Broken headphone jack
I broke off the end of a headphone jack in the computer. Any ideas on how to get the piece out. It's too far in to grasp with needle-nose pliers.
13"MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
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Best reply
Apply a
TINY drop of Super Glue to the very tip of a pointed wooden toothpick. Slide the toothpick straight into the center of the headphone port until it makes contact with whatever is left of the plug. Hold it right there until the glue sets, at least five and preferably ten minutes. If you allow the glue to touch anything else in there, you will have glued the plug in place permanently, so lay off the caffeine when you're preparing to try this very risky procedure. You will need an
extremely steady hand.
Why do I suggest something that so obviously could go very wrong? Because you can't actually make things any worse than they already are. There is no better way to remove the broken plug end even after taking the computer apart, so the only other remedy is to replace the logic board, to which the port is soldered. That's exactly what will have to be done if you glue the plug in place by mistake, so even doing that won't change the outcome or the cost to you, which will be many hundreds of dollars.
You may want to consider just forgetting about the heaphone port and buying a Griffin iMic, which connects to a USB port and provides both a microphone input and a headphone output, and costs about $40.
Why do I suggest something that so obviously could go very wrong? Because you can't actually make things any worse than they already are. There is no better way to remove the broken plug end even after taking the computer apart, so the only other remedy is to replace the logic board, to which the port is soldered. That's exactly what will have to be done if you glue the plug in place by mistake, so even doing that won't change the outcome or the cost to you, which will be many hundreds of dollars.
You may want to consider just forgetting about the heaphone port and buying a Griffin iMic, which connects to a USB port and provides both a microphone input and a headphone output, and costs about $40.
