I have a laptop with a set of external speakers hooked up to it on my computer desk. The speakers use the standard 3.5mm audio (headphones) jack. The speakers work fine, but I've recently added a separate monitor to my laptop via HDMI. With the monitor hooked up to my laptop and the speakers still hooked up to the laptop, sound will only come out of the built-in monitor speakers.

When I look at my audio settings, there are three different "audio playback devices" showing up, but only the built-in monitor speakers make noise when I click "test" (and I hear nothing when I set any of the other devices as the default.

Does anyone know how I can still use my external speakers when using a separate monitor with my laptop? I'm hoping there is a solution that doesn't require the laptop to be open or closed, because I use both scenarios.

I came across this post, but it doesn't look like they had much luck.