Bad audio

Hello all
I own a Macbook 13" with a Mac OsX 10.5.8 Leopard for the past year.
Recently i have been having issues with my audio.
The audio keeps going on and off when i play a video file (on all my media players vlc,quicktime etc...) on my macbook. When i have my headphones plugged in the audio keeps switching between both the headphones and in-built speakersGrimmace:can't watch videos at work anymore). The video does not freeze nor does it skip only the audio keeps giving issues.

Thanks and regards.

It's possible the headphone output jack is loose or sticking from the inside and giving you an intermittent effect. When you plug headphones in, the speakers are disconnected and reconnected when the headphones are removed.

Does the same thing happen when you play a music CD?

yup the same thing happens when i play music too...also the audio skips when there are no headphones in....i try restarting whenever it happens then it works fine for a few hours and the problem reappears..

Should i post this in the software section??...

Posting in this forum is OK.

It sure looks like you have a hardware problem although there is a possibility it may be software related. I would try cleaning the headphone jack just in case there may be some dirt or corrosion around the contacts.

Not an easy thing to do with such a small opening and space to work with. You can try one of those pressurized air can sprays to see if that might help.

It may also be the audio circuitry itself that's acting up. Unfortunately thats all located on the logic board and is actually an integrated chipset. Which means if it is defective, the entire logic board would have to be swapped out.

You might also want to try running the Apple Hardware Test with your install DVD to see if it comes up with something.