Lion: Lost headphone and mic ports after install

Kaarle2001

Registered
Hello,
After installing Lion the headphone and mic ports stopped working on my mid-2007 24" iMac. I'm running the latest version of Lion -- 10.7.2 (11C74). I have tried about all the tricks I've been able to google for: killing sudos, the midi sound thing (set audio output to 32-bit -- but I haven't got the 32-bit option!), rebooting repeatedly and nada. No audio from headphone jack, the sound comes from the internal speakers regardless of whether there's a plug inside the jack. The in (mic) jack does not work either. I'm at my wits' end. Any ideas?
Kthx for any input!
 
Sorry, forgot to mention that: tried to reset pram and nvram. Also tried the old method of turning the computer off, removing the power cord, waited for a minute, reinserted the power cord while pushing the power button. Started in safe mode, rebooted and still nothing. Could be the port's busted.
 
Is there a red light inside the audio out port?

Looks like that was a pervasive problem when Lion was first released, and seemed to be fixed by 10.7.1 for many folks.
There's several other tips to try here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3191413
Looks like the strangest can be turning off Bluetooth, then turn it back on.

Not something that I usually recommend, but have you tried repairing disk permissions (through your Disk Utility)? That looks like another possibility that works for some.

There's two ports - input and output - so it doesn't seem likely that you would lose both ports, simply because of a software install.
Have you tried making a new user account, then log in to that new user account? Then check your headphones while logged in to that new user.
 
Hi, there's no red light in either of the audio ports. I have tried to repair disk permissions, to no avail. Logging in as another user does not help, either. Neither does turning the bluetooth off and on.
Somehow it would seem logical that both ports would be lost, if and probably when the circuit board is integrated. It looks like the iMac has forgotten the existence of the audio port!
Thank you for the link, I'll go through that one.
 
Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Before Resetting the SMC

Try each of the following steps in this order before you reset the SMC. Test the issue after completing each troubleshooting step to determine if the issue still occurs.

1. Press Command + Option + Escape to force quit any application that is not responding.
2. Put your Mac to sleep by choosing the Apple () menu from the upper-left menu bar and then choosing Sleep. Wake the computer after it has gone to sleep.
3. Restart your Mac by by choosing the Apple () menu from the upper-left menu bar and then choosing Restart.
4. Shut down your Mac by by choosing the Apple () menu from the upper-left menu bar and then choosing Shut Down.

If your Mac appears to be running normally but isn't responding, force the computer to shut down by pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds. Note: You will lose any unsaved work in any open applications.

-=-=
Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: For Intel-based Xserve computers that are not responding, you can shut down locally, or by using remote commands, or by pressing and holding the power button for five seconds.
Additional Information

The System Management Controller (SMC) is responsible for many low-level functions on Intel-based Macs. These functions include:

Responding to presses of the power button
Responding to display lid opening and closing on portable Macs
Battery management
Thermal management
The SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor)
Ambient light sensing
Keyboard backlighting
Status Indicator Light (SIL) management
Battery status indicator lights
Selecting an external (instead of internal) video source for some iMac displays
 
Hi, i did reset SMC early on in my quest for sound. Didn't work. I have now even reinstalled lion and tried tricks I've been able to google. Nothing seems to work.
 
The audio input and output ports are on a proprietary sound card.
If you go to your System Information utility, then click on Audio (Built-in)
That should show you information about the sound chip, and the associated audio connections.
If that shows "no hardware found", or something similar, then your sound chip is not recognized, or has simply failed.

You have a built-in microphone. Can you see any response from that, or can you record any audio? Easiest is to open System Preferences, then Sound, and click the input tab. Make sure that the input is set for Internal Microphone. Move the Input Volume to the right, and watch if the Input Level shows any response.

Something that "might" be related - does your internal camera function?
Easiest check for that is to open your Photo Booth app. You should see "you" in the Photo Booth window. You can record a video of whatever the camera sees (which also records audio), to check if the audio input and output actually functions when recording.

