Argh! Having trouble with sound volume on my 2010 MBP. Help needed.

[OmNom]

I'm going a little bit nuts. I'm sure the answer is something simple that I've missed, but I just don't know what it is.

My computer: 2010 MBP, 17". I purchased it new a few months ago.

My problem: The sound volume is crazy low. All was fine until a couple of days ago... And then for whatever reason the speaker volume, even at max settings, was about 10% of what it had been.

When I put headphones in the volume is completely normal (through the headphones) and adjustable. But when I unplug the headphones from the jack... Virtually nothing.

When I restart my computer, ya know the chime it makes when it wakes up? For split second that chime will be at the normal volume. But before the chime finishes playing, the volume turns all the way down by itself. In the time it takes for the chime to play my volume goes from about 90% to 10%.

It gets weirder still. When I plug in external speakers the volume is loud for about... well it's less than a minute. And then something "adjusts" and no matter how high I crank the knob on the external speakers the resulting volume is still pretty dang low. And that's with the powerful speakers... The little portable red ones barely make a peep.

Adjusting things with iTunes makes no difference whatever.

OH! Unless I am playing a podcast. My volume on podcasts is still normal, regardless of whether I'm using my laptop's speakers, my iHome portable speakers, or my earphones, or my other computer speakers. Confused? Yeah me too.

I googled around a bit... I can't find a solution for this because I can't find anyone with a problem quite like this. And there isn't a little red light on inside the headphone jack input thingy.

If anyone out there can help me... please... I would be so grateful. This is driving me crazy.

 

[Rithem]

That's really weird. If anything it should be uniformly weird, not just the podcast being normal volume. If nothing works you can always try to erase and reinstall OSX.

 

[OmNom]

That's really weird. If anything it should be uniformly weird, not just the podcast being normal volume. If nothing works you can always try to erase and reinstall OSX.

I just did a little test, and I think there is *some* uniformity to the problem.

If I play a video-- anything on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, or even a movie from my own iTunes library-- the sound is low.

But a podcast, music from my library, or any of my audiobooks is completely fine. So I think that's some sort of clue. Sound linked with video--regardless of the video source-- is almost non-existent.

The exception to this is the chime on start-up, which is as I described above.

 

[OmNom]

This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

I uninstalled some software thinking that might be the culprit-- even though it was a program I'd been using for a month without any problems. Then I restarted my laptop.

Woo hoo! The sound was loud and clear and beautiful! I had solved my problem and was watching The Matrix once again; Morpheus explained the red pill to Neo and we all know how that went.

But my sound problem came back after about 30 seconds. Lol. My invisible volume adjustor turned my volume down to almost nothing. Oh well it's not the *dialogue* that makes this movie great right?

Yeah I might have to take this thing in for more serious help. I'm out of ideas. I don't have a clue.

 

[aeboi]

do a clean install of OS X if all else fails ^

hardware problem if that doesn't fix it

 

[OmNom]

Update:

By Friday morning the sound problem was worse. I had no volume on anything, not music, not audiobooks, nothing.

I called the Apple care line and after a few unsuccessful attempts to solve the problem with reboots and holding down this-key-and-that-one he told me to take it in to the local Apple Store. I made an appointment and took it in.

The guy there said it was probably a problem with the logic board or the hard drive. It needed to be shipped to the service depot. He said they would totally fix everything; it would be like getting back a totally new computer--which is fine with me because that's what thought I paid $3,000 for in May. Lol. Okay, I shouldn't complain... They are taking care of everything and it's all covered, no questions. That's good.

Hopefully I'll get it back on Wednesday or Thursday. Fingers crossed.