Can't get external speakers to work using headphone jack on MacBook Pro

I have a male-male connector that I use for my iPod to radio or multimedia player to play on external speakers. When I plug it into my MacBook Pro, sound goes dead on the MacBook Pro, no sound comes out of the external speakers, and the preferences on the MacBok Pro say "Headphone : Headphone port" and volume is at full, and mute is off. Am I doing something wrong, or do I need a repair?  I unplug the cable and sound comes back.

No such problem, eww. The speakers were plugged in and working. I shut off the speakers, but did not unplug them, and when I turned them back on, there was no sound. I tried my headphones, and there was no sound from them, either. The headphone port was dead. I restarted, with no change.
I was getting ready to do an SMC reset and read the preliminary steps. The last one before resetting the SMC was to shut down the MacBook Pro. That brought the port back to life. When I restarted, I had my external speakers back.
Go figure.
I have not upgraded to Lion because I have PowerPC apps that I want and/or need, so this was not a Lion-related bug. I am certainly glad the port isn't dead. I was not looking forward to having to send in my MacBook Pro for repair.

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