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daniel8802

Q: Digital Audio Stuck On

Hi Everyone,

This weekend I used my macbook to capture audio coming out of a 20 channel sound board. I'm now experiencing an audio problem with the audio optical stuck on. I've tried to restarting and deleting a AudioMidiSetup plist with no luck.

The strange part is the red light is now longer on (it used to be) and when I plug in headphones into the jack, the sound works fine. The only time I do not have any audio is when I want to use the speakers that are built into my macbook.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6), Core Duo, 2 gigs ram, 200 gig hdd

Posted on Dec 6, 2009 8:56 PM

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Q: Digital Audio Stuck On

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  • by daniel8802,

    daniel8802 daniel8802 Dec 6, 2009 9:12 PM in response to daniel8802
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2009 9:12 PM in response to daniel8802
    edit: the light is on again.
  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Dec 6, 2009 9:24 PM in response to daniel8802
    Level 6 (10,039 points)
    Audio
    Dec 6, 2009 9:24 PM in response to daniel8802
    Couple of things to try.

    1. Plug your microphone in/out a couple of times. The multipurpose jack has a problem with sticking.

    2. Go to Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup. Under the audio tab, flip the sample rate to a different value then flip it back to 44.1.

    3. Is there a red light in the mic/headphone jack. If so it's stuck on digital out and may been a visit to the Apple store or you can try searching on this board. Search under "red light audio jack" minus quotes.

    pancenter-
  • by daniel8802,

    daniel8802 daniel8802 Dec 6, 2009 9:48 PM in response to Pancenter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2009 9:48 PM in response to Pancenter
    Ok, I did fix it. It's looking like a hardware problem, not software. The digital switch seems lose. I inserted a very thin straw in the audio jack and moved it around gently inside and it is now working.

    The reason I say it might be lose is because if I plug my headphones in and back out again, it does not always kick right off. Too bad my apple care is up, guess I will just have to deal!

    Thanks.
  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Dec 6, 2009 10:56 PM in response to daniel8802
    Level 6 (10,039 points)
    Audio
    Dec 6, 2009 10:56 PM in response to daniel8802
    daniel8802 wrote:
    Ok, I did fix it. It's looking like a hardware problem, not software. The digital switch seems lose. I inserted a very thin straw in the audio jack and moved it around gently inside and it is now working.

    The reason I say it might be lose is because if I plug my headphones in and back out again, it does not always kick right off. Too bad my apple care is up, guess I will just have to deal!


    This is a common problem it seems, the weapon of choice is usually a toothpick!

    pancenter-