Internal speakers are working fine. When I insert headphone or external speaker plugs, I get silence. No sound. Yesterday all was fine and sound was coming out of the external speakers. How likely is it that something happened to the jack itself and needs to be replaced? What should I do next?
Dave M. MacOSG Founder/Ambassador An Apple User Group iTunes: MacOSG Podcast Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support' (designed exclusively for an iPhone/iPod touch)
Dave M. MacOSG Founder/Ambassador An Apple User Group iTunes: MacOSG Podcast Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support' (designed exclusively for an iPhone/iPod touch)
Thanks for the advice. Something so simple as a restart of the computer did the trick. How foolish I feel now. I should have tried that as I know that sometimes a restart will cure a problem. Thanks.
Exact same problem. First time it happened, I noticed a red light coming from the headphone jack, with no sound coming from headphones plugged in. Internal speakers were fine. I tried restarting, running virus scans, messing with volume control, nothing worked. I also can't get any microphones that are plugged in to work (again, internal microphone still works). I'm thinking that the panel that the input/output ports are on might be faulty. Also, the mac recognizes when such external devices are plugged in, but won't let me change the settings for them.
I live on a college campus, so as you can imagine not being able to use headphones is problematic. This happened right on the week that my 90-day warranty expired, and the campus repair is running behind schedule, so I don't want to risk not having my laptop for a week or more during classes.
I'm afraid I have no other suggestions for you. I was fortunate that a simple restart took care of my problem. I feared it was going to be a problem on the motherboard which would have been a nightmare. Good luck. Perhaps one of the other members can give you some suggestions that will pan out.
Yes it is most likely a hardware problem. The giveaway clue is the red light in the jack. this is the optical light which should not be on unless you have an optical plug in the jack. Some folks have cured this by inserting a small stick into the jack and drawing it back out with it pressed towards the left side, I think. Google for this and you are certain to find many cases, with some of the cures.
When you see the red light in the headphone jack, insert and remove a 3.5mm (standar) headphone jack several times until it goes away. That'll do the trick.
