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My Macbook (the unibody aluminum version) has lost its internal speakers. When I open System Preferences -> Sound -> Output, all I see is "Digital Out". If I plug in a pair of headphones, this switches to "Headphones". I don't see "Internal Speakers" at all any more. Headphones seem to work fine.

In System Profiler -> Audio -> Available Devices, I do see "Speaker: Connection: Internal".

I just clean-installed Snow Leopard, so it appears to be a hardware problem.

Is there anything I can do to fix this, short of taking it back to Apple? It's out of warranty.

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  • I've seen an issue before where things got bent inside the 3.5mm headphone jack so that it thought there were always headphones plugged in/it was trying to output optical audio. I don't suppose that could be the issue?
    – Ciaocibai
    Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 22:11
  • How long ago did the warranty expire?
    – deiga
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:38
  • @deiga: It's nearly 2 years old now, so it's been out of warranty for almost a year.
    – Craig Walker
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:41
  • @IntuitionHQ: Could very well be the case, though it's weird that it'd successfully detect actual headphones. Is there any way to disable digital out?
    – Craig Walker
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:44
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    When it happened to my computer, it also would detect the fact that headphones had been inserted. Similar to what deiga says, the jack get locks in a certain mode (headphone or optical) and will no longer output audio to the internal speakers. If you're comfortable messing around inside your computer, you can try and open it and bend the jack around a little and it could well solve your problem. You could always try deigas solution with a toothpick as well - although I preferred to just get straight inside and fix the issue directly. Good luck either way.
    – Ciaocibai
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 20:08

4 Answers 4

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If you look in your headphones jack, is there a red light on?
If yes, then you have Digital Out on, and this messes with the speaker configuration.

There is a thread here, which has some possible fixes.

Update There is switch inside the jack that is stuck. Plug the speaker jack in and out several times while watching the Sound-output system preference panel. The internal speaker option will come on if the switch is unstuck.

Taking a toothpick and fiddling around inside the jack has solved the problem for some, you should try this. (Don't break the toothpick inside :) )

From: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=239287

The problem is actually caused by a little switch inside the jack that gets stuck. When you stick in an audio cable, it pushes the switch down. If it's an analog cable, the end is made of metal. If it's optical, the end is made of plastic. If the switch is pressed down, the computer checks to see if the plug inside is metal or plastic based on conductivity. When it gets stuck and nothing is in there, it thinks an optical cable is plugged in since the switch is down but nothing conductive is in there. That's why it works with headphones or external analog speakers.

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  • Nope, no red light.
    – Craig Walker
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:15
  • Then this really weird, since you shouldn't be seeing Digital Out, unless the digital switch inside the jack is turned on.
    – deiga
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:36
  • magical toothpick worked for me!
    – Wiebe Tijsma
    Commented May 21, 2013 at 18:41
  • Just inserting and removing my headphone jack couple of times solved it! Just as explained, I was able to see only Digital out as audio device, I did see the red light for a short while but it didn't continue to burn when i was looking around for a solution.
    – Teddy
    Commented May 20, 2017 at 18:16
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Samething here, I plugged in my headphones and jiggled them a little bit while inside and then pulled them out halfway. Once I did that I could see the volume slider appear and the volume could be adjusted up and down. I pulled them out all the way and they volume went grey again. Pushed the headphones back in and then pulled them out and now everything is fine.

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2

I had this problem and solved it by plugging in (and then unplugging) my iPod headphones.

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1

I had the same issue but with most likely a different cause to the other answers. None of the above helped me. I also couldn't get sound through HDMI and I didn't even have a Big Sur boot chime from the UEFI.

I fixed the issue by resetting the SMC (shut down, hold power button for 10 seconds, release, press power button again to boot up).

Hope this helps someone at some point.

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