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Headphone/External Speaker Jack stopped working

Headphone/External Speaker Jack stopped working

I had powered Altec Lansing speakers hooked up to my 24" iMac and they worked fine for ~1 year. I recently upgraded my RAM with no difficulty, however afterwards, the headphone jack no longer recognized the presence of the external speakers. The sound preferences panel "output" tab shows "Internal Speakers" and "Built-in Output" regardless of whether the external speakers are plugged in or not. Rarely and for a moment, if I plug and unplug the speakers from the headphone jack, the sound panel occasionally shows "Digital Out" but still no sound and it quickly reverts back to "Internal Speakers." Any thoughts?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 133
Total answers/comments: 3
mcgyver89 [Entry]

Thank you George - LOL I cant believe I didnt work that one out - Yes after an hour of trying to troubleshoot this issue, as soon as I plugged the Speakers back in the headphones option appeared in the Sound Settings and it was in fact muted.
mcgyver89 [Entry]

"Well, this isn't a fix per se to the problem of the malfunctioning headphone jack, but it is a workaround which allows you to continue using your external speakers for all Mac sound output.

This fix requires obtaining a piece of hardware, namely an Airport Express with sound output. According to Apple, this device can only stream sound out from iTunes. However, with two pieces of open source software, this situation can be changed to allow all Mac sounds to be routed through the Airport Express. The two pieces of software are soundflower and the other is RaopX. Description of how to get and intstall each is available at http://www.hersson.net/projects/raopx, and as best as I can tell, they work well.

You're still left with a malfunctioning headport jack, but you have full access to the highest quality sound that you wish to expend your $$ on relative to the speakers you buy.

So, work around, but not true fix"
mcgyver89 [Entry]

"This thread is a year old, but since it still comes up in a search I'll give my February 2012 advice:

Computer: iMac 27"" Intel based all in one

Issue: Internal speakers work; headphone jack does not.

Seems to me, it is easy to bend the inside connectors, fry the jack itself or otherwise simply break it. You can click all the settings, preferences, and MIDI controls you want - it will not correct the problem. You're a Mac user, you know you have tried all the settings and are second guessing your own expertise. So here's the problem: your headphone audio jack is cooked. Get over it.

Solution #1 (expensive): take it to an Apple store.

Solution #2 (inexpensive): get a USB to stereo audio input off Ebay for $2.00, wait 3 weeks for it arrive from Hong Kong and use your headphones through it."