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Black MacBook: no sound output

post #1 of 10
4/20/09 at 6:48am
Thread Starter 
Hi Guys,

I'm wondering if any of you might be able to shed some light on a problem that my wife is having with her black MacBook.

She often uses her MacBook with a pair of headphones, and recently we've noticed that if the headphones are removed, the sound output doesn't revert back to the internal speakers. She mentioned something in the past about a red light coming out of the speaker jack. Does the black MacBook have an optical digital jack built-in?

We've gone through all the basic troubleshooting steps, including making sure that the sound isn't muted and that the System Preferences indicate that the sound should be getting piped through the speakers as opposed to some other output but with no results.

I'm hoping it's not a problem with the system board.

Is this a well known problem?
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post #2 of 10
4/20/09 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Messiah View Post

Hi Guys,

I'm wondering if any of you might be able to shed some light on a problem that my wife is having with her black MacBook.

She often uses her MacBook with a pair of headphones, and recently we've noticed that if the headphones are removed, the sound output doesn't revert back to the internal speakers. She mentioned something in the past about a red light coming out of the speaker jack. Does the black MacBook have an optical digital jack built-in?

We've gone through all the basic troubleshooting steps, including making sure that the sound isn't muted and that the System Preferences indicate that the sound should be getting piped through the speakers as opposed to some other output but with no results.

I'm hoping it's not a problem with the system board.

Is this a well known problem?

Well known issue. Take a toothpick or a matchstick or some other relatively gentle utensil and stick it in the jack and move it around until the jack resets and the red light goes out.
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post #3 of 10
4/21/09 at 9:12am
Thread Starter 
I'll give that a try.

Many thanks for that!
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post #4 of 10
6/24/09 at 8:24pm
Take a bullet and cut it open. Then take a straw and suck in the gunpower (careful not to swallow). Then stick the straw into the minijack and blow the gunpower into the hole. Then take a match and light the gunpower.

Problem solved!
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post #5 of 10
4/8/10 at 6:23am
Having the same problem, but no red light, and when you push the keyboard speaker buttons, when the icon appears there is a circle with a strikethru below the speaker icon.
is this the same issue?

Dan
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post #6 of 10
5/3/10 at 9:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DFDureiko View Post

Having the same problem, but no red light, and when you push the keyboard speaker buttons, when the icon appears there is a circle with a strikethru below the speaker icon.
is this the same issue?

Dan

Circle w/strikethru = "mute"....

Could be a driver problem of some sort...



Dan
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post #7 of 10
5/7/10 at 9:46pm
What this usually means is that there is some sort of damage or defect with the digital/optical minijack, and that it is interrupting the computer's instruction to revert back to the speakers. Usually this requires replacement of the main logic board, however I have seen some instances where there is a piece of a headphone connector that was broken off (or even just separated via cheap headphone workmanship), and has remained in the port. This could be enough to disable the internal speakers, but obviously without any headphones connected, you'd get no sound.

My advice is to take it to an Apple store. It's almost certainly a hardware issue. I've been repairing Macs professionally for four years, and I've never seen this caused by software.
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post #8 of 10
5/16/10 at 7:24pm
I had the same problem with the laptop constantly being muted. This was with an early Ti laptop. The fix was to reinstall the OS. Once the OS was reinstalled never had the problem again.
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post #9 of 10
7/7/12 at 3:59am

Thanks for the info! 100% recommend! I used a a little stick and move it like crazy until the red light disappear

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post #10 of 10
7/7/12 at 12:29pm

I have a black macbook too, I call it the blackbook, but here's a hint in case any of you are unable to fix the sound problem, if something is permanently damaged on your machine, such as the physical hardware out.

 

You can pick up a USB to audio stick really cheap. Places sell them now for only a few dollars.

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