My MacBook seems to be stuck in "Borg emulation mode" (red light) with no access to the built-in speakers

So it seems I've done something to mightily mess up my new MacBook Pro. The other night while in my hotel room at AstriCon, I was using my headset for some Skype calls and then had it in when I started to play some music. Wanting to listen on the built-in speakers, I just pulled the headset out and was then surprised to hear no audio. If I plugged the headset back in, I could hear audio fine. Remove it, no audio. It was about then that I noticed the red light coming out of the side of the MacBook Pro. I didn't know what this was and tried several other things before finally just forgetting about it.

The next day at AstriCon, I was on the IRC backchannel when someone else in the same physical room as I was figured out who I was and then asked why my MacBook had a red light coming out of the side. In further discussions with others on the channel, it turns out that Apple has done something that on one level is rather cool. They've overloaded the functionality of the headphone jack so that it is both a regular 1/8" audio jack and also a S/P-DIF "digital output", essentially an optical connection. I'm assuming you'd do this if you had high-end audio equipment and wanted a very pure signal going out to that equipment.

In any event, I seem to be stuck in S/P-DIF mode with no access to the internal speakers. I'm not alone, though, as I found two other mentions (here and here) in the Apple Support forums. But, get this, the answer seems to be:

simply take the headphones and place them in and out the socket until the light goes off.

Yes, indeed - keep plugging and unplugging your headphones until the MacBook clues in to the fact that you don't have a S/P-DIF cable connected! They were joking, right? Apparently not, because one person said this fixed it for them.

Alas, this did not work for me... I inserted and removed my headphone jack a dozen times with no effect. In fact, I took out another headset and tried it a dozen times, too. Tried different intervals. Thought about trying to say some magic words. (The words I was saying would be unprintable in a family magazine.) Looked around for a goat I could sacrifice while bowing in the general direction of Cupertino but couldn't find any (and that would be rather messy in a hotel room in any event)...

So there I am... with a MacBook that still looks like something out of the Borg of Star Trek, beaming it's read light at all around me. I did try mucking around with the MIDI settings, which others seemed to say fixed it, but that, too, seemed to have no effect. I guess I'll be visiting the Apple dealer from whom I bought this two weeks ago when I get back to VT.

Any MacBook users have any other thoughts? suggestions? magic incantations?

Technorati Tags: apple, audio, macbook, sp-dif

Comments

[Jez]

Try compressed air in the hole. In short though it's probably needing service

[Coreyo]

Same thing happened to me after I unplugged by iPod headphones the other day. There seem to be a lot of forum posts about this out there, and everyone seems to agree that you should try to fix it with a toothpick or an unbent paper clip. (There are several tiny switches inside that one little jack, and I'm pretty sure on my MacBook the relevant switch is at 12 o'clock; others say it's at 6 or 7 o'clock.) I've tried the headphone jack in and out trick about 150 times, and I'm ready to risk the toothpick/paper clip. This is kind of ridiculous...

[Conrad]

Its actually caused by the laptop being in optical(digital) mode and being stuck there. You can fix the problem with a tooth pick or a paper clip. There is a switch that you can gentle push back in place right inside the headphone jack. BE GENTLE but you can usually find it by fiddling in and out with the toothpick in the inside of the jack. Go in a circular motion until you hit the jack put it only needs a very gentle nudge.

Hope that helps. I found the info and it worked for me. The link is http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-237405.html

[Jesus]

Hey guys the answer to the problem.... instead of trying to stick a toothpick or paperclip into the socket and damage the optical lens just insert a set of headphones and make sure the jack goes firmly into the socket. after you push it in the system should reset itself. mine came back instantly. thats what the guy who sold me my macbook told me to do and it worked

[Shib]

I had this same problem with my black macbook. I had the problem for 2 weeks. After awhile it just went away, dont know why. If the paperclip method doesnt work, it will hopefully go away for you too. Good luck!

[Alex]

Hey,

I just posted a post about this topic and I think it should help you. I even used your image (if it's all right with you).

http://technestreport.com/blog/2009/01/19/tnr-tip-macbook-and-red-light-coming-out-of-headphonemic-jack/