By design, when a headphone or headset is connected to the audio port on the front panel, the rear audio port is disabled. This allows for private audio using headphones, and the rear jack is enabled when the headphones are disconnected.
The two most common types of connectors for audio jacks are a two ring (three conductor) connector and a three ring (four conductor) or Tip, Ring, Ring Sleeve (TRRS) connector. The difference between the two can be seen in the image below.
Figure 1: Example of two different types of headphone or microphone connectors.
Most Latitude laptops have a microphone/headphone combo jack. Headsets with a three-ring TRRS connector support both audio playback and recording using the microphone on the headset. The E-series docking stations have a separate headphone and microphone port. This setup requires a headset that supports a two-ring connector, one each for headphone and microphone.
In order to use a headset/microphone combo device on the Latitude laptops, you must disable the internal microphone in Windows sound properties.
control panel
and press Enter.
Figure 2: Screenshot of audio properties in Windows.
Figure 3: Screenshot of microphone array properties in Windows.
If the issue persists, see the Dell knowledge base articles mentioned below.
To learn more about troubleshooting headphone or speaker issue, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot No Sound on Computer or Audio Playback Issues.
To troubleshoot microphone-related issues, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Audio or Sound Recording Issues.
Here are some recommended articles related to this topic that might be of interest to you.