iMac in-built sound not working, help?

[Sljmaster]

Hi, my dad recently plugged in some very old speaker into our iMac, he put them into the correct port but they didn't work. After he took them out the inbuilt speakers did not work either. We tried turning it off and on again, all of the basic stuff including checking the default audio output. When we looked at the default audio output instead of saying inbuilt speakers like it use to it now said they were headphones. I can't seem to find anyway of fixing it. Ive looked it up on the internet and lot's of people say there should a red light in the optical drive, in this situation there is no red light anywhere. We have a 3 year warranty and we're taking it to Apple of Thursday but it would be more convenient to find a fix now. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

 

[thumpcbd]

I had this occur on mine, lucky resetting the PRAM fixed it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

 

[Sljmaster]

I had this occur on mine, lucky resetting the PRAM fixed it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

Thanks for the reply. I mentioned that to my dad and he explained when he phoned Apple they asked him to do that, he tried it several times with a wired and wireless keyboard (Mac and Windows) and it did not work.

Any other ideas before it goes to the shop?

Thanks.

 

[doktordoris]

I vaguely remember reading of a person with the same problem, as far as i recall the problem is caused by a little mechanical switch which has failed to reset back to it's original position after the plug was removed. So the mac is under the impression headphones are plugged into it. I think the chap fixed it by inserting a bent paper clip into the hole and wiggling it about until the switch was pushed into it's proper position.

But as I said I am only remembering what someone wrote ages ago, maybe wrongly. So my advice is by no means necessarily correct.

I recommend searching the fora here for the thread I'm referring to as I believe I read it here, possibly in the MBP threads.

 

[Sljmaster]

I vaguely remember reading of a person with the same problem, as far as i recall the problem is caused by a little mechanical switch which has failed to reset back to it's original position after the plug was removed. So the mac is under the impression headphones are plugged into it. I think the chap fixed it by inserting a bent paper clip into the hole and wiggling it about until the switch was pushed into it's proper position.

But as I said I am only remembering what someone wrote ages ago, maybe wrongly. So my advice is by no means necessarily correct.

I recommend searching the fora here for the thread I'm referring to as I believe I read it here, possibly in the MBP threads.

Thanks for the reply. I've seen some people say when the red light comes on you should poke something in but I don't think it would be worth the risk of messing it up even more when we've got a warranty. The idea that the switch didn't switch back makes sense but wouldn't the Mac then think there were two devices I could switch between? The inbuilt and headphones.

Thanks