No Sound

Last night, I connected my macbook to my stereo system through the headphone jack in order to get better sound, but as soon as i disconnected the wire that connected my laptop to my stereo, sound no longer came out of my laptop. Still, if i reconnect the wire through the headphone jack of my laptop, I get sound through my stereo speakers. I thought this problem would simply resolve itself if I restarted my laptop which is what I did. I got the bootup sound that mac makes when it first loads, but once again, there is no sound when I try to play my music. I also noticed that there is a red light in my headphone jack. I'm not quite sure what it means. I also went to the help in my system preferences. It said if I wanted to listen to my music through my internal speakers, I would have to goto system preferences > sound > output and then select "built-in audio", but to my surprise the only option in my output tab is "line out". Please someone help me out. I want my internal speaker sound back! neye:

The red light means that the digital aspect of the socket is turned on. If you use boot camp to run windows you will find that this permantly on (its a bug they are working on.) It is possible I guess that you have turned the digital output sound on by mistake (so the MBP thinks your outputting sound to an external device.) As a result the speakers are turned off. Turn off the digital output and the speakers should kick back in.

I had the exact problem on my Powerbook G4 and the only way I could get it fixed was by sending it back to Apple (took about 3 days to get it back). I tried the Genius bar first of all and they tried rebooting OSX from a firewire drive to see if it was a hardware and software fault. But by what your telling me, your MBP has the same fault as my Powerbook. I even happened the same way by connecting speakers from the headphone jack.

Aren't you suppose to use line out for your stereo and the headphone jack for headphones?

I am having the same problem with the audio from my MacBook Pro. I get the red light too. How do you turn off digital output?

System preferences, sound, output. For the stuck sound problem, insert and remove the jack several times in the headphone jack. It is a known problem that a micro-switch inside may get stuck.

Harryc said:

System preferences, sound, output. For the stuck sound problem, insert and remove the jack several times in the headphone jack. It is a known problem that a micro-switch inside may get stuck.

Click to expand...

There is no digital output option in that pane of the sys pref on my MBP. Am I missing something?

N audio and crazy red light

I have been having the very same problem the others with no audio through the speakers and the crazy red light. I spent over an hour on the phone with apple today trying to fix it, and in the end they just told me to send it in. If anyone has any ideas im open becuase i really don't want to have to do that.

I'm experiencing the exact same problem on my MacBook Pro. Headphone plugged in works fine but without it I get the redlight and no sound options (line out).

Plugging/unplugging a headphone a bunch of times didn't help, I guess I'll keep trying...

Could really use some help with this if anyone has any ideas... I don't want to have to send it in if I can help it.

perhaps resetting hte pram will help?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Mine just magically solved itself...

What does resetting the PRAM do?

I want to do it anyways

wow, mine is magic too. An hour ago it was still messed up, and now it's fixed. Weird. I was just about to send it in tomorrow to.

I wish I knew what happened though..

I posted the solution in a new thread...

catchmeifucan24 said:

I posted the solution in a new thread...

Click to expand...

If the solution is pertinent to this thread.... then WHY start a new thread and put the solution there? Makes no sense.

For those interested, here is his suggestion:

catchmeifucan24 said:

I noticed there were a number of people who were having problems with the digital audio being stuck on which didn't allow the main computer speakers to work.

I figured out how to fix this, or, it at least worked for me.

first, plug in a USB device (iPod, hard drive, etc..) (I used an iPod)
Next plug headphones into the headphone slot, then uplug them. This should turn off the optical light.

Like i said this did work for me, I am making no promises but I had tried everything, and this did it.

Click to expand...

mine has done it twice

my powerbookg4 has done this twice. I fixed it the second time by just pluging the head phones in and out over and over. It does seem to be a hardware problem. proubably needs to be replaced. I am not under warrenty anymore, I would encourage any one to have it replaced while they are under warrenty.

MACDRIVE said:

Aren't you suppose to use line out for your stereo and the headphone jack for headphones?

Click to expand...

Most laptops, including MacBook Pros and Powerbooks only have one audio out jack used as both a line out and headphone out. They do that to save space of having 2 jacks that would essentially be doing the exact same thing.

The problem is solved!

I had the exact same problem as everyone else..
red light, no sound etc..

i just did what pohigh said..
just put a headphone jack in and out, a few times maybe.. really quickly and firmly..

i just assume that everytime you put a jack into the headphone/line out plug, the red light light comes on..
sometimes it just gets stuck..

so try and get is loose!

Hope i could help

God Bless!

success

The tip about connecting a USB device before plugging in and then unplugging the headphones definitely works! Just saved me a couple of days without my computer (having to send it in and such.) Thank you!!

I had erased my hard drive and re-installed Leopard.
Afterwards, I no longer had sound. Pressing the volume buttons brought up the volume control with a circle-with-a-slash under it.

I did not have the red light in the headphone jack as some have mentioned, however, based on what I read, I plugged in some headphones: the sound worked through them! Unplugging them brought the red light everyone talks about.

I followed the advice to plug in a USB device (I used a WWAN device (wireless modem card). The one I had needed to be installed again, since I had re-installed Leopard. Once installed, I plugged in the headphones, unplugged 'em and it worked! Sound is back to normal.

So, to reiterate, if you get no sound out of your MacBook Pro, for whatever reason:

1. Plug in a USB device.
2. Plug in headphones.
3. Unplug the headphones. Ta-da!

Thank you all so much for your help!


Walt D in LV
http://www.thecinemaniacs.com/