Dropped my mac with earphones plugged in, now the sound isn't working

[city07]

It slid off my bed and everything else was perfectly fine, but when I tried watching something, i realized the volume icon was grayed out and the buttons display a locked sign. No sound through my earphones or speakers. I'm thinking that when it dropped my earphones must've jammed something because there's a red light coming out of the jack.

Are there any troubleshooting techniques or am i going to need to get it repaired? I'm a little worried about going to the apple store because someone told me a diagnostic costs about 100 dollars and then on top of that the repair costs. I don't think the warranty will cover this, but i'm really hoping something like this will cost under 50 bucks.

 

[chrisbetty]

Yea I suggest taking it to the store,I've never had the red light but I know it's bad

 

[hehe299792458]

Yea I suggest taking it to the store,I've never had the red light but I know it's bad

red light is the spdif output light. disable that in sys pref

 

[squeakr]

It is registering that there is something connected (and with the red light it thinks it is a digital connection and it trying to output digitally). Something is latched on within the connector.

 

[crashidioteque]

I think the MacBook Pros have had S/PDIF connectors for quite a while. I wonder if you hadn't bent something in the jack that lets the machine know whether to use the headphone jack versus the optical audio output. On that note, does anyone know if that optical output is damaging to our eyes? I would get an answer to that question before you look in there to see what is bent.

I imagine when you insert the headphone plug it "trips" one thing, and when the TOSlink is inserted it "trips" another.

 

[squeakr]

I think the MacBook Pros have had S/PDIF connectors for quite a while. I wonder if you hadn't bent something in the jack that lets the machine know whether to use the headphone jack versus the optical audio output. On that note, does anyone know if that optical output is damaging to our eyes? I would get an answer to that question before you look in there to see what is bent.

I imagine when you insert the headphone plug it "trips" one thing, and when the TOSlink is inserted it "trips" another.

Exactly what is happening. I wouldn't even try to look in there as you wouldn't see anything anyway (with the light coming out, then you know nothing is broken off in there). The only way to fix it is to take the back off and then try to get to it that way (but I wouldn't recommend that unless you are trained in such repairs, not Apple trained per se, just technician trained). The one thing you may try is to push a matchstick in there to unlatch it (but don't be to violent or you will break it off in there. This of course is all at your own risk and I claim no responsibility if your break something.