Something else to try - boot to your Hardware test: Restart while holding Command-D (D for Diagnostics!) I'm not sure if your iMac is new enough to have the hidden partition, so if restarting with Command-D does not boot to the hardware test, then find your original set of grey DVDs, which will have the Hardware Test on one of the DVDs. Same method to boot to the DVD with Command-D. Run both the standard and the extended tests.
Come back here with any error codes that you get.
 
The camera and internal mic work just fine. I do get sound from the internal speakers. Holding cmd-d did nothing, no diagnostics, so the iMac too old for that. The only disk that I have is the SnowLeopard -- Lion has no discs.
 
I ran the Hardware Test -- all clean. So this looks like its software-related, like Lion has forgotten about the existence of sound i/o port. As for DeltaMac's question, the SI Audio shows only the internal speakers. There are no other options, neither is there any kind of place to choose anything else. On the input-side, there are two options: the internal microphone -- which works just fine -- and the Line in also appears to work. So the out-jack is either busted or forgotten. The Hardware Test did not report anything amiss.
 
Yes, it's possibly software-related.
When you reinstalled Lion, did you simply reinstall by booting to the Recovery partition, and choosing a reinstall there? The other choice is to open Disk Utility (choose that from the items on the first screen of your recovery partition), and Erase the hard drive there, then Quit Disk Utility, and reinstall Lion. You will have an absolutely 'clean' install of Lion then.
If you decide to do that, make sure you are ready to do it - Erasing deletes EVERYTHING, and you lose anything that is not backed up.
I suggest that you try a couple of resets - again - as a last ditch attempt before proceeding with an erase and install.
SMC reset - shut down, remove ALL cables including the power cord. Let your iMac sit for 15 seconds, then plug all back in. Do NOT touch the power button until you have the power cord plugged back in.
PRAM reset - press and hold Option-Command-P and R, then press and release the power button. You'll hear the boot chime sound, so continue to hold those same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime 2 more times, then release the keys. Some folks talk about 2 chimes not being enough, and hold for 5 chimes. I don't know if it makes any difference, but it sure won't make things worse! Then release all keys, and let your Mac boot normally.

Last and final test - download and reinstall the current combined updater for your system. It's very large, and the install takes maybe 30 minutes, but is also a procedure that can fix a lot of minor issues that appear for no real reason in OS X. Here's the download page for that updater: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1459
 
Thank you very much, DeltaMac, for your time and valuable input. When I reinstalled Lion, i did it trough the net so there wasn't much choice how to do it. I'll try SMC and PRAM resets again and then, if I really can't live w/o the audio out jack working, I'll have to wipe the disk and go for a clean install.
 
When you boot to the Recovery partition (command-R), you can choose to open Disk Utility, and you can completely erase the OS X partition, if you want to do that.

Do you need to back up your files and other data first?
 
I would try this:

Resetting Permissions


1. Restart your iMac, and before you hear the chime, hold down the Command and R keys.
2. You’ll be at the Repair Utilities screen. Click the Utilities item in the Menu Bar, then click Terminal.
3. In the Terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return.
4. The password reset utility window launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it, select the user account where you’re having issues.
5. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the Reset button there.
The reset process takes just a couple of minutes. When it’s done, exit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac.
 
Thank you, midijeep, for a new approach. Unfortunately it did not work. What I've been able find there are also others with similar problem and no cure as of yet...
 
Indeed... I thought that on mine the inability to use microphone was because of having taken apart the Mac at some point (yet I don't remember to have had the problem with Skype before on this Mac). I thought the issues with sound after 10.7 install were supposed to be fixed a) by the PRAM voodoo and then b) by 10.7.2.
So hopefully it'll finally be 10.7.3...

I guess the only other option for things that might have interfered with your system would be any software that uses audio or might have wanted to rearrange or interfere with your audio in/out ports. Pro Tools? Logic? Do you have any of those installed?
 
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