# No sound internal speakers iMac G3



## scotlovesmacs (Sep 28, 2006)

Hi. My daughter's Sage G3 iMac has stopped producing sound from the internal speakers. We recently replaced the hard drive after a previous drive failure and installed a new OS Tiger 10.4. Upgraded the RAM to 1G and partioned the drive to be less than 120 G for the OS. Everything worked fine following the transplant. The sound worked from the internal speakers, etc.

It then became erratic/intermittent. Tonight, no sound at all is produced by the internal speakers. I restarted. Then did a shut-down and start up from cold after 10 minutes. Still no dice. Then did a software update. Still no dice. Next, for the third time, went to system prefs, Sound, and all that is there is a "Headphones" output option, which is grayed out. No "Internal Speaker" selection is available, as suggested in the Help menu to activate/hear sounds from the internal speakers.

I went to the Midi Set-Up in Utilities to adjust the frequency as suggested in your forums and noted that the "Headphones" option to adjust is all that is listed as installed and remains grayed-out.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks. Scot.


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## eric2006 (Sep 28, 2006)

Is there sound on bootup? If there's not, something is wrong with your hardware.


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## scotlovesmacs (Sep 30, 2006)

That's correct, no chime at boot up. Here's a copy of dialog I had with tech support detailing their suggestions, my results, and next suggestions, etc.:


Hi and welcome to macosx.com

Try the following tips and between each, test.

(1) reset the PRAM
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238-en

(2)launch Garageband, then quit it.

(3) Sound preference panel; try the mute -> unmute -> mute -> unmute sequence

Regards
Philippe
scotlovesmacs - Sep 15, 2006 - 11:49 am


Hi Philippe. Tried all three. No dice. No chimes when resetting PRAM although I could hear the machine cycling internally. I released after third reset.

Launched Garage Band and got an error warning that no valid instruments library could be found, so I guess it never really launched. (She's never used this program, so I don't know what it should do...)

Last, tried mute/unmute sequence three times and even closed the prefs pane in between. Nothing.

Another peculiar thing is that only "Headphones" shows as an option in the Output tab of the sound prefs pane. There is no option to select "Internal Speakers" and in the Sound Effects tab, Headphones is the only option, and is grayed out.

Any further help greatly appreciated. Thanks again. Scot.

philippe99 - Sep 16, 2006 - 2:30 am


First of all, a question. Before to Tiger install, do you run Panther or Jaguar or OS 9 ?
If OS 9, do you update the firmware of the machine prior to install an OSX release ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117


What we can try are the basic Unix maintenance tips.

First level
--------
Close all the running applications (except the Finder)
(1) Could you try to repair permissions
(must be admin)
Launch Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility
On the left pane, select the drive
On the right, select the First Aid (or SOS) tab
Then click on repair permissions and let run; don not worry about messages like " new permissions...."
Quit DiskUtility
Shutdown and reboot

(2) could also download Macjanitor
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_...acjanitor.html
and use it to run the maintenance scripts
The maintenance scripts are Unix scripts which are automatically ran on your
Mac between 02Am and 04 am..if your Mac is on at this moment.
I can advice you to run, through Macjanitor, the daily script each day, the week script each week, ..and so on

Second level
----------
(3) Could you also download Onyx
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
Go into the cleaning tab and use it to clean the caches. use the defauts Onyx offers, do not
clean at this stage the system caches.
!!! Please download the release corresponding to your OS !!!


Third level : the fsck Unix command
-----------
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how: 
1. Restart your Mac. 
2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys. 
You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#). 
You're now in single-user mode. 

Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck: 
1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y). 
If the 1st pass says that nothing has to be repaired, try "fsck -fy"
Option "-y" forces a "yes" response to every question of the system, which is very important because answering "no" to a fsck question will stop the process !
Option "-f" forces fsck to chack a system that this command seems to have find "clean"
2. Press Return. 
The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says: 

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***** 

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems.. 

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears: 
3. Type: "reboot" to restart, 
or type "exit" to start up without rebooting. 
4. Press Return. 

Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder. 


Regards
Philippe
scotlovesmacs - Sep 16, 2006 - 11:00 am


Hi Philippe.

To your first question, the Tiger install was to a fresh replacement drive, 250G partitioned to 120G and 120G, and installed to the first partition. It worked fine (speaker sound from internal front speakers) after the Tiger install, although I don't know if this drive was previously formatted with Jaquar, Panther, or OS9. I believe it was wiped prior to my purchase, because no warnings came up when installing Tiger indicating any need for firmware update, or Restore previous version of OS, etc.

To your first repair option option, I failed to mention in previous posts that the first thing I did was to repair permissions via Disk Utility. Many repairs to permissions were indicated although they all referenced repairs to Address Book, which my daughter has never used. I don't know how repairs could be required to an application that she has never opened nor entered data into. Who knows. I'm just mentioning it so that you have all the info I'm seeing on this side.

I'l run MacJanitor first and let you know what happens. Will this program/script indicate if something was amiss, and subsequently corrected?

Lastly, is there a chance the motherboard is bad? I just can't understand what would cause the Internal Speakers to be absent from the options in the sound prefs pane...

Thanks. Scot.


philippe99 - Sep 16, 2006 - 10:33 pm


> I'l run MacJanitor first ... indicate if something 
> was amiss, and subsequently corrected?
Macjanitor will repair links between applications and the releted dynamic libraries they use for a better & quicker launch of these applications; Macjanitor will not warn at all for anything.
Onyx cache cleaning and fsck may be the best procedure in your case for reparinga damaged system.
Onyx will clean the caches (by defaut user caches, but also system caches (after admin identification); try to clean the user caches first, then the system one if the problem still exists; Ony system cache cleaning need a reboot which can take a long time !
FSCK repair the Unix core of the system

>Lastly, is there a chance the motherboard is bad? 
I never face such an issue; one case, on a Flat panel G4, was solved by introducing-then-removing in the output audio an headphone plug several times. You can also try it

Regards
Philippe
scotlovesmacs - Sep 17, 2006 - 12:55 pm


Hi Philippe. Tried all three. No dice.

