Can Firefox disable sound in a Mac?

[Curiosity]

I was watching a news report (Real Media, I think) with Firefox and after I exited from the web page, the sound on my Mac became disabled. Is it possible for Firefox with a plugin to disable the sound on a computer completely? The sliders for the volume settings are completely unresponsive. How could Firefox manage to do that?

I was unable to do anything to fix it, so I guess this means I have to wipe the drive and start over.

 

[MisterMe]

... Is it possible for Firefox with a plugin to disable the sound on a computer completely? The sliders for the volume settings are completely unresponsive. How could Firefox manage to do that?

I have both Real and Firefox. Nothing like this has ever happened. I don't believe that either are responsible for your problem.

I was unable to do anything to fix it, so I guess this means I have to wipe the drive and start over.

Wiping the drive is the workaround for some Windows problems. It is almost never necessary for issues on the Mac.

 

[bobw]

You might want to start with Repairing Permissions, then Repair Disk off the OS X Install disc.

 

[Curiosity]

As a last-ditch effort, I ran the system optimization in Onyx, and it fixed the problem. I still wonder how Firefox or the plugin managed to disable the sound so completely, however.

 

[sheepguy42]

Wiping the drive is the workaround for some Windows problems. It is almost never necessary for issues on the Mac.

That reminds me of a switcher I was helping in the dorms in college. We lived in the same building, so I found new Mac users by leaving the "Rendezvous" connection on in iChat (during the time iChat AV was public beta). He was telling me online that his new 17" PowerBook was getting slow, and he didn't know why. He said he figured he'd have to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS, and I told him "That's such a Windows solution." Then I explained to him how to find what is now called Activity Monitor (can't recall the old name) and figure out the memory hog. Turned out he had the iChat AV beta running for a solid week, and there was a small memory leak known at the time (but not by him!).