No internal speaker option. Only digital output or headphones.

I have a late 08' 15" MBP. For some reason out of the blue, I am no longer able to get audio out of the internal speakers. It was working last night. I also shut down and started up again. Curiously enough, during start up, I heard the start up sound through the internal speakers.

In preferences in the output pane, there isn't even the option for internal speakers, it only says "Digital Out". And I see that from within the headphone jack a red light is glowing.

When I plug a chord in (which is attached to my stereo) I'll get audio again though. But obviously this isn't right. What could be the cause of this ? Help is greatly appreciated.

Doug

I fixed it, but hope it's not a hint that the tabs on the inner jack are going bad. I took out the chord I used for plugging into my stereo, and plugged in some headphones (all very carefully of course) and pulled it out then it worked again. I'm guessing that perhaps one of the tabs was stuck, or that the MBP recognized the plug as being that of an optical cable.

In a way I kind of hope that if something is wrong, that it goes fully wrong very soon, so that I'm still covered with my extended warranty.

hello doug! im having the same problem and i cant seem to make it work!!! i have applecare its just that i cant hand it in as i really need my laptop for my project everyday any advice what can i do??
thanks alot

Internal speaker problems

Had the same problem with my internal speakers not functioning properly. After reading tons of posts and corrections from canned air blow outs to toothpicks inside the headphone jack area I decided to take my macbook into the apple store. After the genius bar blew the jack out with canned air and stuck what was the equivalent to a toothpick in the jack to try and reset something they determined it was my logic board that needed replacing. So, here are the options I was given that might shed some light for you.

-If they have a logic board in stock they will replace the logic board for you onsite and it takes around 30min. (this all occurs in a apple store)
-If they do not have a logic board you can leave your mac and they should have it replaced and shipped to you in roughly 48hrs.
-Last is the option where they order the logic board, you keep you mac and they contact you when the part has arrived and they replace the part for you in the store.

I dropped my mac of after work one day and picked it up at the apple store the following day at lunch. The biggest thing is make sure that you have apple care before undertaking this effort. Though I had apple care and did not pay a dime for this I took a look at the receipt they printed when all was said and done and this would have cost me around $650.00!!

Hope this helps. Good luck.