Dreaded red light in headphone has gone but no sound!

Hi there,
I had the red light incessantly shining in my headphone jack earlier after unplugging my headphones. The light has now switched off but I'm not getting any sound, even with the headphones in. It is IMPERATIVE that I have this laptop for work this week and can't afford an expensive repair. My applecare has just run out too...typical. Has this ever happened to anyone and how was it resolved?
Thanks.

The audio ports on most iMacs, MacBooks and Mac minis are both analog and digital ports and input/output is based on the type of plug you insert into the port. If you insert a standard metal stereo miniplug the input/output will be analog. If you use an optical fiber cable with an optical miniplug adapter the input/output will be digital.
The way that this is accomplished is that the digital miniplug is .5 millimeter longer than the analog miniplug, and touches the LED that activates the digital input/output from the Mac. Digital input/output cancels analog input/output. The LED which transmits the digital audio is red.
So it appears that the accident with the pulled cable has broken something which is now lodged against the LED and activating the digital output. When you plug in your headphones you are perhaps dislodging whatever is activating the digital circuit and allowing the analog to flow into the headphones, but you are describing an extreme measure to accomplish this, and oft times are only getting one channel of the stereo sound. You most likely need a technician to open the iMac and repair whatever damage has been done internally to this port.
Dah•veed

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And the Cirrus Logic reply (had to edit it for privacy purposes):
Thank you for your note. Cirrus Logic as you know is an IC company, providing products for a wide variety of applications and customers. If you are experiencing any issue with a particular product, the path of recourse is to work directly with the manufacturer of the product.
Best regards,
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Looking for help with this problem, that seems like a lot of people had in the past and still have, but I see that a couple of discussions on it here have been archived. Too bad, as the problem continues.
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Many thanks to all for their suggestions.
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