I have had my MacBook Pro for a little over a year. For a while there has been a red light flashing from inside my headphone jack. Today it is now just a solid red light coming from it and the sound won't work at all. I've tried pushing the volume buttons but the volume display just pops up and has a circle with a line through it. Why is this happening?
First, try resetting your PMU: Shut down your Macbook Pro, disconnect the magsafe adapter, and remove the battery. Press and hold the power button for
at least 5 seconds.
Now, put the battery back in and connect the magsafe adapter (if you like). Start your Macbook Pro normally. If this doesn't fix the problem, there may be a problem with the audio port. This can sometimes be corrected by plugging in a pair of headphones, then unplugging them. Otherwise, you might want Apple to have a look.
As someone else in this thread pointed out, plugging/unplugging the headphone jack can usually fix that. There is a small switch in the headphone jack that normally switches the analog or digital out, depending on the wire you plug in. That switch can stick, and the mac will think its outputting to an optical device.
Another super hi tech method to fix it, take a toothpick (or anything thin, stiff and non conductive and sort of wiggle it in the audio jack. I used a cotton swab with the cotton removed to fix mine.
If you look down the side of your MacBook your headset jack port will show a red light.
You need to reinsert your head phones a few times slowly to reset.
If this doesn't work, remove all peripheral devices (usb, network, power) and shut the machine off.
Remove the battery. Wait 15 seconds. Press the power button for 5 Seconds to reset the SMC.
Insert battery and restart. Should fix it.
Then reinsert all the other devices and you should be good to go.
If above doesn't work, which it didn't for me, be careful but try blowing through the headphone jack socket a few times, it worked for me. The red light went off and sound returned to the internal speakers. Although it happened again later, blowing again fixed it.