NO sounds through optical:(

[macgoo]

Please can someone help me I am so frustrated!!!

I am running 2009 macbook pro 17" 10.7.3 and Plex. Last week the sound was working fine (DTS, AC3, stereo), except for some clipping sounds every 30 seconds so I tried to fix this.

I tried to change some settings in the audio MIDI settings, but now nothing works at all. NO sound period. I have tried all the combinations to get it to play even stereo but nothing.

The optical cable is perfect, and when there is signal it lights up red. I've tried resetting the PRAM, SMC, fixing permissions and booted from a USB drive with a copy of lion and still no sound

Please help this is driving me nuts!!!

 

[squeakr]

Not to sound insulting, but are you sure that the source it is being connected to has not changed a setting and is not seeing the optical signal (as you may be trouble shooting on the wrong end of the problem)?

 

[macgoo]

Not to sound insulting, but are you sure that the source it is being connected to has not changed a setting and is not seeing the optical signal (as you may be trouble shooting on the wrong end of the problem)?

yeah I'm sure, I've connected to my airport express and it works perfectly

 

[squeakr]

How about to save us some time then, describe in further detail your system and what you have done to trouble shoot the issue rather than us stabbing in the dark further?

I would like to try and help, but feel that I have little to go on. What else have you changed within the system (hardware, software, upgrades, etc) and did you change all settings back to what was working before you started making the changes?

Have you tried any other programs to see if they work (other than plex), and does the jack work with normal analog outputs??

What version of OS is running and what is the system reporting when cables (optical and analog are connected)? With digital connected is the volume disabled (as if it is truly recognizing as optical then volume control should be disabled)?

Lots of variables that need to be eliminated and filled in.

 

[macgoo]

How about to save us some time then, describe in further detail your system and what you have done to trouble shoot the issue rather than us stabbing in the dark further?

I would like to try and help, but feel that I have little to go on. What else have you changed within the system (hardware, software, upgrades, etc) and did you change all settings back to what was working before you started making the changes?

Have you tried any other programs to see if they work (other than plex), and does the jack work with normal analog outputs??

What version of OS is running and what is the system reporting when cables (optical and analog are connected)? With digital connected is the volume disabled (as if it is truly recognizing as optical then volume control should be disabled)?

Lots of variables that need to be eliminated and filled in.

thanks for trying to help, like i said i fiddled around with audio MIDI, but none of the variables are working. even the original can't remember what it was exactly probably 24bit 48000khz or 16bit and 44000khz

Running 10.7.3

No sounds work at all through optical, in any program.

when optical is connected it says digital out. (yes the volume becomes disabled)

the built-in speakers are working and when a normal 3.5mm is connected to headphone jack it plays through external speakers

 

[Arran]

Had a similar problem a few months ago running audio from an airport express to an apple hifi (remember those?). Worked fine for years and then all of a sudden the audio was intermittently breaking up/crackling. Wiggled the cables and all was fine.

A few weeks of that and the sound cut out completely. Drove me nuts. No matter how much I wiggled the cable/unplugged/replugged/blew compressed air in the sockets, nothing worked.

Swapped the optical cable and everything worked fine again. I guess my cable had gone bad somehow, although it looked like it was transmitting red light just fine.

 

[macgoo]

Had a similar problem a few months ago running audio from an airport express to an apple hifi (remember those?). Worked fine for years and then all of a sudden the audio was intermittently breaking up/crackling. Wiggled the cables and all was fine.

A few weeks of that and the sound cut out completely. Drove me nuts. No matter how much I wiggled the cable/unplugged/replugged/blew compressed air in the sockets, nothing worked.

Swapped the optical cable and everything worked fine again. I guess my cable had gone bad somehow, although it looked like it was transmitting red light just fine.

i just got a new new toslink cable and i tested both of them with the airport express and work perfectly, so they aren't to blame...

 

[Macman45]

Try disconnecting the tos-link cable.

Perform a PRAM re-set


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


If that re instates your system sound re connect the tos-link and try again

If not perform a SMC reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

 

[squeakr]

On my early 2011 15 MBP, the default is 2 ch- 24 bit Integer, 44100.0 Hz and I am running 10.7.3 as well.

 

[macgoo]

Try disconnecting the tos-link cable.

Perform a PRAM re-set


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


If that re instates your system sound re connect the tos-link and try again

If not perform a SMC reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

thanks but as you can see on my original post I've tried those

 

[Macman45]

Is the volume control at the top of the screen greyed out?

If so, plug a set of headphones into the output jack, then unplug them.

Repeat the process with the input socket...(You can still use headphone, no damage will be caused, but if you have a mic that would be better)

 

[macgoo]

Is the volume control at the top of the screen greyed out?

If so, plug a set of headphones into the output jack, then unplug them.

Repeat the process with the input socket...(You can still use headphone, no damage will be caused, but if you have a mic that would be better)

the volume gets greyed out when the optical cable is plugged it, its normal. when i plug in my iphone headset with mic they work and when i take them out the internal speakers work, but as soon as i plug in the optical cable again no sound from the external speakers or that my logitech is receiving a signal

 

[Macman45]

Starting to sound like an external fault...Maybe your sound system has developed a fault...I can't think of anything see you haven't tried...

