The Ultimate macOS Thread

If you are a brave man and got a soldering iron, you can try fixing the headphone jack yourself. Otherwise you can either use a USB sound card or get a new logic board.
 
I'm definitely considering fixing it myself, I'm pretty good with a soldering iron. My bigger concern is with damaging the MacBook trying to get to the headphone jack.

I'll need to find a good guide on how to disassemble the plastic MacBook. If it seems like too much trouble I will go for something like the Griffin iMic for only $23:

gri1102imic2.jpg
 
http://www.ifixit.com/ has manuals to take apart your MacBook. Be sure to supply yourselves with lots of shotglasses (or similar) to store the unholy amount of different screws that will come out there.
 
Yesterday I had a 65 lb. dog trip over the cord plugged into my headphone jack of my MacBook. Now 90% of the time nothing plugged into the headphone jack is recognized. The other 10% I can wiggle the plug inside the jack and if I get it just right it will play out of only one side, until the cord moves slightly and the internal speakers kick in.

Anyone else have an issue like this? I've read that the headphone jack is built into the logic board and there is no reasonable way to fix it (Applecare ran out, its a late 2007 MacBook). All my setting are correct, its definitely a hardware issue.
The EASIEST (not the cheapest mind you) way to fix this is getting Bluetooth headphones.
 
I hadn't thought about Bluetooth.

I rarely use headphones though, I had a line that ran from my MacBook to my full stereo system. I'm going to try to look for a receiver I could just place near my stereo and run the line from there. It will look a hell of a lot nicer not having a cable going across my floor.


edit: After reading reviews of a few different models of Bluetooth receivers I'm not sure its right for me, I'm pretty picky about the quality of sound coming out of my stereo and I feel the Bluetooth is going to let me down. Having said that, I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to see if I can pick one up tomorrow and see how it works. Everything about using Bluetooth seems better than the method I was using, it just depends on what kind of quality I get out of the sound.

Looking at something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wire...000540/dp/B004VM1T5S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
 
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Removing a MacBook's logic board is easy(ish), but time consuming. Nothing really tricky about it though.

Now fixing the headphone Jack, that might be a lot harder... I'd definitely stay clear of the soldering iron for this kind of issue, it might do more harm than good. The iMic is usually the solution I gave to people with this kind of issues at my old shop as a logic board replacement is way too expensive for a 2007 machine (I think the part on its own is around $600).
 
The cheapest I found was $400 for a new logic board. That is the main reason I decided against trying to fix it, I don't want to risk ruining my otherwise perfectly fine logic board.

Actually really looking forward to the Bluetooth receiver, it'll be interesting to see how the quality of it is.
 
I hadn't thought about Bluetooth.

I rarely use headphones though, I had a line that ran from my MacBook to my full stereo system. I'm going to try to look for a receiver I could just place near my stereo and run the line from there. It will look a hell of a lot nicer not having a cable going across my floor.


edit: After reading reviews of a few different models of Bluetooth receivers I'm not sure its right for me, I'm pretty picky about the quality of sound coming out of my stereo and I feel the Bluetooth is going to let me down. Having said that, I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to see if I can pick one up tomorrow and see how it works. Everything about using Bluetooth seems better than the method I was using, it just depends on what kind of quality I get out of the sound.

Looking at something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wire...000540/dp/B004VM1T5S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Never used it myself but I do use BT headphones, the audio quality is not bad but if you are you picky you may not like it. At the same time it somewhat depends on how your stereo processes sound.
 
I don't have a super over the top system, I'm just looking for something that will sound at least as good as CD quality.

And again, the fact that it will be wireless and I won't have a long cord running across my floor is a huge bonus. I will definitely let you know how it goes.

The Best Buy I stopped at today didn't have anything so I ordered the Logitech unit I lnked to earlier.
 
I have photographic proof of my problems! It left me a whole day without internet on Sunday, and it was patchily working yesterday. A trip to an Apple store is in order, with photo (and video I should add) of it not working.

ArGQ72nCIAA4RAQ.jpg:large
 
I had the same issue on my G4 iBook: Back then, they told me it would be either the Airport card or the connector for the card on the logic board.

Guess what it turned out to be?
 
Really? Gee thats rough, if that was what was wrong with yours or similar anyway, it doesn't look too good for my MBP then. On top of that, it was only bought in December. Luckily I have Applecare.

Fingers crossed it isn't something as serious as that.
 
In these machines it's usually either the Airport card in itself or the display (the card is housed in the bottom of it).
 



Not planning to buy for a long time, but that's suspiciously low isnt it?
 
I have photographic proof of my problems! It left me a whole day without internet on Sunday, and it was patchily working yesterday. A trip to an Apple store is in order, with photo (and video I should add) of it not working.

ArGQ72nCIAA4RAQ.jpg:large

Ouch... yeah it's definitely not what I had... I think you are right about the Apple store being in your future...




Not planning to buy for a long time, but that's suspiciously low isnt it?
It could be the first gen i5 model.
 
Still too low.
 
Got my Logitech Bluetooth audio adapter today! Sounds great, works with my Blackberry better than I ever thought, but it won't connect to my MacBook.

It paired with the MacBook no problem, but I can't get OS X to send the audio through Bluetooth. I've gone into System Preferences>Sound and made sure everything was the way it should, OS X recognizes the adapter, but won't send audio to it.

Screen Shot 2012-04-28 at 3.39.35 PM.png

I've even gone into Utilities>Audio MIDI Setup to make sure everything is good there as well. I did get it to connect one time, I'm not sure how I did it but it did connect. I disconnected it to see if I figured it out and could get it to connect again and have had no luck.

Anyone with Bluetooth headphones or any other Bluetooth audio been able to figure this out?

edit: Also, when the MacBook rarely does say its connected (even though the Logitech adapter's connection LED says its not) after about 10 seconds I get this error message:

Screen Shot 2012-04-28 at 3.46.14 PM.png
 
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