Had a student bring her MacBook to me and said that the sound just stopped working. I checked the OS X System Preferences for Sound > Output and found only the Digital Out option available. The built-in audio was missing, which also doesn't allow headphones to work. She was carrying a set of headphones on her.
Here's a list of symptoms I found:
- no sound
- audio controls on keyboard would bring up icon on screen but could not change audio levels
- missing built-in audio in System Preferences > Sound > Output
- red light coming out of the sound jack on the side of the MacBook
Macs have become more advanced. They used to only have analog output and many low-end Windows notebooks only have analog output (you get what you pay for). But, all the Macs now have the ability to convert to accept digital output connections.
In order to move between digital and analog output on the same port, there's a tiny switch in the port that recognizes the plug that is inserted. However, that switch will sometimes get confused and get stuck, which is what happened in this case.
THE FIX:
Something must be inserted into the port to make the switch move back to the desired position, in this case, analog. One way to do it is put the headphones' jack into the port and wiggle it around. This doesn't always work. I've found that a smaller tool in there would work better. I'm not too fond of sticking metal things (i.e. paper clips) into ports, so I used the straw from a can of compressed air. I inserted the straw into sound port and wiggled it around a little as I watched the window in System Preferences > Sound > Output. You should see it change Digital Out to Internal Speakers (Built-in Audio) and the red light, which indicates a digital connection, go off.
Hope this helps someone. Good luck.
By the way, I found this macrumors.com forum posting that had some other folks who experienced the same problem.
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-237405.html
15 comments:
Thank you -- it didn't solve my problem (can't make the switch stay on built-in output), but at least I know what's wrong.
Sure. Do you plug in headphones in the jack often? You might want to take it the Apple Store to see if they might replace the port/logic board to fix the problem. Of course, this would be best if you're still under warranty.
Good luck and let me know if you get it resolved.
Thanks... worked great.
glad it helped.
It didn't work for me....let me know if you know of anything else that might work: acannon@amandacannon.com
Unless you're comfortable with taking the machine apart, I would take it to the Apple store to have them replace the logic board, which includes the audio connection. At the very least, make an appointment and have a Genius look at it.
Good luck.
Worked for me after a few tries :-)
Hi Drew,
Worked for me - thanks verymuch.
It started off when I was swapping between standard headphones / iphone headphones on the Mac .
Somehow the switch got stuck. used the iphone headset and wriggled it gently in the socket.
Now working.
thanks very much !
Regards
therainbowarrior
Awesome, that worked. Thank you.
Thank you. I tried this method and fixed the problem.
SJM
You're welcome. Glad to see this old post is still helping people out.
I found turning it off and on again works, but it's awfully annoying, especially on a 3 week old MacBook pro. I use headphones a lot and am always plugging them in and removing them, so I experience this problem about once every 2 days. Added to that, I can't quite iTunes without force quitting, which looses my play count on tracks listened to that session. Plus, the underside of my MacBook is often too hot to touch. I think I'll be going back to the Apple store! Any suggestions welcome.
The problem with the sound connection shouldn't affect iTunes operation. Sounds like you've additional problems. Perhaps create a new user profile to see if iTunes still crashes.
Good luck.
Worked a treat, no idea why but thanks.
P
Glad it helped, GuruPi.
Post a Comment