The headphone jack with the onboard Realtek HD, looked around the net and it seems to be a common problem but there's an argument about whether its hardware or software. Its really doin my nut in now so anyone got any odeas how I can get the headphone jack working?

Front or back?

Does either or work?

Your question is to vague.

...and worded funny. Would you re-phrase your question?

I've got 2 output channels at the back and a mic and headphone at the front and its that one i need to be working but it doesn't.
Used to have it in the 1st 2 speaker output at the back when I had XP and my speakers were in the 2nd 'surround' speaker output and it worked to a certain extent but now I have Vista I can't choose 2 speaker output to only have the headphones, you see what I mean.
I know the front jack is ok cuz the mic works but the headphone doesn't. Like I say you google this and you'll find tons of cases of it but no one has an answer for it

I've got 2 output channels at the back and a mic and headphone at the front and its that one i need to be working but it doesn't.
Sorry let me rephrase that a little

Used to have the headphones in the 1st 2 speaker output at the back when I had XP and my speakers were in the 2nd 'surround' speaker output and it worked to a certain extent but now I have Vista I can't choose 2 speaker output to only have the headphones, you see what I mean.
I know the front jack is ok cuz the mic works but the headphone doesn't. Like I say you google this and you'll find tons of cases of it but no one has an answer for it

OK this is madness, for some reason its decided to work!!!! The only problem now is I can't select just the headphones on the front jack, its coming out of my speakers and headphones, bit new to vista so am i missing something obvious

Thanks for the clarity. It sounds like a driver capability issue. Hopefully someone that has the same hardware working in Vista can lend some insight.