Macpro - Problem with keyboard volume

there are options to change where 'sound effects' or 'alert sounds' play through. is it possible that your alert sound, or feedback sound is playing through your internal speaker each time you press the volume up or down key?

i have mine set to 'Play feedback when volume is changed' and it plays the 'feedback' (alert sound chosen from list) through the internal speaker in my mac pro, but it is actually adjusting the volume on my firewire audio device.

 

I ran into the exact same problem when I moved my user folder to another drive. I lost the keyboard volume and my Logitech mouse lost connection whenever I restarted or slept the computer. My solution was to revert the user folder back to the startup drive. Too bad, it was kind of cool while it lasted.

 

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but most forums I've participated at in the past has a policy that it's better to post in an existing thread than start a new one.

Anyway, I have a similar problem to the original poster:

Most of the time everything works as it should. The volume on my keyboard controls the volume of my external speakers. But from time to time it stops working and the volume key on the keyboard only controls the internal speakers. The odd thing is that applications will still play their audio through the external speakers. A reboot always fixes this problem, but I'd obviously prefer not to have to do that.

Any suggestions?

I'm guessing this is an OS bug, but just in case, here's my specs:

Mac Pro with OS X 10.4.11
2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
10 GB 667 MGz DDR2 FB-DIMM
ATI Radeon x1900 XT, 512 MB VRAM

I'm using the built in audio device, and the only hardware I've added to the computer is an eSATA card. But this problem existed before then.

My output sound settings in system preferences are set to "Line Out - Built-in Line Output" and "Show volume in menu bar" is checked.

I haven't moved my user folder.

Well... I can't think of anything else to tell you. If you need more information, please ask.

I'd very much appreciate anyones help.

KM

 

1. You should really update your OS.

2. I dunno if your problem is the same as mine but sometimes for me my mac forgets or on it's own changes it's audio preferences. Some symptoms are as you describe. When this happens you don't need to reboot. Just visiting the audio preference panel and setting things back or resetting them by changing and then changing back is enough to restore it.

I dunno why it does that. Maybe it's a timing/init/registration issue where occasionally the audio components are a little slow to init and OS X trying to be smart, registers an assured to be initialized device??!? No idea really...

 

I had this problem, too.
It was resolved after a reboot, though.

 

I'm pretty sure I've checked that, but just to make sure I'll check it again next time it happens before I reboot. Thanks.

Yeah, same here. It keeps happening though, and it's frustrating to have to reboot every time.

KM

 

It's happened twice since my last post, I checked the settings prior to reboot each time and they were as they should. I even changed them back and forth, but the problem still persisted.

Oh well.

Thanks anyway.

KM

 

Any Real Solution?

OK, it has been another year since the last post. I'm having the exact same problem. A reboot always fixes, but I don't want to reboot my machine everytime this happens (somewhat frequent). I mean, a solution of "just reboot your computer" sounds like I bought a Windoze machine!

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.2 (10C540)
Kernel Version: Darwin 10.2.0

 

I've got the same issue. All of a sudden today my keyboard volume keys only control the volume of the internal speaker even though all my output is going to external speakers (itunes is playing through my external speakers but when i hit the keyboard keys it doesn't effect the volume of the external but it does make the little alert noise through the internal speaker)

I guess I can restart but I was curious if there's an actual solution to this.