iMac audio died; will external sound card work?

[EmilyED]

Hello everybody, my iMac's (2011) audio died. The internal speakers don't show up in system preferences, and the headphone jack doesn't output anything either. I tried a clean install and that didn't work.

I was wondering if an external sound card like this would work:

http://au.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-play-2

If not, does anybody know what I can do to get audio again on the computer? I don't wan't to spend a whole lot of money because I'll be buying a new iMac the second Apple updates them. Thanks.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Yep, that'd work fine.

 

[EmilyED]

Thanks. I'll buy one and hopefully my audio troubles will be over.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Any chance a mike or headphone jack has broken off inside?

 

[Brian Y]

Any chance a mike or headphone jack has broken off inside?

One time I *have* seen this, is if something non-metallic (i.e. a piece of fluff) is stuck in the headphone jack, and it thinks there's an optical audio cable inserted (the way it works is metallic = analogue, non-metallic = optical). Is there a red light shining out of the back of the headphone jack?

If so, there may be something in there - can of compressed air might do it.

Otherwise, have you tried a PRAM + SMC reset? It's highly unusual for the onboard audio to fail. Never seen an actual hardware failure that caused loss of audio like that.

 

[phpmaven]

I've been using this for the last couple of years because I needed a Optical jack, and it works great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036VO4X4

 

[fastlanephil]

I've been using this for the last couple of years because I needed a Optical jack, and it works great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036VO4X4

I see that there is only one seller for that product on Amazon and it doesn't look promising. I checked out the Turtle Beach web site and they are showing only headphones for products.

Behringer makes a inexpensive USB audio interface.

 

[phpmaven]

I see that there is only one seller for that product on Amazon and it doesn't look promising. I checked out the Turtle Beach web site and they are showing only headphones for products.

Behringer makes a inexpensive USB audio interface.

Well, that makes sense. I did buy that one a while ago. Turtle Beach probably has a newer model now. I've always liked their stuff.