MBP audio no longer plays from my speakers...Optical light stays on

This is the best place to find info on this machine yet. I found a chop stick works best. Won't short anything out. I can't use them for anything else anyway. Who would have thought that chopsticks would be part of sound guys tool kit. Go figure. At least it's easy to fix.

I'm having the same problem as everyone else on this 3 year (!!) old thread. I have a 2006 MBP, all of a sudden machine thinks I'm using optical cable. Very frustrating.

I've tried toothpicks, paperclips, chopsticks, inserting headphone plug in/out, and even a tiny bit of lubricant to get things moving. Nothing works. Is there anything else I can do?

I'm surprised Apple would have such a shoddy design element.

Talked to an Apple Store rep and he said he's had the best luck with canned air. Tried it and it's working better now.

Had this problem for the last three days when finally managed to get online and search for the explanation. Yours was the best - 100% match with my problem.
Thank you for the advice!!!

Same problem for me. I tried the PRAM, but that didn't work. Tried putting the jack in and out, and that didn't work. Triad a paper clip (with much trepidation!) and bingo, within a few seconds it was back!
Thanks guys! This forum is so much more help than Apple, and it's free!!

Take a round tooth pick and break off one end. The trick is to go to your sound preferences and mess with the sound control bar for the alert. This will turn on the red light on the audio out port. Then insert the toothpick all the way in and jiggle it around. The sensor will eventually be tricked into the right mode and the output volume will turn on.

I read through this entire forum and people are getting sideways on this.

Don't reset anything, reinstall anything, call support, contact a genius. And don't switch to a PC for such a trivial glitch!

I too had the red light problem an no sound coming from the speakers. I tried the toothpick thing with no luck. Then I tried turning on speakable items in the speech preferences with headphones plugged in which let me change the device in the sound panel and I am now able to hear from my internal speakers. So try this if you too can't find the right spot with the toothpick/paper clip trick.

Ok, here's the deal with this guys and gals. ALL LAPTOPS, AND DESKTOPS have this problem. You should be thanking Apple that they put a handy red light in so you know why your speakers are not working (I repair computers all day long and this is the only manufacturer that I know of that does it). The red light is only on when a cord is plugged in, this problem DOES NOT come from the laptop, it comes from a cord that is slightly too big or was handled very roughly while plugged in and slightly jams the port, it will usually correct itself if you plug it in or preferably a different cord into the port to reset it. Restarting often helps as well, because sometimes if the cord was dusty, the dust left on the port can create enough of a physical connection that the laptop will think a cord is plugged in and restarting it removes that electrical connection.

I SAY THIS AGAIN, THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MAD AT APPLE OVER THIS SHOULD BE PRAISING THEM FOR ONCE AGAIN HAVING A TINY LITTLE SMALL FEATURE THAT SAVES TIME AND HASSLE. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MANY PEOPLE BRING ME THEIR LAPTOPS/DESKTOPS SAYING THE SPEAKERS ARE BUSTED WHEN THEY REALLY JUST HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE HEADPHONE PORT. (WHICH IS ALMOST ALWAYS NOT THE MANUFACTURERS FAULT) I DON'T EVEN WANT TO THINK ABOUT THE NUMBER OF TIMES I MYSELF DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THAT AND SPENT AN EXTRA HOUR TROUBLESHOOTING TO FIGURE OUT THAT THAT IS INDEED THE PROBLEM.

Just a clarification:

The red light is not an 'extra convenience' feature that apple put in to show that speakers aren't working. The red light actually is the optical signal itself, ie, it's the light of the optical signal which engages when the port switches to optical mode. It's the same on any device with an optical output, look on the back of a DVD player or other device and you'll see that when it is sending signal, red light comes out. So, when the red light stays on, on a Macbook or Macbook Pro, what it means is that the physical switch inside the port (designed to detect the presence of an inserted optical cable) has gotten stuck in 'optical' mode. So then, because OSX thinks that it is sending all audio out of its digital port, it automatically mutes the speakers and disengages the volume control (because with the optical out on macs, they only output an optical audio signal at full volume).

But still, despite the fact that it's not a special feature Apple added, it still is an easy way to see that your port has gotten jammed.

FWIW, I have been plugging headphones and optical output cables regularly to my late 2006 MBP since I got it, and (touch wood) have never had a problem. But because I already knew about the fact that the port has a detector to switch modes, and because I knew that this could become damaged, I've been very careful and gentle every time I connect and disconnect something. I can hardly imagine Apple putting a warning in the manual to say that there is a delicate sensor in that port so to be careful.. but I do believe that if more people were aware of this, they'd take extra care in using it and possibly avoid it breaking in the first place.

unfortunately, toothpick & reset PRAM didn't work on my mbp.
i'm still confusing to solve this problem.
I just wanna to know, if i go to Apple Service Provider (ASP), what the technician will do to solve this problem? they will replace my logicboard? or just keep clean the sensor in the line out & it will turn of optical light?
my mbp is warranty until oct'2010
thx, i'm looking forward to hear from you

I to am having this problem. 😟 So is the final solution putting a paper clip in it to reset it?

So I solved my problem. I plugged it into my external speakers, and kinda jammed the plug in there and wiggled it around and pulled it out really fast. I did it about 2 times and the third time it finally tricked it 😀
hope this helps, cause the paperclip thing didn't work for me 😟

Toothpick with one blunt end. Inserted. Hold. Problem solved.

Thanks all.

Just fixed this on my wife's MacBook pro via safety pin. 2 years as an electronics tech, and I could have done this at age 7. this isn't a problem, it's an inconvenience. it takes 10 seconds, you can do it with the power on, and the tools required (safety pin, toothpick, etc) you can buy with the money from your couch. if you can afford a mac, you can afford the pointed object of your choice needed to fix this.

-D

I had this problem too. It was very frustrating, especially when I brought my MacBook Pro to my local Apple Store and they fixed with a toothpick! They also said it's a very frequent issue and that it seems to affect every generation of MBP. In my case my soundcard was working fine so I fixed immediately.
Anyway you're right, it should be a patch or something from Apple, this problem affects a large part of MBP users.