Red light in headphone jack

mav5mav5
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
So a while back I noticed a red light inside the headphone jackon my MB. I searched the forums here and in Apple Discussions and discovered that it is an optical reader and should only come on when headphones are plugged in. The difference with my problem is that my speakers work perfectly. So I was wondering if there is any real need to get the problem fixed.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    galleygalley Posts: 971member
    The audio jacks on Macs support both optical and analog connections. The red light is normal.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    mav5mav5 Posts: 36member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Galley View Post


    The audio jacks on Macs support both optical and analog connections. The red light is normal.



    I know that the red light should be in there, but should it be on all of the time? From what I've heard it should only turn on when head phones are plugged into the jack.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    leviticusleviticus Posts: 18member
    I had the same thing when I had put Vista on my MBP at one time. The headphone jack showed red, but never when I was running OS X.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    nickmininickmini Posts: 74member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mav5 View Post


    So a while back I noticed a red light inside the headphone jackon my MB. I searched the forums here and in Apple Discussions and discovered that it is an optical reader and should only come on when headphones are plugged in. The difference with my problem is that my speakers work perfectly. So I was wondering if there is any real need to get the problem fixed.



    There is a similar problem with my (G4, 1.6GHz) PowerBook, except unlike you, my built in speakers won't work since the light has come on. Plugging in external speakers works fine. Seems that the tiny switch inside that flips the optical connection got stuck, and not amount of jiggling and poking around inside has managed to free it up. So as far as my laptop is concerned, when there isn't a plug in the output it's in "optical" mode, so no sound to the externals. Sucks. Happy for you that you still have your sound output though
  • Reply 5 of 6
    k squaredk squared Posts: 608member
    nickmini, same thing happened to me with a MacBook. To fix it, I used a toothpick to gently turn off the sensor. I found this out through a post found somewhere on Apple Support discussions.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    nickmininickmini Posts: 74member
    Yep, I saw that remedy on a bunch of forums (fora?) - unfortunately, I haven't managed to find just the right spot, got the light to turn off briefly a few times but always came back on next restart, so I kind of gave up. And I'm in Jamaica, so I can't just pop down to the nearest Apple Store and get a Genius to help me
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