powerbookg4 - possible to over-ride speaker cancellation due to headphones ?

Hi all,

so hopefully this is the appropriate place to put this ,

i have a powerbook g4, and my headphones jack broke off, in the headphone jack-hole (is that the word!?)... and so as a result, the onboard speakers are cancelled out, but, i can't listen via headphones because the jack bit is stuck in there! arrrghhh. eventually i will of course have to get it fixed, or get an external soundcard, but, is it possible to somehow tell the speakers not to be cancelled out by the headphone jack?
would be nice to have some sound,


any help would be wonderful and much appreciated.

yipes. did you break it off flush or is it so far inside you cant even see it?

hey i did a quick google and someone said you can try system pref>sound>output and use the arrow key to use the speakers from the mac. hope this helps..

Welcome to Mac Forums
I don't think so, but I would be removing the broken jack.
Normally I would be tearing it down, and pushing out the broken jack from the inside, but I dont know if it is possible, as I think it may be a sealed audio port.
So, 2 options:
Take it to a computer repairer and see how much they would charge you to remove it, or.....

-being extremely cautious with a stable hand, I would actually get a small piece of material the size of a toothpick, like metal or wood (smaller than the whole) , and a tiny dab of superglue, attaching to the the end of the jack and removing it.

yeah i agree with 6string. i tried plugging in headphones then doing what i read on google and i would say that is a false statement. when i plug the headphones in it doesn't give the option to toggle between the two. i read that one guy was able to use usb headphones and that worked for him. sorry for the false info i should have tried before i posted. and waited for 6string to post. lol my bad..

6string said:

Welcome to Mac Forums
I don't think so, but I would be removing the broken jack.
Normally I would be tearing it down, and pushing out the broken jack from the inside, but I dont know if it is possible, as I think it may be a sealed audio port.
So, 2 options:
Take it to a computer repairer and see how much they would charge you to remove it, or.....

-being extremely cautious with a stable hand, I would actually get a small piece of material the size of a toothpick, like metal or wood (smaller than the whole) , and a tiny dab of superglue, attaching to the the end of the jack and removing it.

Click to expand...

yeah, i like, opened it up to have a look... but it didn't seem possible to push it out from the inside... there was just kinda.. stuff in the way i didn't want to mess with, lol. yeah.. i wonder if that would work, superglue, i wonder how well that would bond with the metal of the jack vs. the difficulty of getting it in there with a steady hand! a friend of mine reccomended that as well... i was like, YER CRAZY, hah. hmm. well. i might give that a shot. my powerbook is pretty old so i'm kindof against spending much cash getting it fixed as i feel like its nearing the end of its run anyways. Also am a student therefore kindof cash strapped.

thanx for the suggestions ! i was hoping there was some.. magical lines of code i could enter into the terminal to save my bacon. if only i was a master hacker !

Well, stay tuned and someone may come along with know how of a terminal command, or a system file to remove.

As for the superglue technique.... there a many different types of adhesives that will bond metal to metal, as well as other material combinations.
Without a steady hand or the right bonding glue, I wouldn't attempt it!
However, it can't hurt to make a few calls to service people to see what they would charge to get it out for you.

Have you had any luck getting the broken off headphone jack out of your PowerBook? My fiance's computer has the same issue.