help, sound

J

jakez

Registered
i've had this problem with the sound on my powerbook g3 for a while. sometimes it just doesn't work, nothing come out of the speakers. if i restart it a couple times it usually comes back, but its unpredictable. this happened when i had OS 9, and now i've got OS X, so i'm thinking its a hardware problem of some sort since any corrupted drivers or whatnot would have been eliminated with the switch. now under os X when i go to the system settings thing for sound and the sound isn't working, theres no device displayed (normally it would be built-in sound controller). this isn't life or death, but its been a nuisance for over a year now, so any input on this would be helpful, thanks.

jakez
 
Boot in OS 9. Now go to the system folder>preferences and trash the sound pref file. Empty the trash and go to the Sound Control panel. You can do a speaker test. It will let you know if it is the speakers, via the test. If not sound, then the speakers are not working.

Also check to make sure you do not have the speakers muted. In the control panel in OS 9, you have to check the alert, input and the output tabs.
 
thanks for the info, but i don't have os 9 anymore, i have strictly OS X installed, ie. i reformatted my hard drive when i switched, so any corrupted files from OS 9 are moot. also, they sometimes don't work, not all the time. i mean, i know the speakers function, they're not blown or anything, its just sometimes they connect, and sometimes they don't, as if there were a loose wire or something. except i'm not banging and shaking the thing around between reboots, so i don't think thats it. and yes, this goes beyond simply accidentally having my computer on "mute", thank you very much! :) i can adjust the volume and see the little volume display on the screen going up and down. also, when it works (which it is now, actually) putting the computer to sleep usually triggers the loss of sound.

i myself am convinced there are gremlins living inside my powerbook.
 
I have a machine at work that has speakers with a mind of its own. What I do to force them to work is connect a headphone to it. Then after just a few minutes, pull the headphone out. While it is a work around, it isn't a solution.

It could be loose connections. If you know what you are doing, you could open the book up and check it out. The keyboard comes out and you can see the speakers with a flashlight at either side. Just make sure you are grounded before touching anything inside the book.
 
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