Speaker problems

[Aldric]

I'm a long-time lurker here, but I've finally registered to get some tech support.

The internal speakers on my Macbook have stopped working. Headphones work fine, but when I unplug my headphones, I don't get any sound from the internal speakers. After a restart, the computer gave the startup noise, so I know they work. The sound option in my system preferences doesn't have internal speakers listed, only 'line out'. As another interesting point, the headphone jack has this strange red light coming out of it that I never noticed before. The speakers were working fine last night, but I plugged in my headphones today and now they won't work.

Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

 

[Makosuke]

Well, I can tell you what the red light coming out of your headphone jack is: Thats the optical audio output turned on even though there's no optical audio cable plugged into it.

Now, I've heard of that being a pretty standard problem in Windows when running on a Mac--the audio driver doesn't automatically turn the optical output on and off based on when there's an optical cable plugged in, so it's always on.

But I'm assuming you're not booted into Windows when you see this... in which case, it sounds like there's a driver problem, or something wonky with the sound chip.

The only thing I can really recommend as a test is starting up from the restore DVD that came with the computer; if it works properly when started from that disc, then there's something wrong with your installed driver, and you apparently need to reinstall the OS. If it doesn't work properly when started up from that disc--still no audio out of the speakers and still a red light coming from the jack--then you've apparently got a hardware problem, and it's time to call Apple for a repair.

 

[Aldric]

You're right, I'm not using Windows. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on my OSX discs (I'm at college and they're at home).

Thanks. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[mad jew]

You could try a Safe Boot in the meantime, just to see if there's any change. It's unlikely to be better but it'll help narrow down some variables.