external speakers - simple question...
okay, God knows i love macfixit to death, but searching it can be like a needle in a haystack of user feedback. i figure someone here probably knows the answer, and i won't have to wade through years of posts to do it. 
anyway, wife has a pismo powerbook. the sound fromt he speakers is, shall we say, less than great. so i bought some cheap - very cheap - altec lansing powered satellite speakers for the powerbook. one speaker acts as a hub between the other speaker, the pismo, and the power outlet. so it looks something like this:
powerbook
|
speaker1 --> speaker2
|
poweradapter
the power on/off button, volume and treble/bass control is also on speaker1.
now here's the problem - i am getting sound out of speaker2, but NOTHING out of speaker1. what gives? all connections are solid, and the cables, while nothing special, seem fine, too. i checked the sound control panel, and sound volume for both speakers is maxed in the control panel. plugging just speaker1 in does no good either.
why would the unpowered speaker get sound, but the powered hub speaker not?
also, while we're on it, i am getting an annoying hum from the speaker2 while it's going. this seems to be a power issue, but i want to double-check with someon here.
anyone got any ideas?
thanks in advance for any help.
[ 10-16-2002: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
anyway, wife has a pismo powerbook. the sound fromt he speakers is, shall we say, less than great. so i bought some cheap - very cheap - altec lansing powered satellite speakers for the powerbook. one speaker acts as a hub between the other speaker, the pismo, and the power outlet. so it looks something like this:
powerbook
|
speaker1 --> speaker2
|
poweradapter
the power on/off button, volume and treble/bass control is also on speaker1.
now here's the problem - i am getting sound out of speaker2, but NOTHING out of speaker1. what gives? all connections are solid, and the cables, while nothing special, seem fine, too. i checked the sound control panel, and sound volume for both speakers is maxed in the control panel. plugging just speaker1 in does no good either.
why would the unpowered speaker get sound, but the powered hub speaker not?
also, while we're on it, i am getting an annoying hum from the speaker2 while it's going. this seems to be a power issue, but i want to double-check with someon here.
anyone got any ideas?
thanks in advance for any help.
[ 10-16-2002: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
Comments
Are you *sure* you checked all of the speaker cable connections thoroughly? A miniplug that isn't inserted completely can cause what you described, blanking out a channel.
Do what Brad says first, let's hope it is just the speakers.