Volume controls not working

[mac]

I plugged in a set of tower speakers to my macbook pro and the sound worked fine, however when I unplugged them and tried to hear the sound through the notebook's built in speakers I couldn't and a symbol of a circle with a line through it showed up beneath the regular volume control indicator on the screen when I pressed the volume controls.

Now there is a red led light shining out of the headphone jack where the speakers were plugged in, and the built in speakers won't work, the indicator just pops up with the symbol of the circle with a line through it when I press the volume buttons.

I've tried restarting and plugging in/out headphones to remedy the problem but this didn't work. The red Led light is still there. The headphones still work when plugged in but I'm unable to hear any sound out of my built in speakers when there is nothing plugged in.

What could be the problem and how can I fix this? Is there a key combo upon restart to reset the systems volume controls or what?

Thank you,

[PLOP86]

This is a common problem on early Intel MacBooks. There is a physical detection switch inside your headphone jack. It is stuck in the on position. You probably see a red light coming out of the port. This indicates the computer thinks there is something physically in the port, but it cannot reliably send or receive data on what it is (because there isn't anything actually there). As a result, the computer diables some or all audio output in System Preferences.

The only way to permanently fix this is to have it replaced. Some people claim a cheaper but more temporary solution is to work the inside of the analog audio-out port with a toothpick. Eventually you'll get used to doing it and be able to do it very quickly.

Others say that inserting and removing the headphones over and over again fixes the problem also.

You may want to get a USB audio adapter and avoid using your internal audio-out port anymore.