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

The Airfoil Solution

At this point, I have had the red light problem for over a year. This weekend, in an effort to procure a means of listening to system sounds via an external source, I downloaded Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil program which allows transmittal of system volume through an airport express. Strangely, whenever the program boots up, it has the side effect of turning off the red light in the headphone jack and allowing access to the internal speaks. I am not sure if this will work in the same way for everyone, but it has been a welcome benefit to a program that has numerous uses. Hope this helps.
 
brich83 said:
At this point, I have had the red light problem for over a year. This weekend, in an effort to procure a means of listening to system sounds via an external source, I downloaded Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil program which allows transmittal of system volume through an airport express. Strangely, whenever the program boots up, it has the side effect of turning off the red light in the headphone jack and allowing access to the internal speaks. I am not sure if this will work in the same way for everyone, but it has been a welcome benefit to a program that has numerous uses. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

The "red light" is the optical audio out port. It sounds like the little micro switch in the jack is stuck. Use a pin to tease the thing out of it's on position.
 
same red light audio out problem - thanks for the "fix"

I love the rare (for me) occasion when a problem with my Mac only takes a few minutes of research to "fix". Other issues in the past have had me on these boards for hours at a time and no resolution. Thanks for posting!:cool:
 
same problem. picking the jack with a plastic pick worked like a charm. mine is a white macbook. the sensor is located in the internal wall of the jack which is opposite to the lcd screen. this should make it easier to "hit the target".
:cool:
 
Thanks to whoever suggested the rubbing alcohol. I tried every solution on here, but the q-tip with rubbing alcohol did the trick. Must have been dust or something.
 
HAHA: THANK YOU.

I work in music production, yet was mystified by this: the idea that playing from the built-in speakers is impossible with something detected in the jack (mistakenly, in this case) was hugely frustrating.

But actually taking a matchstick: first gingerly pressing it against the visible contacts; then rubbing a bit more firmly, sensuously, beginning to stroke back and forth along the length of the socket; beginning to rotate, pressing around its circumference; pressing more and more firmly, more and more deeply, faster, FASTER, until suddenly I was met with blaring sound once again!

I needed a cigarette afterwords. Thankfully, I was already holding a matchstick.
 
DonCasablanca said:
HAHA: THANK YOU.

I work in music production, yet was mystified by this: the idea that playing from the built-in speakers is impossible with something detected in the jack (mistakenly, in this case) was hugely frustrating.

But actually taking a matchstick: first gingerly pressing it against the visible contacts; then rubbing a bit more firmly, sensuously, beginning to stroke back and forth along the length of the socket; beginning to rotate, pressing around its circumference; pressing more and more firmly, more and more deeply, faster, FASTER, until suddenly I was met with blaring sound once again!

I needed a cigarette afterwords. Thankfully, I was already holding a matchstick.
Click to expand...

Should I feel dirty needing to 'fix' mine often?
 
phew!!!

You guys are life-savers! i was so sure I would have to tell my dad that I'd bust my computer, but now everything is OK! And i also have a newfound appreciation for cotton buds! :)
 
Holy Back From the Dead Thread! I had the same problem this past spring. I took it to the genius, and they told me that it is most likely caused by taking out the headphone/audio plug too quickly. The computer thinks it is still in there, thus the red light. Mine was also making a hissing noise. I have had it happen once since then, and I plugged in the headphones, and then took them out slowly, and it remedied the problemo.
 
a little air

This happens to me everytime I use headphones. This time I tried the q-tip, toothpick, end of a small paintbrush, etc to no avail. Instead what finally worked was just blowing some air into the opening, and the sound instantly worked! Must have just been dust.
 
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Red Light Nightmare

bluzharp said:
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.
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: ( Nothing is working for me folks. I've been on youtube, and was very optimistic about the suggestion there and here on this forum as well.

I tried matchstick, headphone jiggle, battery removal, nothing is working. Please help!!!!!!
 
No luck with sensor/switch

I also haven't been able to activate the sensor with a q-tip, pen ink cartridge, or matchstick. Similarly no luck wiggling either headphones or speaker jacks.

The red LED is no longer showing. Could I have poked it too hard and damaged it?

