I hate audio

My speakers are acting funny. It started earlier when my headphones suddenly didn't work, and the problem has shifted and morphed into a best that denies me my rear speakers (sometimes).

If I run my speaker test, only the front speakers play their test sounds. Well, more specifically it plays the front sounds out of both the front and rear speakers. If I switch the front and rear plugs on the sound card, I get all 4 sounds, but the front ones play from the rear speakers.

I have no idea why changing the plugs makes all the speakers work, albeit backwards. I have no idea why it turns my 4 speakers into 2, and I certainly don't know why I even care. I barely notice the rear speakers at the best of times, and usually they're just in the way. Still, I paid for a 4 speaker set, so I'm going to use all 4 of them.

Earlier the headphones were only playing out the left side, but I think that might have been because I didn't plug them in all the way. I'm not sure, but this seems like a likely culprit.

Sometime in the past 24 hours, the jack that I was plugging the headphones into suddenly stopped working with them, but it still works for the speakers. Random hardware changes worry me, but they're working just fine now.