be showing you methods to try and fix headphones that are
only working on one side in Windows 10 or 11. I’ll be showing you in Windows 11,
but the tips will work in Windows 10 as well. If you can’t find some of the options, you can
always use the search box to get there. Remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe if
the video helps, let’s get into the methods! There is a chance that this issue has occurred
due to physical damage or a loose connection within the headphones and
unfortunately I won’t be able to help with that but I do have a lot of methods that
could help if physical damage isn’t the cause. Firstly, it’s worth trying your headphones on
another device, such as your phone as this will help confirm whether the issue is with your PC
or the headphones. If they don’t work properly on your phone either, then it’s highly likely that
the issue is a broken wire or connection within the headphones and you’ll need to
look for some repair options or try and return them if they are under warranty. If they work
fine on another device or you aren’t able to try them, hopefully something we do now will fix it.
Let’s start by checking all of the connections and ports. Make sure there’s nothing blocking
the ports and that you are fully inserting the cable into the port. Some headphones might have
a port on themselves on one of the sides, so check this is fully inserted if that applies
to your device. Try as many ports as possible on your PC to rule out this being the cause and
remember that there should be plenty more ports on the back of your PC if you have a desktop.
We’ll now make sure your headphones are correctly enabled on your PC and we can also quickly test
them whilst we’re there. Search for control panel and when it opens, click on hardware and
sound and then where it says sound in green. This should open a new window and in the playback tab,
look for your headphones. Right click on them and choose test. You should hear noise in both ears,
starting with the left. If you only hear in the one side, then you know that the issue
is system wide. If you hear normally in both, then the problem is likely to do with whatever
software you’re listening to, such as a game. Now make sure you’re headphones are the default
device by clicking them and then by choosing set default. They will have a green check mark
on them if they are the default device. It might also be worth disabling all other sound devices,
both in the playback tab and in the recording tab, just in case they are interfering with
your headphones in some way. Right click on the other devices in here and in the recording tab and
choose disable. Make sure you reenable them with the same method though once you’ve tested to see
if this helps. Next, find your headphones again and double click on them. Go to the levels tab and
then click on balance. Make sure these numbers are equal, or try adjusting them to see if this helps
make sound louder on the side with the problem. Click OK or apply if you want to save the changes.
The next method will be to disable and then reenable the headphones. We can also check
for driver updates too. Search for device manager in the search bar and then when this opens look
in the audio inputs and outputs section for your headphones. Once you’ve found them, double click
on them and go to the driver tab. First, select disable in here and then wait a few moments and
select enable. Try your headphones again now. Next, click on update driver and then the
automatic option. If there are already the correct drivers installed, you can close this box. The
third thing to try in here is to choose uninstall device and then uninstall. Now go to where it says
action at the top and select scan for hardware changes. Try your headphones once again now.
Next, it’s worth restarting your PC or laptop if you haven’t done this already. A restart
could help refresh a lot of the settings on your PC and it could help fix the problem.
It’s up to you if you want to try this now or at the end of the video but if you do restart now,
when you return to the video, we’ll have a few more solutions to try where
hopefully at least one of them will work. The next method is to try running the
troubleshooter to try and see if Windows can find any possible problems with sound or our
headphones. To do this, go to the main settings page by searching for it and then in the settings,
click on system. In the system settings, click on troubleshoot and then on the next page,
choose other trouble-shooters. If you’re in Windows 10, type in troubleshoot in the
search bar to get here. Now click on run next to the playing audio troubleshooter and choose
your headphones from the list and allow Windows to look for any possible problems.
Next, think back to when the issue started appearing. There is a chance that a software
change or hardware change caused the problem. This could be some new audio software or a new
component. If you are certain that one of these changes caused the problem, then you could revert
them or research how this will have affected your device and what you can do to work around it.
Unfortunately, those are all the methods I have. As always, I’ll keep the description
updated with any new solutions I find and if any of you find a fix in the future then it
would be great if you could return to the video and post it in the comments to help others. Click
the card on screen now to watch a video of mine showing you ten easy ways to speed up
your Windows PC. If you have any questions, then let me know in the comments below and
if you did find today’s video helpful remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe for
more tips in the future. Be sure to stick around to see some of my other videos that
you might be interested in. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in another video!