In case your MacBook Pro ever does this...

[asterroc]

So if you happen to own a MacBook Pro (I bought mine this year [2011], 2GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 memory, running OS 10.6.8), ...

AND you unplug the headphones or speakers from the headphone jack, ...

AND you then discover that no sound is coming out of the internal speakers, and moreover hitting the button to adjust the volume gives a display that the internal speakers don't exist, and System Preferences confirms this, ...

... then try quitting Firefox.

No it doesn't make sense, but I've had the Case of the Disappearing Internal Speakers twice, and quitting Firefox worked twice. The first time, I quit Firefox with the intent of restarting the entire computer (after reading a bunch online about this issue) and discovered the problem solved before I had to restart.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

Comments

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

probably a case of the flash player playing badly with the rest of the audio system. i've had it happen in linux too.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Great point, thanks. What surprised me was that although there's lots of information online about hardware malfunctions along these lines, there's nothing software/driver/OS related.

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

Mine did that once, but quitting Firefox didn't fix it. Multiple restarts didn't fix it. I think it just sort of fixed itself after a while; I really have no clue what caused it or what resolved it. *shrug*