PB sound problem

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
every once in a while my computer just decides to beep, i cant reproduce it and it happens at random intervals... whats more is that the computer is MUTED.... what is going on here? how can i troubleshoot in OS X???



PB 667 DVI STOCK + airport and CF PC card



happens when i switch apps sometimes, when I empty the trash sometimes and when i eject disks sometimes... it is not repeatable, but I have to do something to trigger it, it does not happen completely at random it seems... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> what is going on here??



it seems if the sound is coming from the middle of the keyboard and NOT the muted speakers also it can happen several times in a minute or not for hours at a time, even with heavy use....



also on an unrelated note sometimes when i have the sound on, the balance gets ****ed up and only the left channel plays until i fix it in the sound control panel...



something must be corrupted... how do i fix it?



OS 10.2.1



HELP!!! <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    anyone have any idea at all?

    who can i call?



    could this just be in my head?
  • Reply 2 of 10
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,561member
    The small beep could be the hard drive. After I put an IBM hard drive in my PB (Pismo) a year or so ago it started doing that. From time to time I could clearly hear a soft beep. I have since switched to a Toshiba 40GB drive (much quieter, somewhat faster) and it stopped doing that. I never heard an explanation of why a HD should beep like that though there were one or two threads on the topic. It didn't seem to cause any problem. I changed the drive to get a larger capacity and to get rid of the steady whine that had developed.



    Regarding the stereo problem... I would delete some preference files related to the Finder. I could only guess at specifics. Try posting to the relevant thread on Apple's support site.



    [ 10-29-2002: Message edited by: neutrino23 ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 10
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    yeah, above post seems dead on in my experience. there are few parts in a PB that can beep, but HD's are one of them. however, in my experience, that's never a good sign. the only HD's i've ever had beeping at me were dead ones, although it doesn't sound like that's the case here.



    of all the parts to upgrade on a PB, the HD is probably second only to RAM for userfulness, so might be worth your while.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    [quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:

    <strong>yeah, above post seems dead on in my experience. there are few parts in a PB that can beep, but HD's are one of them. however, in my experience, that's never a good sign. the only HD's i've ever had beeping at me were dead ones, although it doesn't sound like that's the case here.



    of all the parts to upgrade on a PB, the HD is probably second only to RAM for userfulness, so might be worth your while.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    while I am all for upgrading my hard drive... i'd still like to have a normal drive to take out... will apple repair this? will they even acknowledge this?... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> this is the second problem I have had with my $2500 baby... I really hope i haven't gotten a lemon...
  • Reply 5 of 10
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    how old is it? not sure if they would or not. you could always get an enclosure for your old FW drive to convert it into a firewire drive. i think the shell to convert the drive is around $100.



    depending on the age of your machine, it may still be covered.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    Im still covered i think i got it 9/23/02 on the eve of jaguar day... i waited in line for 2 hrs to get 10% off a refreshed item...



    what would I tell them, my hard drive beeps?
  • Reply 7 of 10
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,561member
    You have a new machine. Definitely, you should call Apple support and discuss it with them.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    pretty much, yeah. the HD shouldn't ever be making beeping noises. if you have to, tell them it's making a clikcing/chirping noise. that's always a bad sign for a HD.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Diggin up an old thread...



    While using my comp (iBook 600), I suddenly got this strange noise which reminded me very much of this thread. A beep, followed by the sound of mechanical grinding, as it were. It does seem to come from the middle of the comp, somewhere under the keyboard.

    I even ran the Apple Hardware Test included with my 'book in anguish. Everything OK though.



    So, hardware failure? Don't think so, especially after I hooked up, coincidentally, my iBook to my stereo, and all of a sudden, the beep came up on my stereo. How about that, I thought...



    So, it had to be some kind of app using some kind of creepy sound without telling anyone.



    I found the guilty app was Thoth (the newsreader). Apparently, when downloading binaries, sometimes if there is an error in the download, the app produces an undocumented sound. This does not seem to be completely intelligible. (some faulty downloads just go red, some go gray, some make a sound that makes you think your hard drive is dying.) Gleaning the prefs of the app, I do not seem to see anything about the sound, but still, it is Thoth.



    I don't know if it is in your case, but I thought I'd let you know.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    thanks i appreciate it..



    i dont have thoth installed...



    i talked to the apple rep on campus about the problem and he said it might be a fan issue..



    I ahve started to keep a log of when the beeps happen... so far it has only happened 3 times since I started this thread...



    [quote] Switching applications.... from finder to mail NO FAN plugged in a

    trying to scroll in OW after switching from the terminal NO FAN plugged in a

    Typing in OW, NO FAN unplugged a <hr></blockquote>



    the "a" means that the computer was somewhat warm at the time...but the fan did NOT come on soon afterwards (after an hour or so)



    i dono...



    i really should put date and time also...



    [ 11-17-2002: Message edited by: Paul ]</p>
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