Almost no audio through my audio jack

I suddenly am finding that I have almost no audio through my audio jack on my Acer Aspire One. I've tried multiple different speakers and headphones, and none of them have worked, yet they all work on my desktop. I still have sound though through the puny lil' speakers __on__ the Acer Aspire One proper. So there is some audio. Also, normally when I unplug the any headphones or speakers the little box comes up that says I've unplugged a device, but this isn't occuring now either. Is it not reading them for some reason?? Oddly, __some__ sound comes out though from the headphones/external speakers-- very muffled and quiet. And yet I know they aren't blown because they work on the desktop.

This came right after I had my thumbdrive act funny-- deleted a file I was working on when I tried to save it, and I can't seem to get it back or find it anywhere. The laptop said there was no such file on the thumbdrive (even though I opened it from the thumbdrive), wouldn't save it, and then when I went to reopen it, it was gone. !! I've been scrolling through a lot of posts, and I can't tell if there's some sort of relationship between the audio jack and the USB port. Or are they two different obnoxious problems. Can anyone help with this??

Thanks

 

If the audio volume from the on board speakers and the audio jack have reduced to almost zero at the same rate you will find that the microphone jack volume has similarly reduced as well. Acer Tec don't seem to have an answer so it appears to be a hardware fault; probably not an uncommon one. The only option is to return it to Acer for repair or replacement and wait patiently. It's the most unsatisfactory option but the last resort. I've spent far too long trying to find a better option so will have to do it soon.
My short term solution was USB speakers incorporating their own sound card (inexpensive on eBay) but that doesn't help mike volume when I use my softphone.