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No sound out of MacBook speakers & red LED in Headphone jack

S

SCMaverick

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 22, 2006
42
1
Just this past weekend after watching a DVD (used the headphone jack to listen) I am no longer able to hear anything out of the speakers. I also now have a red LED light shining through the headphone jack. Under the 'Sound' option in System Preferences, it says "Digital Out" instead of "Internal Speakers".
I've called Tech Support and they haven't been able to help me. My next option is sending my laptop back in to them for service. I'd like to see if there if there is somebody out there that has had this same issue before I lose the laptop for atleast a week.
Any thoughts??
 
Try plugging some headphones in (or your Toslink lead, if that's what you used) and slightly wiggling the lead as you pull it out. (be gentle though)

I found that sometimes (pretty rarely) my Powerbook would get stuck on the headphone setting after listening to headphones on it, and this sorted things out. Only seemed to do it when it was new, it's fine now though.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, however that didn't seem to help. I tried that about 5 times to no avail.
Any other thoughts or suggestions??
 
I've got no sound either!

I'm having the same bad day. I've got no sound from my speakers and a little red light shining out my jack (sounds serious huh?).

In the sounds menu, I don't have the option to switch to my internal speaks. Only digital output is present. Now I can't hear anything. All because I just used some headphones in the jack. Nice.

On top of that, my DVD player isn't reading DVDs. Totally unrelated. But still. I need to take this piece a' dirt back but I'm in Germany for the next month and I'm stuck with it. Who needs DVDs or sound in a computer these days anyway. I wish Apple could help, but I couldn't find anything on the Apple site. Does anybody have a solution for either of these problems?

Cheers.
 
red light fix

:rolleyes:
I found a fix for the red light problem. I'm not sure if I like it, but it works. After reading forum thread after forum thread of users that had this problem, I found a dude who fixed his jack with a rubber ended bobby pin. It seems a sensor gets bent (?) and the system thinks your digital external line is still plugged in. I took the butt end of a matchstick and tickled inside the jack. My red light went out. My internal speakers work again. Whatever.
 
Red Light Fix

I tried the headphone jiggle to no avail, but the matchstick method worked perfectly. Thanks.
 
Worked for me too

It worked for me too. Not with a matchstick, but with a little bronze stick. I found that it was in the top of the headphone jack input the switch was placed, and it needed only a gentle push to be helped back to ordinary analog status...
 
I got the same problem today.
I tried to reset PRAM and NVRAM, and it changed nothing.

Finally, I took in and out the headset jack 4/5 times and the red light switched off.
And the internal speakers began working again.

Bye and thanks!
 
SCMaverick said:
Just this past weekend after watching a DVD (used the headphone jack to listen) I am no longer able to hear anything out of the speakers. I also now have a red LED light shining through the headphone jack. Under the 'Sound' option in System Preferences, it says "Digital Out" instead of "Internal Speakers".
Click to expand...

Just to clarify... that 'red LED' IS the digital (Optical) interface - confirmed by the note under preferences that the 'Digital Out' is enabled.

Jiggling the headphone plug, or using the match/pin trick should release the microswitch that turns the Digital Output on.

I'm surprised that Tech Support wouldn't come to this conclusion right away - the symptoms you described were pretty specific. Was it AppleCare you contacted?
 
Me too folks! Happened just now. Matchstick trick worked, but what the hell???!!! I paid $1300 for my 13 in. MacBook in June. This is an unacceptible way to "fix" the problem. I'm gonna milk my warrenty for all its worth.
 
lost of internal speakers and red light

Had this problem. with my Macbook pro.....simply plug and unplug phone jack in rapidly several times until the red light close....after go to pref. ....sound...select internal speakers and it works for me!
 
same thing happened to me

the only thing I had was the inside of a pen

I tried being gentle at first but it wouldn't do anything so after jamming it it finally worked. Tested with head phones once again :cool:

thank god for these forums or i'd be driving to the apple store right now
Stupid piece of junk!
 
Red light in headset mac book pro

I can hardly believe that this"low-tech" fix actually worked. Thankfully, I can cancel my trip to the "genius bar"...freaking idiots there. Thanks everyone...really appreciate the information. Audio works! ;)
 
Same problem. I found a thread on Apple.com that recommends using a toothpick to clean the headphone/speaker jack. Worked for me! Apparently there is a microswitch inside the jack that gets clogged with dust and then you get stuck in "Digital Out" mode. For $4000.00 you'd think it would come with its own toothpick!
 
Best Fix

I found that the best non-metallic item is a cotton bud. I removed the cotton part and inserted in the headphone jack, and instantly the internal speaker came to life. :)

__________________
MacBook 2.0GHz 250GB 2GB| iPhone 3G 16GB
 
Eureka!

I also had the same issue. I cut a q-tip in half. Using the smooth, non-cotton end, I was able to deactivate the digital output and restore the internal speakers within the sound preferences! Thanks for the help you guys! :)
 
Good Thing I Picked Up Some Matches Today!

Too damn funny... the matchstick trick worked. I should have googled this problem months ago. Thanks everyone.
 
Red light starts again ...

After the use of a cotton bud or matchstick, or jiggling a headphone jack, the red light dissapears briefly, or starts flashing, only to turn on again after a moment.

Any ideas? Is it possible that the microswitch needs to be "pushed harder" to stay in it's off position?

Looking forward to hearing back from you,
and Thanks
 
qtip worked as a charm.
had to wait a moment though, so if you're trying for the first time, do the matchstick-qtip-paperclip thing then wait a moment (like a sec) and try your volume keys again.

Oh what a laugh.

Expensive technology fixed by little pokey things...
 
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