delete

[M-theory]

delete

[luthair]

In general no.

[nomaansikandar]

Buy a cheap pci sound card and all your problems are solved.
One outputs to the speakers and the other to the headphones..

You might have to adjust settings in your various apps/games to use the appropriate soundcard ...

[Gee]

You might have to adjust settings in your various apps/games to use the appropriate soundcard ...

I think that is worse than un-plugging wires.

I don't see what the problem is. You plug your headphones on the front. When you disconnect them the speakers work. Plug them in and the headset takes over.

Front is easy access.

[rabbit]

Strange, I can choose to have the rear output mute or not mute when I plug something in the front output (Realtek HD audio, via the driver utility in control panel).

Does your BIOS have an option to change the front panel setting between AC97 and HD Audio? Maybe one of the settings will prevent the soundcard to detect when you plug something into the front.

[kitty]

How about getting a cheap 3.5" stereo y-splitter from the dollar store and split the output from the back panel to your headphones and speakers?

[Phils]

How about getting a cheap 3.5" stereo y-splitter from the dollar store and split the output from the back panel to your headphones and speakers?

That's what I do.

[Kynax]

I have a similar Asus board and, in the Windows Control Panel, there is a Realtek Audio icon.

Open that and at the top right (I think), there is a button (or link) for "Advanced options". You should be able to specify that the front and back are different outputs (not linked).

What I do is I keep them linked. When I want to use my headphones, I plug them in the front (which mutes the speakers). When I want to use the speakers, I unplug the headphones.