Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Headphones not working Imac

R

Ridgeback

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 18, 2008
7
0
Trying to listen to sound through headphones on my new Imac, but when I plug the headphones into the jack, no sound comes out.

When I go into system preferences> sound> output, there is only one device listed....Internal speakers

any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Thx
 
I hope I am.....the port with the small picture of the headphones.......no sound output through the headphones at all when plugged in.
 
skwij said:
You may want to give SoundSource a try.
Click to expand...

All SoundSource does is create a menu bar item where you can select sound sources without going into System Preferences. If the headphones are not showing up in Sound Preferences they won't show up in SoundSource either.

Don't get me wrong, SoundSource is a great utility and I use it every day.

It's hard to say why your headphones aren't being recognized. Have you rebooted the system? Have you tried a different set of headphones to see if that makes a difference?
 
Hi!

I had a similar problem and it was cause by the Preference Pane "StartupSound", which supposedly disables the startup sound (right after you turn on you Mac). I deleted it, logged out and back in and the sound from my headphones was right back.

Hope that was helpful.

/Rupert
 
Hi, I can't find "startup sound" anywhere....searched the finder etc...no luck. Where might I find this?

In regards to the question about rebooting, I have tried it on many occasions, with different sets of headphones, with no success. Very strange. I'm beginning to think the actual port itself might be buggered.
 
Ok, I might have not been so clear about this. The StartupSound is a 3rd party tool, that was used to disable the startup sound. If you can't find it in System Preferences, you haven't installed it.

I guess sound is working normally, when coming from the built-in speakers of your iMac? Did you try to use a USB-headset?
 
yes, sound is working normally through the speakers. I don't have a USB headset, so I haven't tried that yet.
 
Ridgeback said:
yes, sound is working normally through the speakers. I don't have a USB headset, so I haven't tried that yet.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me from your descriptions that you may in fact have a hardware issue with the headphone jack if you've tried it with multiple headphones and still get no sound. I would send it in to Apple for a look especially if its a new machine. Ideally if you have an Apple Store nearby you could just drive it by. Unfortunately where I live I have to get Apple to pick up my Mac whenever I need service. :(
 
Headphones not working Aluminum Imac

I have been using my headphone jack to power my external speakers for more effect. It is not until recently, that all of a sudden I get no sound output from that socket any more. I have tried with another pair of headphones which are confirmed to work on other devices as well as another set of speakers, that are also confirmed to work.

I don't really know what would cause something like this to happen. What suggestions might you offer so that I might go about fixing the problem?

To send my computer back to the dealership just to have them look at a headphone socket hardly seems worthwhile, and I would rather go about fixing it myself. So, any suggestions?
 
I too have this same problem, I originally thought it was because of a website I visited (flowgram) which lets you record over presentations. Because it's flash it asked for permission to use my mic, that's pretty much when I then noticed my external speakers no longer worked.

I've tried everything to get them to work again uninstall flash etc (as the do work) but nada.

I was in my local Apple store and he said it was unlikely that it was the site I viewed, but his solution was to re-install leopard to see if that will fix it.

So looks like that is my next option, will let you know if that fixes the problem!
 
Fix!

Search for sound source then download it. After that, open it up and then go into the top menu bar. You should see a icon that looks like a headphone. click that then open the MIDI setup.Then click build in output, and then uncheck the mute button. I had the same problem and this fixed it for me.


Link for soundsource: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/
 
iMac 27 Nightmare averted

Thank you for advice Apple should be providing in writing or a system update, that's long overdue. I just received my iMac 27 yesterday! As a music producer
it was agony not being able to work late into the night without plugging in some headphones
Switching to 32bit floating indeed worked for me in the Audio/Midi window.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back