Vista - Headphones not working

I've read through some of the threads, and it did not help much. I have a Toshiba A215 S5815, with a AMD 64bit processor. My external speakers work just fine and dandy. However, when I plug in my Shure earphones they do not work and the external speakers continue to work. On my last toshiba running XP when I plugged these same earphones in the speaker would mute and low and behold my earphones worked. Any suggestions???

I've run tests on the earphones and I hear the test back. So I know the earphones are working.

I'm really "HATING" Vista with a big passion, and really considering Ubuntu.

Thanks in advance!