When my headphone jack broke on my laptop, I desoldered the microphone jack and resoldered it into the headphone jack&#x27;s slot on the motherboard.  It had seven pins, and I couldn&#x27;t for the life of me figure out how to get a replacement part for it that would fit the existing PCB holes in any other way, short of buying an entirely new motherboard.<p>I guessed one pin each for tip, ring, and sleeve, one each for tip disconnect and ring disconnect, but then there were two pins left over.  Perhaps signal and disconnect for a second ring?  I couldn&#x27;t find a near-enough match for the part from anywhere that I knew to look for it.<p>If there were a universal 3.5mm TRRS standard, I could just buy the standard jack receptacle and replace the part, rather than cannibalizing my microphone jack.<p>The other problem is that if I just removed the broken jack, my laptop would never use the speakers again, because it would think that tip signal and tip disconnect were no longer shorted, and ring signal and ring disconnect were no longer shorted.  Electrically, removing the part is the same as always leaving a 3.5mm jack plugged in.  I&#x27;d have to permanently short those contacts on the board to simulate a never-in-use jack, and I didn&#x27;t know the pinout for the 7-pin device in my hand unless I wanted to disassemble it with forceps.<p>So yeah, screw the 3.5mm TRRS port.  Give me a universal standard.  And let&#x27;s not just specify the mechanical properties of the plugs, but also the allowable locations and spacing of the pins for compliant through-hole, cable-connected, and surface-mount devices!