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Thread: macbook air - no sound

  1. #1
    AO's Filibustier Cheap Scotch Ron's Avatar
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    Question macbook air - no sound

    Yesterday while watching a video on youtube, my audio stopped working. In fact, the hardware (sound device) was no longer visible nor was the speaker icon on the menu bar.

    I read through this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread....art=0&tstart=0), and tried the safe mode reboot. It worked. Sound came back. Watched another video and same thing happened. This time, the Safe mode reboot didnt work, but clearing the audio cache via Onyx did. Watched another video, same thing. Safe mode didnt work, Onyx didnt work, but PRAM reset did. Watched another video, same result. Now nothing works. WTF?

    The thread suggests a hardware problem (ribbon cable or board itself). Seems doubtful to me since some of these workarounds actually worked.

    Any thoughts?
    In God We Trust....Everything else we backup.

  2. #2
    AOs Resident Troll
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    Any recent MAC updates...sounds like a driver issue to me

    MLF
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  3. #3
    AO's Filibustier Cheap Scotch Ron's Avatar
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    sounds like a driver issue to me
    I agree. I am current. IMHO, it's an update that caused the problem.
    It's worked fine for almost 2 years now.

    Looks like I will need to enter the Time Machine. I'll be back...
    In God We Trust....Everything else we backup.

  4. #4
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    Any thoughts?
    Stop watching videos.
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  5. #5
    AO's Filibustier Cheap Scotch Ron's Avatar
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    lol. Yeah, I suppose I set myself up for that one.
    In God We Trust....Everything else we backup.

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi Ron,

    From your post it almosts sounds as if the problem is progressive?

    I would be inclined to run the Apple Memory Diagnostic and check the system battery.

    Sure it could be an update, but I would expect the problem to appear immediately afterwards, and be consistent, even if you had to apply the same workaround each time you used it.


  7. #7
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    Have you upgraded to 10.5.8? If so, how long afterwards did the problems start?
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  8. #8
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Ron:

    I'm not a Mac User as I can't afford one, though I'm trying to get a Mac Book Pro, but I read somewhere that Mac has a tool similar to "GoBack" that allows you to basically monitor a Hard Drive, and if something happens, you can revert the drive back to a mirror image of it when things were working.

    Windows ME sort of had this, XP had this but not nearly as good as the commercial "GoBack" version which allowed you to pick and choose which parts of a set date and time you wanted to revert too all the way down to which files you wanted changed and which ones you wanted to stay with.

    That may be one option, but it seems strange that viewing YouTube would cause this. And I don't go for that Hardware problem with a cable since software fixes have worked as you said.

    Any problems with normal Audio? It may seem like a stupid question but there seemed to be an implied sense of YouTube only Sound Screw.

  9. #9
    AO's Filibustier Cheap Scotch Ron's Avatar
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    run the Apple Memory Diagnostic and check the system battery.
    I tried the memory diag as well as the more comprehensive hardware diag. Nothing.

    Have you upgraded to 10.5.8? If so, how long afterwards did the problems start?
    Yes, shortly afterwards.

    similar to "GoBack"
    It's called Time Machine. westin is onto something. I checked my backups and there was a very large update to 10.5.8 the day before the problems began. The problem is that the audio device is no longer recognized. Hence, no sound regardless of app.

    I am trying to restore to a backup from before the OS update. Gotta boot from remote disk via wireless (no dvd on macbook air), then do restore. Slow.....
    Last edited by Cheap Scotch Ron; August 10th, 2009 at 12:47 PM. Reason: typos
    In God We Trust....Everything else we backup.

  10. #10
    Senior Member t34b4g5's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cheap Scotch Ron View Post
    Gotta boot from remote disk via wireless (no dvd on macbook air), then do restore. Slow.....
    Ohhhhh man i feel sorry for you, so i'll have another to help heal the pain.

    i've had to do a restore via wireless. and i got bored pretty darn quickly. took 4 tries but i eventually got the kinks sorted.

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