Sound problem ... is it hardware?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
suddenly, my iMac (G4, 15", 800mhz) wont play out of one speaker. i have the apple pro speakers and an iSub. however, it is also happening if i plug in headphones into the headphone jack, i get no sound out of one side (the same left side). i thought maybe it was iTunes, but same problem when playing songs in QT. however, if i jiggle the pro speakers wire, the "dead" speaker will start playing while the other one stops. then it will switch back after 10 seconds or so. but they will never play at once. is there a balance setting somewhere maybe? i havent touched any system sound controls. ran various disk utilities, but still nothing. any ideas? thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    In the system preferences go to the 'Sound' preferences. then go to the 'Output' tab. There you will see a Balance meter which you can center.



    It seems to me though that if it is affected by jiggling that it may be the output jack (since headphones and speakers produce the same result). Try a call to Applecare and they can talk you through a hardware test, if nothing else works.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    Actually this made me think of a problem I am having with OSX. My balance is constantly moving off-centre, I think I may be inadvertantly firing off a keyboard shortcut I am not aware of... its a mystery.



    Almost daily, when I check my Sound pref pane the balance is off centre, so I correct it and move on... a day or two later same thing again...



    Anyone heard of this?
  • Reply 3 of 9
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Never heard of that. (If you were running OS 9 I would tell you to delete the Sound preferences. Maybe OS X has an equivalent) :confused:



    Anyway, to girl: I had a sound port die on my laptop once. One side just cut out completely. No wiggling would ever bring it back. You said the sound would shift after a while which sounds like a bad connection in the left side. What you described sounds like a bad connection. You may want to clean the plug first (with alcohol or track cleaner from a hobby store) before taking drastic measures. Sometimes the simplest solution works.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    I hear that if you do video editing or Sound editing in Peak DV or Final Cut Pro and if you go to Print to tape or send to synth and adjust it just before hand to be mono or stereo to one channel, that it just sets the balance that way. But I tried it and it hasn't done it on mine yet. I have however caught it slighty off a couple of times. Personally I think its something in Itunes
  • Reply 5 of 9
    [quote]Originally posted by kraig911:

    <strong>I hear that if you do video editing or Sound editing in Peak DV or Final Cut Pro and if you go to Print to tape or send to synth and adjust it just before hand to be mono or stereo to one channel, that it just sets the balance that way. But I tried it and it hasn't done it on mine yet. I have however caught it slighty off a couple of times. Personally I think its something in Itunes</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I am thinking it may be a Universal Access thing. Jaguar has a habit of turning on the keyboard shortcuts for me too...



    But it could definitely be iTunes. I use iTunes a lot and I only occasionaly do any DV work and not with any of the packages you listed, iMovie only.



    i'll keep digging <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
  • Reply 6 of 9
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    It happened to me and I almost bought new speakers. It was just that the balance was off set in the system preferences. It seems to off balance it's self about once every two weeks.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    [quote]Originally posted by iBrowse:

    <strong>It happened to me and I almost bought new speakers. It was just that the balance was off set in the system preferences. It seems to off balance it's self about once every two weeks.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    thats what I am seeing but almost daily... I do analog recordings off AV jack to my old MD player (Kenwood DMC-K7R, bought in Japan over 5 years ago) which only has a single level indicator, so you cant see left/right levels seperately. I usually notice it about 4 songs in and start all over again...
  • Reply 8 of 9
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    [quote]Originally posted by I-bent-my-wookie:

    <strong>



    thats what I am seeing but almost daily... I do analog recordings off AV jack to my old MD player (Kenwood DMC-K7R, bought in Japan over 5 years ago) which only has a single level indicator, so you cant see left/right levels seperately. I usually notice it about 4 songs in and start all over again...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Now that is a bit different, and sounds very discouraging as well.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    Bah! Since I posted here last, experiencing only a minor, infrequent problem, this has started to occur to me a lot more. About as much as the bent-wookie was talking about. Has there been any info around on fixing this, or at least knowing why it happened? I think it might have something to do with using headphones at night, because whenever I switch to headphones, I notice it a little. But the next day when I unplug the headphones and turn my computer on, it boots up with the balance at like a 30%-70% balance. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
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