 

[macgoo]

Starting to sound like an external fault...Maybe your sound system has developed a fault...I can't think of anything see you haven't tried...

i just don't get why my optical has a red light working and it produces no sound

anyways i just heard a friend of mine who has the same computer like me 17" 2.8ghz has the same problem...

it has to be some software glitch...

 

[squeakr]

Make sure that the output rates are ones that your receiving device can extrapolate. I am not sure what you are running the signal into, but does it report a signal? Some devices are limited in the rates they can receive, on my older receivers (not the newer ones I have) they have a limited signal ratio range that they will see and be able to decode. If I go outside of those settings, then the signal is lost. I posted what the default is on my MBP, try that and see if you get the signal at least received??

 

[macgoo]

Make sure that the output rates are ones that your receiving device can extrapolate. I am not sure what you are running the signal into, but does it report a signal? Some devices are limited in the rates they can receive, on my older receivers (not the newer ones I have) they have a limited signal ratio range that they will see and be able to decode. If I go outside of those settings, then the signal is lost. I posted what the default is on my MBP, try that and see if you get the signal at least received??

running a logitech z5500 and used those settings you gave. still nothing;(

thanks for trying though

btw i have soundflower installed (don't have a clue how that works)

 

[Macman45]

The fact that the cable shows light at (I assume you mean) both ends just means we can eliminate that from the equation...What is sound flower? Anything like Perian? I use Perian to get high end Dolby at it's best.

I don't know of sound flower, but if it's a freebie, maybe it's part of the problem.

Perian is free if you want to try it....:


http://perian.en.softonic.com/mac

Can't see how it would help but stranger things have happened.

 

[macgoo]

The fact that the cable shows light at (I assume you mean) both ends just means we can eliminate that from the equation...What is sound flower? Anything like Perian? I use Perian to get high end Dolby at it's best.

I don't know of sound flower, but if it's a freebie, maybe it's part of the problem.

Perian is free if you want to try it....:


http://perian.en.softonic.com/mac

Can't see how it would help but stranger things have happened.

"Soundflower is a Mac OS X (10.2 and later) system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications. Soundflower is easy to use, it simply presents itself as an audio device, allowing any audio application to send and receive audio with no other support needed. Soundflower is free, open-source, and runs on Mac Intel and PPC computers. "

anyways i made a startup disc and booted from that so it had a clean lion install so no extra stuff installed and still no luck...i wish i didn't interfere with the settings...if i knew this would happen id just accept those clipping sounds urgh......

oh yeah i have perian installed anyways

 

[Macman45]

I'm out of ideas...If a clean install of Lion won't fix it, I can't think of anything else you can try...

 

[shwc]

I tried to change some settings in the audio MIDI settings, but now nothing works at all.

Try Posting a screen shot of the apple audio-midi-setup "audio devices" window and "MIDI studio" window.

I have attached my settings from my Macbook Pro. Note that I do not have any audio sources attached to the Macbook Pro at the moment, so my settings should be the default settings, minus the soundflower headings. Soundflower provides a means of piping audio from one program into another, one output to another, etc. Soundflower is installed along with plex, I believe.

 

[macgoo]

Try Posting a screen shot of the apple audio-midi-setup "audio devices" window and "MIDI studio" window.

I have attached my settings from my Macbook Pro. Note that I do not have any audio sources attached to the Macbook Pro at the moment, so my settings should be the default settings, minus the soundflower headings. Soundflower provides a means of piping audio from one program into another, one output to another, etc. Soundflower is installed along with plex, I believe.

heres mine...

 

[squeakr]

Here is mine with nothing attached and I have values for 1 and 2 under the settings. Sorry no cable to test the Digital Out defaults.

 

[macgoo]

Hey guys thanks for your help. I figured out how to fix it. I took a plastic covered wire and wiggled it in the jack and then put in the optical cable and the receiver processed the digital signal. No idea why this worked...

There is still some clipping in 5.1 mode so ill just have to figure that out now...

feeling happier at least I have some sort of sound right now

 

[chown33]

Hey guys thanks for your help. I figured out how to fix it. I took a plastic covered wire and wiggled it in the jack and then put in the optical cable and the receiver processed the digital signal. No idea why this worked...

A marginally defective jack. It's not a unique problem. It's not cheap to repaire, either.

 

[cobyhuang]

Hey guys thanks for your help. I figured out how to fix it. I took a plastic covered wire and wiggled it in the jack and then put in the optical cable and the receiver processed the digital signal. No idea why this worked...

There is still some clipping in 5.1 mode so ill just have to figure that out now...

feeling happier at least I have some sort of sound right now

Hi everyone... This is my first post in this forum... just registered to tell all of you that this trick worked for me... VERY WEIRD...

I have an onkyo receiver and macbook 2006 model for home media centre. I tried to connect the optical output using an mini-toslink to toslink cable, but I tried everything without making the receiver to detect any signal from my mac... As the last resort, I tried the trick with a plastic wire together with the mini-toslink plug... then everything works...

I believe there are many other people suffering from this problem (after searching around in google seeing the same complains), but few know this trick... Hope more people get to know this

Cheers