Headphone jack advice

[GeneralHankerchief]

Heavy usage of my laptop for over a year has taken its toll on my headphone jacks. I have to hold any cord at exactly a certain angle to get sound anymore, and even then it still only comes out of one ear/speaker. What do you guys think is the best way to solve this problem? Keep in mind that I'm a college student with a low budget and have no desire to kill/lose my laptop either trying to fix it or paying someone to repair it.

[pevergreen]

is it the headphone port in the laptop, or the plug on the headphones?

[GeneralHankerchief]

Port in the laptop. The plugs themselves are fine.

[pevergreen]

Not much you can do without going inside.

[Fragony]

Headphone Jack, sounds like a superhero

[Tellos Athenaios]

What you can probably do is purchase an USB audio card (a box or dongle). E.g.: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=873&product=17892&listby= It may even be possible to ‘simply’ route audio to the USB port plug in a USB-to-mini-jack converter, those converters should be fairly cheap...

As always with any hardware it's best to do some comparisons/reading up on how much money might buy you what.