OS X Sounds Gone!

[danielbriggs]

Hi,

I've been using a Mac now for a while, and the other day I noticed that my sound effects e.g. the pops and whooshes had gone! Sound works fine on iTunes and movies etc. through headphones, external speakers and built in speakers. But in Mail, and OS X itself and nearly every other program I use the sound effects are gone! No whoosh when emptying the trash, no click when a message come in...

Yes, I've been into system prefs and everything it as it should be in the Sound control bit. Nothing is muted, or disabled etc.

Does anyone know of a fix?
Or am I doing something REALLY stupid?


Dan

 

[Luigi239]

Did you try restarting?

The same thing happened to me. A simple restart did the trick.

 

[bobert1985]

This same thing has happened to me before. Apparently, on occasion, Core Audio will crash. An easy way to fix it without a restart is to open GarageBand, then close it. Hopefully this works. If not, try restarting.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

This just happened to me today.

Weird.

 

[FF_productions]

Wow, same here!

 

[danielbriggs]

This same thing has happened to me before. Apparently, on occasion, Core Audio will crash. An easy way to fix it without a restart is to open GarageBand, then close it. Hopefully this works. If not, try restarting.

I've tried both a restart and the GarageBand thing, and It's still not working.
Yet I can play music in iTunes or any other program if I tell it to, i.e. quicktime, iMovie etc. etc. Just no sound effects system wide.

I first noticed it in Mail, so I went into Prefs for it, if I click on a different sound effect for new mail, I get the sounds e.g. pop etc. But when I click OK, (and the play sound effects when mail arrives button is checked) they don't appear!!!

Strange......

I thought it could be an update, so here's my update log:

2006-11-27 17:58:44 +0000: Installed "Pages Update" (2.0.2)
2006-11-27 17:58:46 +0000: Installed "Keynote Update" (3.0.2)
2006-11-27 17:58:55 +0000: Installed "iTunes" (7.0.2)
2006-11-29 20:53:20 +0000: Installed "Security Update 2006-007 (Intel)" (1.0)
2006-12-14 11:42:17 +0000: Installed "AirPort Update 2006-002" (1.0)
2006-12-19 22:20:15 +0000: Installed "Security Update 2006-008 (Universal)" (1.0)
2007-01-05 17:46:28 +0000: Installed "iChat Update (Universal)" (1.0)
2007-01-24 07:21:59 +0000: Installed "Security Update 2007-001" (1.0)
2007-01-27 16:48:27 +0000: Installed "AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001" (1.0)
2007-02-16 18:11:04 +0000: Installed "Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 5" (5.0)
2007-02-16 18:11:08 +0000: Installed "Security Update 2007-002 (Universal)" (1.0)
2007-02-16 18:12:47 +0000: Installed "Daylight Saving Time Update" (1.0)
2007-02-20 18:25:23 +0000: Installed "WWAN Support Update" (1.0)
2007-03-06 10:14:56 +0000: Installed "QuickTime" (7.1.5)
2007-03-06 10:16:52 +0000: Installed "iTunes" (7.1)
2007-03-13 10:12:21 +0000: Installed "AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002" (1.0)
2007-03-13 20:49:18 +0000: Installed "iPhoto Update" (6.0.6)
2007-03-13 20:51:59 +0000: Installed "Mac OS X Update (Intel)" (10.4.9)
2007-03-16 22:09:02 +0000: Installed "iTunes" (7.1.1)

My last update was exactly a month ago, and it happened a while after that. 1 thing I noticed about 10.4.9 is that the sound is really loud! I'm having to use 1-3 bars most of the time.


Dan

 

[mad jew]

Very weird. I know you've tried the Garageband trick (which usually works) and this is related to that same error, but check this for me all the same. Does your Audio MIDI Setup look like this?...





In particular, check the Audio Output Format.

 

[danielbriggs]

Hi again!

I don't know where that menu is, and I don't use a MIDI device, so I gave up looking in the end!

But, after messing around with some of the developer sound untilites and several restarts later, its working!!!!!

Thanks for all your advice everyone.
Now I'm popping and whoosing along!


Dan ;-)

 

[mad jew]

Haha, excellent! Sorry, I should have been more specific. Audio MIDI Setup is in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. It doesn't matter whether or not you have third party MIDI devices, this menu still applies to the built-in audio settings. Glad it's all working anyway mate.

 

[danielbriggs]

Ahhh... Thanks!

Is the volume thing a quirk of the 10.4.9 update? Or can it be altered back to how it was?


Thanks!

Dan

 

[mad jew]

Nah, it's been around for all Tiger releases but usually the Garageband thing fixes it straight away. I haven't heard of a system update (10.4.9 or otherwise) setting it off though.

 

[danielbriggs]

Oh, OK.


Thanks!

 

[joekix]

just happended me today. restarted and everything is fine, but i wanna know why it happened and how can i prevent it. if i delete the .plist, will this help?

thanks!

 

[p0intblank]

The same thing happens to me from time to time, usually in iChat.

 

[danielbriggs]

Hi, I don't know much about plists, so I can't comment on that. I've not had it happen again since that last "outbreak". From the replies above, it looks like it's possibly a fairly common problem. I couldn't find an official document or fix from Apple. I don't know why it does it either, I'd like to know what causes it too if any one knows.

Thanks!

Dan

 

[danielbriggs]

The same thing happens to me from time to time, usually in iChat.

Never used iChat, so that's not making it stop on mine. Perhaps its just the sound system "crashing" ??? A simple restart should restart this service???!?