Headphone jack in Dell Inspiron 3793 doesn't work

Try3 said:

It sounds to me as though somebody was joking. We used to send trainees down to the stores to get tins of sky-blue-pink paint & jugs of blue steam.
Where were these posts?Denis

Actually, I saw the mention of phantom power on Amazon when I was searching for a USB speaker/mic splitter. Several of the splitters had questions and comments in the reviews talking about condenser mics need phantom power.

"Computer" mics are condenser mics but only require 5VDC from the PC. As the jack, on this model, is a multi purpose a program such as the Waves MaxxAudio Pro is needed to configure the jack correctly. The microphone function is MONO (usual computer mic jack operation), not Stereo. I suspect the "stereo" computer mic you have has the two mic's but are combined into the one mono signal for the computer. If is not the case, and it outputs two separate (2 channel) stereo audio signals then an interface adapter will be needed.
Conventional P.A. condenser mics (XLR Connector types) use "phantom power" which is 48VDC (although many will work on slightly lower voltage). P.A., boards can provide the 48VDC phantom power on XLR jacks and recording interface units accordingly can provide 48VDC phantom power on their XLR input jacks.

Computer mics like the ones in Headsets and in Laptops, phones etc are usually Electret or MEMS mics which are other variations on the Condenser microphone. Usually Mono though some Laptops may have internally 2 mics.

The 3.5 mm socket connection only allows for mono mic and stereo sound with the TRRS contact arrangement(Combo socket).

A "Pro USB mic" may have an Electret or Condenser mic which does require a polarising voltage. This you can get from the 5v USB power multiplied up if required.

Microphone - Wikipedia scroll down for Electret and MEMS.
https://www.eetimes.com/mems-mics-taking-over/#

The mic I have is a stereo condenser lavalier, with 2 mics going into 1 stereo 1/8" plug. It was originally purchased to record into a digital disc recorder, which I believe provided power to the mic. I have successfully used the mic for musical Zoom sessions in older laptops that had a separate mic input jack.

KenY7744 said:

The mic I have is a stereo condenser lavalier, with 2 mics going into 1 stereo 1/8" plug. It was originally purchased to record into a digital disc recorder, which I believe provided power to the mic. I have successfully used the mic for musical Zoom sessions in older laptops that had a separate mic input jack.

You definitely need MaxxAudio so it can detect the input and allow you to select what the input is (microphone).