[homonymgirl]

I recently fell asleep with my iBook on my lap one late night, messing around with GarageBand or something. I had headphones plugged in so I wouldn't bug the rest of the house. When I woke up and unplugged the headphones I found that the plug was actually bent. I assume I rolled over or something, and that's how it got that way...anyway, since the headphone plug on that particular pair of headphones is bent after that little episode, the audio out jack on my iBook G4 is also bent. Every time I plug in headphones or speakers to it now, I have to turn the plug all sorts of crazy ways...and then hold it there...in order to get it to fully come out of both channels. I was wondering if I can just get a replacement part for it, or if I'd have to take it somewhere. I could do it myself if I could just get the part, but I haven't seen such a thing on any of these parts sites. Does anyone know where I might be able to find one?

[mfbernstein]

It's attached to the motherboard. Those aren't cheap to replace. I suppose if you are good at soldering and extremely lucky, you might be able to simply replace the microphone jack (or just bend it back into shape).

Since the problem is only the headphone jack, I'd suggest getting a USB audio module, like the Griffin iMic. For about $40, you can attach any set of headphones you want. They're pretty small too.

[homonymgirl]

Actually, that's a lot better option anyway, since I've got a lot of recording to do! Thanks for the suggestion...I didn't realize that thing was so inexpensive. Just ordered one today.