headphone piece lodged inside headphone jack

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I have a one half of a headphone plug lodged inside the headphone jack and now my sound card is damaged. It appears that the computer now has no sound capability whatsoever - when i adjust the volume, it indicates that there is no speaker connected to the machine and thus the volume is obsolete. This clearly indicates that the sound card is damaged, and would not be solved by simply by removing the headphone piece...otherwise it would act as if there were still headphones connected to it.

Anyway, i need my sound!! Can I still buy an external sound card to fix this problem? The geniuses at the Apple Store believe it to be an unfixable problem, unless they remove the entire hardware piece with all the various usb, firewire, printer, and power connections - at a price almost equal to a new computer. There must be an easier way!! PLEASE HELP!
 

chscag

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I have a one half of a headphone plug lodged inside the headphone jack and now my sound card is damaged. It appears that the computer now has no sound capability whatsoever - when i adjust the volume, it indicates that there is no speaker connected to the machine and thus the volume is obsolete. This clearly indicates that the sound card is damaged, and would not be solved by simply by removing the headphone piece...otherwise it would act as if there were still headphones connected to it.

That DOES NOT clearly indicate that your sound card is damaged and I don't know why you would think that way. :Angry-Tongue: The piece of headphone that is lodged in the jack appears to the system to be a headphone jack inserted and therefore the speakers are disconnected. If you go to System Preferences -> Sound, you'll see that the "headphones" are selected.

Do a search on this forum for solutions to removing the piece of headphone jack that's lodged. There have been many posts over the years with exactly the same problem. Plenty of folks have been able to remove the headphone piece themselves without damaging the machine.

Anyway, i need my sound!! Can I still buy an external sound card to fix this problem? The geniuses at the Apple Store believe it to be an unfixable problem, unless they remove the entire hardware piece with all the various usb, firewire, printer, and power connections - at a price almost equal to a new computer. There must be an easier way!! PLEASE HELP!

I don't know what you mean about it being an "unfixable problem"... it can be fixed. Just use a little resourcefulness and don't jump to conclusions about what's wrong. Like I said above, do a search.

Regards.
 
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Thanks for your suggestions. I had in fact already checked the system prefs>sound and there is no sound source connected to it at all, not even headphones. When you adjust the volume control, a little 'crossed-out' symbol appears, similar to a 'no-smoking' sign, which suggests to me that the computer has no sound capabilities, but I could be wrong. I've tried searching for other solutions to remove the jack, but to no avail. I already tried to remove it by applying some super glue to a little cotton-wool stick with the cotton removed, and I managed to move it out a little, but not enough. Something tells me though, that the problem will not be solved by simply removing the lodged headphone piece. If anyone has any other suggestions, or can recommend another solution, I'd love to hear it.
 

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