headphone socket red light

[Bill-smallworld]

My headphone socket seems faulty on my 13' white macbook. There is a red light in the socket
I use sound in live performance settings and with presentations so when it fails to play both tracks or in some cases no sound comes out of my connected PA I am severely compromised. Fiddling with plugs and wires mid performance may get it to do the job it is supposed to do but then I am not doing the job I am supposed to do ... performing seamlessly.

As this old white macbook is well out of warrenty what USB sound out device will do a fail-safe and reliable Job?

I do not have a big budget

 

[OllyW]

My headphone socket seems faulty on my 13' white macbook. There is a red light in the socket

It's a combined socket that also handles optical signals. That's the red light you can see.

Here's a discussion from back in the day which might help if you can't turn it off in system preferences.

 

[VI™]

It gets stuck sometimes and thinks something is still plugged in. A toothpick helped me take care of mine.