I grabbed a new ASUS laptop, gone to make a call on it, and, er, um, it only has one hole to plug my headsets in to.

It has a little pic of a mic and headsets just above and either side of the hole.

I have not seen any headsets for sale that have just one combined jack, a possible solution is a new USB one maybe.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

Yes, there is a sort of double-jack now that does both mic and headphones in one plug.

Personally I use a Microsoft LifeChat USB mic/headset which is excellent and far better quality than any jack device I have come across. I think I paid about GBP20 for it, maybe less. Great for listening to music also.

Thanks for that useful reply.

Off to computer geek mecka by the looks of it on the weekend to do some shopping !!!

Thanks for that useful reply.

Off to computer geek mecka by the looks of it on the weekend to do some shopping !!!

On my Asus have an external microphone and when I plug into the audio jack asks me what i plugged in speakers or microphone. Check your sound settings in control panel, it is all there.

when I plug into the audio jack asks me what i plugged in speakers or microphone.

What happens if you want to use both?

when I plug into the audio jack asks me what i plugged in speakers or microphone.

What happens if you want to use both?

Maybe you use a headset from a mobile phone???? People have been wanting to use them on their laptops. Might be worth checking out.

Is there a built-in mic on these new laptops?

My 4-month old laptop has 3 jack sockets. I've never used any of them as I have the USB headset and to be perfectly honest I dont even know what the 3rd one is for. It also has a built-in mic.

As you mention, I understood that the new standard for jack sockets was to be the single socket type as found on mobile phones (my phone has this also) that carries both stereo audio out and mono mic in. For home theatre use most decent laptops also have an HDMI socket that will carry digital audio along with the digital video: mine certainly does and I use it for both home theatre and to drive a 23in monitor for work .

I suppose they only include the jack socket(s) for those who are using very lightweight headsets.

Went to Pantip Plaza in Bangkok, spent an hour looking for a single Jack Head set with a Thai native speaker, even the ASUS dealers didn't know where I can buy a headset that fits their own bloody computers, lets just say it was a really warm and fuzzy amazing Thai experience.

Conclusion, need a USB headset, after further research on line, it does in fact appear that many mobile phone ear plugs will fit it.

The USB headset that I mentioned is definitely the best value/quality for money, assuming that you dont need the portability of a very lightweight headset. I think mine is great.

As far as I know you can use any mic/phones single-lead combo sold for a phone in that single socket as the socket is supposedly a standard one. Maybe you could find someone with such a phone set and try it?

Or maybe you could investigate Bluetooth. Some of those headsets aren't bad though I dont think I would want to use them for prolonged listening to music.

On a side note, I have been told, (I personally don't know) that the standard Mac headset will work.

The iPod/iPhone headset certainly uses the same socket.