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Level 1

5 points

no internal speakers | digital output only | red light from audio jack

I plugged in a stereo through analogue mini jack to the headphone socket of my mac book pro. When i unplugged the stereo, the internal speakers failed to work. There is now a red light coming from the jack as if a "digital output" is plugged into the socket. But no digital output has ever been plugged into the socket - and I have no control of mute or volume settings.

When I plug headphones in, they work fine and I have control of mute and volume settings. Once the headphones are removed I am automatically set back to "digital output" with no control over mute or volume, and no audio from m internal speakers.

I have tried changing the settings in system preferences/sound/settings/output ... but there is no option other than "digital output". I suppose I would like to select "internal speakers" but there is no option for this. And like I stated earlier, the jack is lit up red.

I've tried software updates, restarts, disk utilities (permissions and repairs including repairing with the startup disk), plugging and unplugging, but to no avail.

When I try to change the volume on the keyboard's volume controls I get the "no entry" sign under the volume bar and have no control (as if it were stuck on mute).

The only thing I can think of is that I forced a mini jack into the headphone socket too hard so I'm worried that I've damaged the hardware.

Could this have caused the problem? Or is this a software issue? Any help would be appreciated.

In short I have no sound from the internal speakers.

g5, Mac Book Pro, iMac G3, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Aug 27, 2007 12:49 PM

Best reply

ndubbleu Author

Level 1

5 points

Posted on Aug 27, 2007 12:58 PM

After writing a lengthy message I searched the boards and found the fix... simply take the headphones and place them in and out the socket until the light goes off. This worked for me.

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41 replies

jazzyguy

Level 1

0 points

Sep 21, 2008 11:44 PM in response to moderntechnology

Hello,
I'm having the same problem with my PowerBook G4 : can you precisely describe the manipulation of the fork prong which you performed inside the jack socket ? I tried a few time to axially push a wooden tooth pick and to laterally move it, but that didn't give any result.
Thanx in advance,

jazzyguy

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2008 3:02 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

Hello,
I'm having the same problem with my PowerBook G4 : can you precisely describe the manipulation of the tooth pick which you performed inside the jack socket ? I tried a few time to axially push a wooden tooth pick and to laterally move it, but that didn't give any result.
Thanx in advance,

Sep 26, 2008 4:00 PM in response to moderntechnology

The fork works Great. I also used a fork in fear that a toothpick would break off inside the jack. Upon bending the fork, I inserted it into the headphone jack and rotated the fork in circles until my music started playing. This took about half a minuet. What a great solution to a problem I had been working on for days now.

Cheers

Oct 10, 2008 9:48 AM in response to Red Baron

That's wierd! It happened to my Powerbook G4 directly after I installed QT &.5 and ITunes 8! I wonder if it's just more than a coincidence? I've tried the jack plug in out many times but to no success so far - may keep trying or try plastic fork - picked up on the fact switch might have become magnetised - anybody know how to de-magnetise something?

All Apple re-sellers and an Apple shop technician diagnose a faulty DC in board - replacement is £100!

Nov 12, 2008 2:25 PM in response to jazzyguy

Hey guys, I was having exactly the same problem - when nothing was plugged it, only digital out was showing up in System Prefs, couldn't adjust volume, no sound.

Using a paperclip worked a miracle for me. Just straightened one out then bent the tip slightly to the side. Insert into the sound out port, use it to push against the inside of the port at about 5 o'clock, about two-thirds of the way in. I heard a slight click and the sound came on like a charm! It's amazing but it works. Have something playing on iTunes so you can tell when it comes on.

Thanks so much to everyone for posting your solutions to this very frustrating problem.

PS Try to avoid looking directly into the red laser coming out of the port - can't be good for your eyes. You may want to avoid pushing against the very centre at the back of the port - you may scratch the laser/covering. That's if you ever intend on using digital sound out.

Keys49

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2008 10:48 AM in response to ndubbleu

I read all of the advice. The switch is at 9 o'clock as you look into the headphone jack. The toothpick worked. If you look into the jack, you'll see a little protuberance a fair way in... I reached in with the toothpick (it doesn't have to be a toothpick, but I don't suggest anything that is metal, breakable, or would leave a residue) and tweaked that "bubble" on the 9 o'clock side. The speakers started again for me. It appears to me that the switch needs to be air cleaned or lubricated to remove whatever causes it to stick occasionally.
(As a follow-up, I inserted a headphone plug, and a digital mini plug a number of times and everything returned to being normal)

garyaj

Level 1

0 points

Mar 2, 2009 4:04 PM in response to ndubbleu

Just want to affirm the use of a toothpick (anything non-metallic) at the 3 o'clock position on my MacBook. I actually used the toothpick in my Swiss Army knife. Also good to have iTunes (or Songbird ;-)) playing a track but you can see the LED switch off when you hit the switch correctly in any case.

Apr 7, 2009 7:53 AM in response to garyaj

This is the worst, most pointless bug ever. Pleeeeeeeeeeease fix it, Apple.

May 11, 2009 8:31 AM in response to ndubbleu

I have this same problem with my MacBook. I've tried to fix it through settings in sound menu, resetting PRAM and finally manually switching the switch inside the headphone jack.

Nothing helps.

I can get the red light to switch off (with headphones or paperclip), but it flickers few times and always comes back on.

Any more suggestions?

danlip

Level 1

4 points

Jun 19, 2009 2:17 PM in response to ndubbleu

I have the same problem, but sometimes it rapidly switches between internal speakers and digital out without me even touching the machine. I have an aluminum Intel MacBook pro, about 3.5 years old. I have tried the tricks mentioned before (sticking headphones, toothpicks, and plastic forks into the socket) but nothing helps.

I never use digital out and would be happy to permanently disable it if there is a way to do that. But I still have to use headphone and internal speakers. Anyone have a hack to disable digital out?

Jun 29, 2009 8:19 PM in response to ndubbleu

This started happening to me sometime earlier this year. Whenever I have no headphones or external speakers plugged in, OSX thinks I have a digital audio cable plugged in and my internal speakers don't work. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that Apple hasn't fixed this by now. I've tried everything in this topic and had no luck. If it's happening to this many people, it's a design flaw and definitely deserves Apple's attention. All they have to do is include a little check box in the sound prefs to disable optical audio out. A device manager would also work, but we're only simple OSX users here, so we apparently can't handle something as complex as a device manager. I'd be perfectly able to live with this little hardware failure if Apple hadn't made it impossible to disable the optical audio. Boot into Windows and the internal speakers work. Boot into Linux and the internal speakers work. Boot into OSX and my computer is suddenly an idiot.

Come on, Apple. It's not that hard. Just include a little something in the next update to help out all of us being screwed by faulty hardware. For the premium we pay for Apple computers, we should be immune to these kinds of ridiculous problems. You're better than this, Apple.

no internal speakers | digital output only | red light from audio jack