Request for help: MacBook sound problem

Hmmm... in system profiler under Audio(Built In) it shows Speaker : Connection : Internal. So, I guess that means the system sees the speakers are there, right ?

Chris, before messing with any software, make a quick physical check. Look into the headphone jack. If you see a red light, the digital audio software is disabling the speakers.

If the light is on, get a wooden or plastic toothpick and do something horrible to one end so it's blunted (no burning, that leaves residue). Gently poke around in the jack until the light goes off. Your speakers will be available immediately.

My MacBook started doing this about six months ago, and it happens often enough that my daughter made me a toothpick doll to keep by the computer.

I have the same problem on my Summer 2005 iBook G4 since upgrading to Leopard. I end up re-booting and that solves my problem. It takes a few days before it happens again.

kernel_tas goes haywire every so often also - taking up top 95% of my CPU. Pressing the power button to shut down is the only way to get things back to normal!

Why did I bother with Leopard on this iBook?

I have also heard of this happening and simply restarting fixed it. Worth a try?

This problem happened to me out of the blue last fall with my MacBook Pro. I tried the remedies that most posts online recommended, including poking around in the audio-out port with a small object, but that procedure didn't work. Then I found another recommendation to just pucker up and blow into the audio-out port. Although doing so might seem weird and "magical" (just like portrait photographers asking kids to "blow out" the light), I tried it and was amazed when it worked after a couple puffs. I'd sure like to know what about the air pressure or moisture make it reset properly.

This happened to me a few months ago and just playing around with unplugging and plugging in the headphones got it to work, but now it's happened again and I can't get it to go away. I'm currently trying the toothpick trick. Thanks!

Hello everyone and thanks for all the suggestions. I tried everything and nothing worked unfortunately. And then suddenly this morning it works as if there never was a problem without doing anything... Very disconcerting because of course, since I did nothing to fix it, that means it could stop working again just as suddenly... Oh well, it's working now.

Hi guys. i have a black macbook (2.16 Ghz with Intel Core 2 Duo) recently i had the same problem as described above. I had tried rebooting, blowing in the hole, looking at sound preferences, and just trying to wiggle the problem away with my headphone jack. Ultimately i used a toothpick. but rather than just poking randomly i noticed something. on the right side of the port you can see a small block notch, located at the 3 'o clock position. by placing the end of the toothpick on top of this small black notch and pushing it down to the 6 'o clock position, my problems were suddenly eliminated. built in speakers is now an option in the sound preferences menu and I'm listening to music as i type. (after pushing the notch to the 6 o' clock position the red light stopped. My mac automatically began playing through the built in speakers.) good luck and hope this helps!

On Tue, Feb 19, 2008 at 12:04 PM, Brad Giles wrote: > Hi guys. i have a black macbook (2.16 Ghz with Intel Core 2 Duo) recently i had the same problem as described above. I had tried rebooting, blowing in the hole, looking at sound preferences, and just trying to wiggle the problem away with my headphone jack. Ultimately i used a toothpick. but rather than just poking randomly i noticed something. on the right side of the port you can see a small block notch, located at the 3 o'clock position. by placing the end of the toothpick on top of this small black notch and pushing it down to the 6 o'clock position, my problems were suddenly eliminated. built in speakers is now an option in the sound preferences menu and I'm listening to music as i type. (after pushing the notch to the 6 o'clock position the red light stopped. My mac automatically began playing through the built in speakers.) good luck and hope this helps! Hello Brad, Thanks for the tip ! My MacBook had spontaneously started working properly for a bit and then, as soon as I booted in my hotel room on my last business trip, no sound again. Oy. perfect timing. Well, I couldn't see any block as I looked inside but I'm game, so I got my toothpick and put it in there slightly above 3 o'clock and slid it around to about six. It did feel like something moved and presto changeo, sound ! I guess I'll have to keep a couple of toothpicks in the laptop bag the way we used to keep straightened paperclips next to system 7 machines... Christopher Appell

Brad Giles wrote:

> Hi guys. i have a black macbook (2.16 Ghz with Intel Core 2
> Duo) recently i had the same problem as described above. I
> had tried rebooting, blowing in the hole, looking at sound
> preferences, and just trying to wiggle the problem away with
> my headphone jack. Ultimately i used a toothpick. but rather
> than just poking randomly i noticed something. on the right
> side of the port you can see a small block notch, located at
> the 3 'o clock position.

This notch is probably the switch that detects if a jack is inserted
into the connector. This is used to switch the internal speakers off
when you plug in e.g. a set of headphones.

By moving the notch, you've probably disabled the detection, and you
won't be able to switch the internal speakers off anymore.

Harro de Jong

Thank you everyone for figuring this out. I had the same problem on my MacBook and I just googled "macbook sound" and found this thread. I stuck a hair pin in there and it worked (now it works fine for both internal speakers and headphones). I just couldn't believe that it had anything to do with the software, and I'm glad I didn't spend too much time reinstalling anything before finding all of this amazing advice! So thank you!

I was having a problem with my sound, I had bumped the headphone jack with my speakers hooked to it and it wouldn't play sound without the speakers. Thank you SO much for helping. I was about ready to send it in.

I'm lost sound from my internal speakers with a white Macbook and I don't see any "small black notch" or switch in the hole for the speaker jack. I just bought it in December with bells and whistles but it has lost its internal speakers somehow. Suggestions? Thanks for your help.

I had exactly the same problem as described above where after plugging in headphones and removing them, I lost all sound on my macbook apart from the sound made following reboot. Settings showed a digital output only and no internal speakers anymore, with all features for sound grayed out and a white circle with diagonal dash everytime i try to adjust sound volume.

Brad Giles effectively nailed the problem perfectly. It is a physical one with the jack itself and not the hardware or software. Using a hairpin, there is a deeper notch that sticks out at the 3 o'clock position only that needs to be pushed in and forcing the hairpin along that notch does exactly that and restores sound immediately. Thank you BG. Excellent work with recognizing the problem and thank you so much....

Now back to my original problem if anyone can help. I had hooked up my macbook to an HDTV and the picture transmitted perfectly. Audio didn't though on 2 different TV's. Tried input jacks, output jacks, standard audio cables (1 to 2 with red and white L/R) and digital output wire. Nothing. Any ideas?

Oh joy!

I'm traveling with a MacBook, which lost sound from its speakers after I'd experimented with plugging in headphones. My mail is being redirected too, so I hadn't even thought to read through all those messages to find this thread. But now I too will keep a blunt toothpick in my tool kit....

What a bizarre error, though.

Arrrrrrrghhhhhhh!

The light within the headphone socket turns off ok, but as soon as I try to play a sound file, it comes back on again and there's no sound from the internal speakers.

Hi,guys I'm facing with the same problem as u guys and i can't find the noth at 3 o'clock. I use white 2.0 macbook. Do u have other suggestions?

Thnxs

Link to other, more informative discussion: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=237405

Bingo! The advice works perfectly. I think it happened when I removed my headphones a little to aggressively. I must have knocked it out of place.

For those who can't find the notch/switch inside the headphone jack at the three o'clock position, I found it at the twelve o'clock position on my iMac G5.