music player / headphone jack issue?

[Voodoocaster]

Hello all

I'm a new DX user (New to the Android experience all together) I bought one yesterday.
I came from a iphone 3gs and let me tell you... they seem to be the dumbest smartphones around. You can do so much with this Droid.

On to the issue at hand.

I put a few songs on my phone to test it out and im a bit worried. When im listening to them through headphones songs will randomly pause and or skip to the next track. I originally thought something was being pressed while the phone was in my pocket but quickly ruled that out when it started doing it when I was looking at the lock screen. I wasn't even fiddling with the phone, it was just laying in my palm. So then I unplugged the headphones and was just listening through the phones speakers to see if it would replicate the problem. It didn't. So its either the headphones or the headphone jack (educated guess)

Does anyone know of this problem? Is it a know issue with the DX? Anyone know how to fix it?

Im running stock everything and using iphone headphones.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[DroidEye22]

Its the headphone Jack it always happens to me, the songs skip or pause etc. Nothing to worry about

 

[Voodoocaster]

Its the headphone Jack it always happens to me, the songs skip or pause etc. Nothing to worry about

Well its very annoying.
I would like it to work properly...

 

[jdbower]

I've found that both Slacker and Pandora will pause the song when the headphone jack is removed. There's a pretty solid click when you put the headphones in, could you not have the jack fully seated? If this is the case it may just be pulling out a bit and causing the phone to pause the music rather than blaring it out through the speakers (I've had that happen in public on my old Blackberry - very annoying!). I'm not sure if the stock music player is the same but it's a plausible theory.

 

[Voodoocaster]

I've found that both Slacker and Pandora will pause the song when the headphone jack is removed. There's a pretty solid click when you put the headphones in, could you not have the jack fully seated? If this is the case it may just be pulling out a bit and causing the phone to pause the music rather than blaring it out through the speakers (I've had that happen in public on my old Blackberry - very annoying!). I'm not sure if the stock music player is the same but it's a plausible theory.

Ya I got the solid click.

I was playing a downloaded song so pandora/slacker isn't the problem.

 

[greydarrah]

I've got 3 X's and none of them skip or pause unexpectedly while playing music. What you are experiencing is not normal. As you surmised, it could be your headset or your jack. Do you have another headset to try (even some cheapies will do)? You can also try running a q-tip (might have to pull some of the cotton off the tip) in and out of the jack. You could have something (hair or even dust) inside that's causing issues. If you have tested another headset and run the q-tip in the jack and still have the problem, I would either call CS and have a new phone sent to you, or go to a verizon store for an exchange. Either way you do it, if your phone is less than 30 days old, make sure they are replacing it with a new device, not a refurb. I think the refurbs are fine, but new is best if you're under the 1st 30 days.

 

[kentusmc]

Get it replaced, I'm having mine replaced today for the same reason.

 

[Dirty Ders]

Im running stock everything and using iphone headphones.

I know this sounds a little silly, but try using a non-apple (iPhone/iPod) headset. The ground and mic conductors are switched with Apple headsets compared to the rest of the industry.
The Nokia TRRS standard is what everything else uses, Tip = Left channel, first Ring = Right channel, second Ring = Mic/Control feed, Sleeve = Ground.
The Apple TRRS standard uses, Tip = Left channel, first Ring = Right channel, second Ring = Ground, Sleeve = Mic/Control feed.

So if you are using Apple configured headphones then the ground is being feed through the mic/control feed… that is a no no; and that could be the cause to your issue.

 

[Voodoocaster]

Great info

Thanks you the help.

First step ill take is trying a different headset, if that doesn't work then they will need to replace my DX... its only 2 days old.

 

[Dirty Ders]

My Droid X got replaced when it was less than 20 hours old.

I had a bad earpiece speaker, they gave me a new one. No big deal. If it is a bad phone, feel free and exchange it. It's much less of a hassle to do it in the first few days then it is to wait when you finally got everything set up the way you want it.

 

[El Jefe]

I know this sounds a little silly, but try using a non-apple (iPhone/iPod) headset. The ground and mic conductors are switched with Apple headsets compared to the rest of the industry.
The Nokia TRRS standard is what everything else uses, Tip = Left channel, first Ring = Right channel, second Ring = Mic/Control feed, Sleeve = Ground.
The Apple TRRS standard uses, Tip = Left channel, first Ring = Right channel, second Ring = Ground, Sleeve = Mic/Control feed.

So if you are using Apple configured headphones then the ground is being feed through the mic/control feed… that is a no no; and that could be the cause to your issue.

Wow...that's interesting.

Jeez...everything Apple does is ass-backwards, isn't it?

 

[Dirty Ders]

Wow...that's interesting.

Jeez...everything Apple does is ass-backwards, isn't it?

Yup, it sure is.

Funny thing is Nokia started to use that TRRS layout well over ten years ago in Asia. Almost immediately China and Japan adopted it as an industrial standard and every phone manufacturer since has used it too. Then Apple comes along years later, with all its infinite wisdom on how to do things that will alienate themselves from the rest of the market and switches the second ring and sleeve. So now the mic and controls for Apple headsets wont work with ANY other phone, and you can’t use any other headset with the iPhone unless it is Apple configured. Things get even more complicated when apple decides to alter the amp setting for the output of their audio. This is even more interesting and dumbfounding: Apples headsets bass range can be driven at a much lower signal power, that means that you can still use the Apple headsets for audio only (no mic, no controls) in any other device BUT you can’t properly use headset manufactured for the rest of the industries phones because they require a higher signal power to drive the low end. So if you try to use a standard set of headphones with an Apple device the bass will surely suffer. Those issues happen all the time with iPods because of the same configuration of the TRS standard. With TRRS you get other issues caused by the signal grounding through the control buss, every now and then output from a song will bias a diode or transistor just right to skip the track or stop the song or do a whole slew of different and wacky things.

Confused yet?

 

[jerseyboy357]

I bought a $20 blackberry set of headphone buds from a kiosk in the mall for my X and wow they sound good. plus w the ability to tweak audio outputs in Liberty i couldnt be happier

Sent from the X of B

 

[Voodoocaster]

Just checking back in.
I picked up some sony headphones and it works like a charm now. Ill continue to monitor it but as of right now it looks the the iphone headphones were the cause of the problem.
I've been playing music for about 4 hours now and not one skip or pause.

Thanks for all the help all

 

[jdbower]

Thanks for the follow-up, it's good to know which solution worked. And thanks, Dirty Ders, for the technical reason why.

 

[Dirty Ders]

Glad you fixed your issue. I see this problem all the time with smart phones and other Apple products.

So if you ever see someone having this issue with a smart phone tell them to get non-Apple headsets.

If you see someone with an iPhone that’s having this issue, tell them to get an Android device. No, seriously though, tell them to get an Apple headset. Same thing goes if they are experiencing poor bass.

Don’t forget to thank the person that showed you the way to fixing your problem… *ahem* ME!

 

[MotherX]

Wow, just wow. I was so bummed because I had the same problem. Just switched from iPhone to the X and was so worried that I had a bad phone. I never knew there were different kinds of headphones.