I found out my laptop is covered by warranty but Bestbuy says it will not fix it but ship it to Dell and it takes two weeks to get it back. That's not an option.

I got to thinking that if I could just find an adaptor cable, 1/4" female to USB, that would be best solution. I can't find one. I also searched for 1/8" female to USB, no luck.

The reason I don't want to buy one of the USB audio interfaces mentioned on this thread is that it's rather cumbersome to have that dongle hanging off. It'll work, yes.

My headphone cable has 1/4" male on end. I just need to go into USB. I guess that would work if I could find one?

Bummer, laptop is only five months old. Bestbuy confirmed the jack is on the motherboard.