if she ever comes back and looks at this,. here's some help. No doubt they are broken. if you cannot see any obvious cable damage, its most likely the magnet has stopped moving. having had 2 pairs of creative earphones break on me in a month - (thats £60 up my shirt then!) I would suggest that if the connection is fine and there is no apparant damage, then just get a new set - testing them first on an appliance you know works is the first step, and after you try everything, stick them in the bin. I got a pair of Sennheiser earphones from John Lewis, and must say that they are very good, and not badly priced at all - for a tenner i can chuck them when they break. I have now decided not to spend lots of money on earphones, and save my money for a bose wave music system. here's a URL for the sennheisers:
Sennheiser