Broken headphone jack

[Peet_B]

Since a couple of weeks my headphone jack in my Mid-2014 MBP stopped working. After a couple of days it started working again, but now sounds like someone is playing the thing you're listening to from the toilet...

The board itself looks fine, with no corrosion or any other weird stuff. I cleaned out the whole headphone jack with some isopropyl alcohol, but made no difference. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

 

[Consultant]

iFixIt sells headphone parts but not sure how much work to install.
If too much work, maybe look into USB adapter that gives you headphone out.

 

[Peet_B]

Thanks for the tip, although the problem is that only the mid-2012 and early-2013 models have replaceable headphone jacks. Since the late-2013 model (and the mid-2014 model is basically the same) the headphone jacks are soldered to the logic board... And I don't want to spend around €500,- for a new logic board on a machine that's 6 years old and is worth about €750,-...

 

[Peet_B]

OK well, it gets even weirder. It turns out that my MacBook only gives me the issues (sounds like something recorded by a Nokia 3310) when I use original Apple EarPods. When I tried my regular wired Sony headphones, there was no problem. Since I own many many Apple devices, I tried about 5 pairs of EarPods with and without a microphone (iPod touch EarPods), and each of them had the same issue (not on my iMac though, they work just fine).

At first I was wondering if it might have something to do with the spacing of the connectors on the 3,5mm jack since Apple EarPods don't work great with other devices. I'm kinda lost now, the port isn't broken, it's just the original Apple EarPods that it doesn't like...

 

[Peet_B]

I found the problem after all, it looks like the pin for the middle part of the 3-piece headphone jack is somehow bent inwards. Do any of you guys have experience with this or know how I could fix it, since the jack is soldered to the motherboard?

 

[MBAir2010]

ifixit or that youtube will have step by step instructions.
My speaker on the MacBook air need to be re-soldered so i use another speaker source.
if you still have a noise on the macbook pro, just turn off anything that has sound or internal speakers and use a Bluetooth device if you have one.