Ran Disk Utility again, from Tiger CD as start-up volume/disk. Repaired permissions, etc.

Downloaded and ran MacJanitor. Followed all instructions in Read-Me. Net no change. (Also shut down and re-started between all these tests and diagnostics)

Downloded and ran OnyX. Again, no problems found and still no sound from internal speakers, nor ability to select them as an output source in sound prefs. Cleared users cache first, and system cache in a second step as you suggested. No dice.

Ran fsck Unix command as you suggested. Very scary but completed with "No problems found"

Ultimately, I also did a firmware update, just to rule this out, and update indicated that firmware was OK and didn't need update since currently 4.1.9 and good for Tiger 10.4.7

I have shutdown and restarted and checked the sound output with prefs, menubar, etc. in between each of the operations/downloads/checks outlined above. Still, only "Headphones" is available as Output Source for speakers. (No option to select "Internal Speakers") Also went to MIDI Set-Up in Audio utilities and Internal Speakers is absent from available choices.

Interestingly, when I did the firmware uodate check, and pressed the programmers button on the side of the machine during start-up as instructed, the long tone DID emit from the speakers during start-up. So I KNOW the speakers are connected to the board and are working, but still do not appear as an option in the sound output prefs pane, and cannot be selected as an output option.

Seems to me that this is where the problem lies. How do we get the internal speakers to appear as a selectable option in the sound prefs pane???

I also tried a Custom Install of the original Tiger disk to see if the sound option was re-installable. It was not.

Please let me know what you think and if this ticket can be escalated or thrown out to the forums where possibly someone may have encountered a similar problem, that would be appreciated. All these other proposed solutions haven't worked so far and while we're exploring every avenue, I'd love to zero in on the one that will get these speakers emitting sound once again as soon as possible.

Thanks a million! Scot.




- Sep 17, 2006 - 2:25 pm


philippe99 - Sep 18, 2006 - 12:13 am


Found some other people facing the same problem
http://www.macintouch.com/readerrepo...topic3954.html
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=52813


My last idea: create a new account (simple user) on the machine and test; if this works, give it admin rights and close the olde defective one

Philippe
scotlovesmacs - Sep 18, 2006 - 1:20 pm


Tried with new user account. No dice. Still no sound and Headphones is the only selectable option in sound output prefs pane.

philippe99 - Sep 19, 2006 - 4:07 am


Ok, sorry, I run out of idea. I'll repool the question for another tech to assist you.
Good luck
Philippe
scotlovesmacs - Sep 21, 2006 - 6:11 am


Thanks Philippe. I'll wait and check back for another tech's suggestions. Scot.

bobw - Sep 21, 2006 - 6:36 am


Scot

The speakers have a wire inside the machine that may have become loose or disconnected.

It's a short internal audio cabl from the J14
audio connector on the logic board to the J1 connector on the A/V interconnect board.

Open the machine and check that.

You can also look in the System Profiler under Audio and see if it shows the Internal speaker.

bobw 
http://www.macosx.com
scotlovesmacs - Sep 21, 2006 - 11:10 am


Hi Bob. Do you have any suggestions on where to get a take-apart manual for this so I know what I'm looking at? I don't want to goof something up. I wouldn't know a J14 from a J1 from an interconnect board if I tripped over them. Thanks again. Scot.

bobw - Sep 22, 2006 - 4:45 am


Scot

look in the System Profiler and let me know exactly what model you have. Copy/Paste the Hardware section.

bobw 
http://www.macosx.com
scotlovesmacs - Sep 22, 2006 - 5:57 am


Here ya go, Bob

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name:	iMac
Machine Model:	PowerMac2,1
CPU Type:	PowerPC 750 (83.0)
Number Of CPUs:	1
CPU Speed:	400 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU):	512 KB
Memory:	1 GB
Bus Speed:	100 MHz
Boot ROM Version:	4.1.9f1
Serial Number:	SG94709LHQP

bobw - Sep 23, 2006 - 4:48 am


Scot

I put a service manual here you can download;

http://homepage.mac.com/maktek/imac_DV.pdf

bobw 
http://www.macosx.com
- Sep 23, 2006 - 11:52 am


Thanks Bob. I got it and will let you know what I've found after I get inside this thing. Scot.
- Sep 28, 2006 - 5:33 pm


Hi Bob. Sorry it took a while to respond but have been busy with work and couldn't allot enough time to opening up this machine til tonight. Wire from motherboard to AV/Interconnect is/was intact and not disconnected. I disconnected the motherboard to see if the disconnection/reconnection might make a difference. It did not. After re-assembly of the machine and power-up, still no sound nor option to select "internal speakers" in the Output tab of the Sound Pref Pane in System Preferences. Is this a mother board issue? Thanks. Scot.


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## Mister V (Jun 15, 2011)

I am having an identical issue with the following mac:

  Model Name:	iMac
  Model Identifier:	iMac7,1
  Processor Name:	Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:	2.4 GHz
  Number Of Processors:	1
  Total Number Of Cores:	2
  L2 Cache:	4 MB
  Memory:	4 GB
  Bus Speed:	800 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:	IM71.007A.B03
  SMC Version (system):	1.21f4


Insight would be wonderful! I like sounds and I'm not getting any!
Leigh


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