Brand New MacBook Pro Problem - Left Speaker Dead?

[Nym]

Hi Guys!

After buying an iMac 1 year and half ago my GF started to like Mac OS X for it's stability and ease of use. She desperately needed a new laptop for her presentations at the company she works for so.. I convinced her to get a MacBook Pro this Saturday. (I know MBP updates are due but.. she needed it now)

We get home, turn it on (it still had Tiger installed), upgraded to Leopard, installed Windows XP (for her occasional 3D modeling projects) and finally went back to OSX to install applications, setup time machine and etc etc..

This is where the problem begins! We transfered her Music folder from her former HP Laptop and when I tried to play a song via iTunes the left speaker played no sound at all! I went into the sound prefs pane and moved the slider all the way to the "Left" speaker and no sound came out of it.

Of course that she is pretty much pissed of for buying a laptop from a high quality brand like Apple and having the bad luck of getting the MBP with this issue.

My question is:
Anyone have any suggestion on what I can do? Is the best option to just take the MBP to the store and get a replacement? Having to re-install everything that we had already installed so far will be a serious PITA. I'm sure you can relate, installing OS's is a time consuming activity.

I know that there are no miracles, but some of you guys have dealt with these issues and who knows..? Maybe someone knows some easy solution

BTW - I've already done all the Leopard and Firmware Updates and tested the sound in Win XP (it also doesn't play sound through the left speaker). And when using HeadPhones the sound plays in both so.. everything points to an hardware problem.

 

[scienide09]

You're in Portugal -- do you have Apple stores? If so, make an appointment with a genius, and they may fix it on the spot.

If you purchased from Apple online, call your local support number. They may ask you to ship it back for repair/replace, or they may direct you to a local authorized repair centre. If it's just a dud speaker/loose wire, chances are good it will be a simple repair, and you won't have to reinstall your apps.

 

[Nym]

You're in Portugal -- do you have Apple stores? If so, make an appointment with a genius, and they may fix it on the spot.

If you purchased from Apple online, call your local support number. They may ask you to ship it back for repair/replace, or they may direct you to a local authorized repair centre. If it's just a dud speaker/loose wire, chances are good it will be a simple repair, and you won't have to reinstall your apps.

Yeah, you guessed it right! There is no Apple Store in Portugal (yet) but there is an Apple Representative Store which "almost" feels like an Official one and they're support is very decent. I called them and they said that I could bring it in any day of the week, if the Mac "technician" can solve the problem immediately then that would be perfect, otherwise, they already said they would replace it by a brand new one so.. it could be worse!
Anyway, let's hope it's just a loose wire or something that can easily be solved. I'd hate to see the Win XP install screens two times in one week..

 

[noodle654]

Under System Prefs....go to Sound and you can adjust where the volume comes out. There is a slider that moves from left speaker to right. It is probably on the right side so that is why you probably have no sound.

 

[anirban]

Also, do you have iChat running while trying to play music? iChat disables the left speaker during a voice chat, because the microphone is located under the left speaker grill. It does so in order to reduce the echo.

 

[scienide09]

Under System Prefs....go to Sound and you can adjust where the volume comes out. There is a slider that moves from left speaker to right. It is probably on the right side so that is why you probably have no sound.

... I went into the sound prefs pane and moved the slider all the way to the "Left" speaker and no sound came out of it.

It's obviously not the slider in Sys Prefs.

Also, do you have iChat running while trying to play music? iChat disables the left speaker during a voice chat, because the microphone is located under the left speaker grill. It does so in order to reduce the echo.

Probably not an iChat problem, since the OP said there was no sound from the left speaker when running WinXP.

I'd stick with dud speaker/loose wire and take it for repair or replacement. It sounds like the store you're dealing with is being pretty decent when it comes to a support question, so stick with them for now. If it comes down to having to replace the unit, since the techs will have to open your current MBP anyway, they might be able to pull your current hard drive and drop it into the new one. It can't hurt to ask.

 

[Nym]

...I went into the sound prefs pane and moved the slider all the way to the "Left" speaker and no sound came out of it.

Under System Prefs....go to Sound and you can adjust where the volume comes out. There is a slider that moves from left speaker to right. It is probably on the right side so that is why you probably have no sound.

Nope I've tried that.. That ain't it. It would be great if it was though, just a simple drag to the slider and BOOM, it would be fixed

Also, do you have iChat running while trying to play music? iChat disables the left speaker during a voice chat, because the microphone is located under the left speaker grill. It does so in order to reduce the echo.

Also not it, I didn't even launch iChat.

Any more suggestions my Mac-Knowing friends?

Other than that... the MBP is blazing fast so far! Faster than my 24" 1st Gen iMac at least.

they might be able to pull your current hard drive and drop it into the new one. It can't hurt to ask.

Yeah, that would be perfect, brand new hardware except the disk which already has everything she needs. Wouldn't that "break" the Windows 32Gb partition though?