Built It Speakers problem

[captain.joco]

I have a MacBook with OS X 10.4.9
Today I plugged in my headphones ( so I wont disturb others near by me while listening to music ), and all was fine. Later on, when I removed the headphones, the built in speakers were not working. When I try to change the volume i got this sign saying that the volume is set on max and another sign ( circle crossed out ).
When I restarted the OS ( with headphones unplugged ), the intro sound of the OS X can be heard, but as soon as the system starts, the same problem appears.
When I go to sound settings in system preferences, the sound output says Digital Output under name, and Built-in Output under Port , as well as the selected device has no output controls under " settings for the selected device ". This is when the headphones are out. When they are in, they work fine, and now I can read headphones under name and again built in output under name, but now under settings I can change the balance ( left right )

Any help would be highly appreciated as I need to work with audio / video editing tomorrow mourning ( and headphones are not an option )

Thank You All

[captain.joco]

Update:

Also, there is a red light coming out of the place where one plugs in the headphones

[kseemann]

I recently had the same problem. Including the red light in the headphone jack of my MacbookPro 15inch Intel. running MacOSX 10.4.11.

SOLUTION that worked for me.

with the red light showing in jack, plug in an ear phone set jack (eg, from the ipod or any mp3 ear phone set jack. GO into sys prefs. select a different output sound, then back to head phone output.

Then shut the Mac down.

Remove the earphone jack and reboot.

That fixed it for me, but I don't know which of the above actions caused the fix.

K

[mvcube]

"Digital Output" together with the read light seems to indicate that the output is just in the wrong mode. Can it be, that there is a mechanical problem in the combined ear phone/digital output jacket of your MacBook so that the system assumes, an optical fibre is connected to the jack?

[VirtualTracy]

Try this if the above solution doesn't work:

• Using the butt end of a matchstick, very gently wiggle it around slowly inside the jack.

As you correctly noted, System Prefs confirms that 'Digital Out' is enabled. The matchstick should trigger the disabling of Digital Out and bring your speakers back to life.

[kseemann]

Originally Posted by mvcube

"Digital Output" together with the read light seems to indicate that the output is just in the wrong mode. Can it be, that there is a mechanical problem in the combined ear phone/digital output jacket of your MacBook so that the system assumes, an optical fibre is connected to the jack?

that makes sense and would explain why the action I took to insert and remove a earphone audio jack somehow worked.

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

Tried running garageband?
Sometimes kicks my mac out of problems... Although.. My macs are ancient

(im posting from a G3 [9 years old])0

[kseemann]

...the that fact people can still do pretty much everything on 9 year old Macs is value for investment! Possibly a bit slow, but still, try doing pretty much everything on 9 year old windows boxes!