Only one speaker works.

It took me a while, but I figured it out and successfully repaired it. Probably not worth the 3 hours I put into repairing a $19 speaker system, but am I ever proud I repaired the set and its not in some landfill in China

Here's what to do:

1. Remove the screw at the lower back of Right Speaker (the one with the volume knob that is broken and without sound). You will need a long thin screwdriver - and this screw is very, very hard to remove.

2. Carefully remove the fabric speaker faceplate on the front side by pulling at the edges carefully,

3. Under the faceplate there are 6 screws. Remove the lower two and upper two (securing the top part of speakers)

4. You should be able to separate the back and front halfs of the speaker enclosure now.

5. Desolder the speaker stereo audio input cable from the printed circuit board and replace by soldering in a replacement cable. I scavenged a replacement cable by cutting the cable for a set of stereo headsets I got for free on an airline flight. There are three wire, white (left channel), yellow (right channel), and black (ground), You need to remove and resolder all three wires.

6. The problem is that the existing stereo input cable develops an open circuit somewhere in the cable for the right channel. All you need to do is take ou the old cable and solder in a new replacement cable.

7. Reassemble and your good to go!!!!

I had the same problem, and replaced the sound card thinking that would work. It didn't, but when fiddling around with the cables, I discovered I could get both channels to work if the green plug that goes into the back of the computer wasn't plugged in all the way. I know it sounds weird, but you can try this solution.

Same problem with mine. there are screwes, u have to open up the face plate...and there are 4 speaker screws and 2 to open it up. there is also one in the back..but i cant get to that one..u need a small but long screw driver for that.

i m guessing its the power jack on the speaker itself beacause when you put the speaker on its back and wiggle the power cord on the speaker it starts to work. but as soon as u move it it stops.

if n e one finds the solution please post.
thanx in advance.

Urgh got the same thing just happened to me. The speaker with the volume control stopped working. it happened periodically before this- turning it off and back on again would usually fix it. This time i went to do it, lo and behold it didn't fix itself this time. Along with some other problems with the pc, I'm really regretting buying a dell in the first place. There are no screws visible on the thing so choices are bust the thing open, void warrenty /return to manufacturer/buy a decent set of speakers instead.

I have the same problem, the speaker with the nob only works sometimes, very rearly. Don't know why it doesn't work, but it just starts working sometimes for no apparent reason.

I don't think it's the speakers, I suggest trying the speakers on another pc, or plugging them into a walkman/personal cd player, and see if it does the same. I'm gearing towards the output socket on the PC, because you said "I used to be able to wiggle the cord that you plug into the sound outlet on the CPU and it would work again, but it's not anymore". If the sound is built into the motherboard, then I would suggest buying a new soundcard, then disabling the on-board sound, using the BIOS setup, then installing the new soundcard and drivers, either way, on-bord sound or not, I suggest purchasing a new souncard.