Can anyone offer more information on exactly where the sensor is located on the inside of the jack port? Is it at the back? Which wall of the port is it on?

Someone mentioned using rubbing alcohol. Has anyone else had success with that?

Thanks for your help.
 
thank you.....

andrewfee said:
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.
Click to expand...

It worked for me! Thank you much! Was stressing quite a bit. Plugged the headphones back in a wiggled it a bit and now it works again. Awesome. Or at least until it goes south for good....
 
Thanks for the tips

I was having the same problem for the last two days. I didn't have anything pokey-shaped, so I plugged & unplugged the headphone jack a few times, & that did the trick.

I live/work in an extremely dusty environment (afghani desert), so once I go back to work tonight, I'll get some cotton swabs & alcohol from the electronics shop to clean the jack.

Ish
 
Help

My apologies if I do this forum thing all wrong, I am new. However, I plugged in external speakers and when I went to unplug them, the metal insert part broke inside the jack. The computer is only 1 year old, took it to Apple and they wanted 1100.00 to fix. I have tried to remove it myself, but not happening. I tried the matchstick as well. I thought I could just point the speakers to internal, but it's not an option. Anyone have any ideas?
 
pansy0508 said:
My apologies if I do this forum thing all wrong, I am new. However, I plugged in external speakers and when I went to unplug them, the metal insert part broke inside the jack. The computer is only 1 year old, took it to Apple and they wanted 1100.00 to fix. I have tried to remove it myself, but not happening. I tried the matchstick as well. I thought I could just point the speakers to internal, but it's not an option. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

use a magnet and suck it out. or a vacuum. just turn it off and unplug the battery before using a magnet.
 
Fantastic! My Blackbook started sounding like a skipping record this morning (no audio just the skipping sound) and this trick fixed it. I would never have noticed the red light shining out without this forum. Thanks team!
 
Just wanted to tell anyone that still has this problem, that I have a tip.

My LED light wouldn't go out when I unplugged my headphones and no matter how many times I reset the switch, the computer would think for a moment and then the light would come back on.

I discovered though that this is remedied usually by tripping the switch when the computer is already playing audio. For me, I have to open iTunes and start playing a song, then trip the switch (with the inside of a pen, or a paper clip) and the computer will suddenly realize it should be using the internal speakers and not the digital out. This works for me, hopefully it works for you too.
 
Hello! I had been having this problem for months. I tried a lot of things to fix it but nothing was working (bobby pin, screwdriver, toothpick, earphones, inside of a pen, etc). I finally fixed it by cutting a Q-tip in half, dipping it in rubbing alcohol and rubbing the sides of the hole to clean it, as suggested in this forum. I don't know if it's safe for the computer, but if you are desperate like me you can try it :)
 
I just fixed the red-light issue by plugging in the external speakers and kept the volume icon pressed with my mouse while removing the external speakers off the headphone jack. Otherwise the red light would turn back on. Now internal speakers work.
 
they could fix it so easily...

Everybody that has this problem needs to go to this page and tell Apple to issue a software update allowing us to disable the optical audio.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

We should not be forced to poke around inside our computers with metal objects or pay hundreds of dollars for logic board replacements. For how much money we pay for these computers, they should just WORK. And when Apple won't even stop being lazy and give us a simple SOFTWARE fix for the faulty hardware they sold us, something is desperately wrong. Personally, I'm going to keep e-mailing them until they finally fix this problem and I ask you guys to do the same.
 
more info

Hey guys, to those who have tried the qtip fix to no avail, here's a little more detail that might help.

I tried the qtip for a WHILE with no improvement, so i bent up a paper clip and began to investigate. The switch is located near the back to the left if you look directly into the jack (this is on my MacBook Pro). as far as i can tell it resembles some kind of button. i fiddled around and found that if i pried the buton outwards using the end of the clip the light would go on, BUT i have yet to get the button to stay when i remove the clip.

Currently I have the clip stuck in place and i found that it does now allow for use of the internal speakers.

Good Luck and hope this helps!
 
So I tried the qtip thing and it worked wonders on the red light, but the volume is still broken (without headphones, anyway). This all started after I dropped my laptop though, so I'm wondering if it might be a different problem.
 
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