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eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
The internal speakers on my new 4th generation Macbook pro worked just fine the first few weeks, but recently the right speaker stopped working. The only sound coming from it is a barely audible high pitched beep (over 15khz). The computer has never had any injuries and are mostly stationed on my desk. This is a pretty small problem, but it bothers me since i am an audiophile.

Is there a known solution to my problem or is this a job for applecare?
 

11800506

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2007
1,060
1
Washington D.C. Area
Are you sure that the speaker is actually broken? Because something similar happened to my sister's Powerbook G4 and she thought it was broken, but I figured it was just that the speaker was set to send the sound to the other speaker. I would just check to make sure in System Preferences -> Sound (and in Leopard at least) -> Output and make sure the balance is set to the middle. If it is, then your speaker is broken. I would just make sure before trying to get it fixed.
 

mrwizardno2

macrumors 6502a
Jun 19, 2007
818
62
Columbus, OH
You could also check the Audio/Midi setup app in the utilities folder. I thought I remembered seeing something in there that also had an effect on the audio output.
 

eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
Been there done that

Been there done that...

Nothing wrong with the settings either in the system settings or audio- and midi setup. It´s just very wierd that the speaker just died after such a short period, in under 2 moths.
 

eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
Never used iChat

I have actually never used iChat, but I tried to start it now just to quit again. No change, still the same... Thanks for giving me a glimpse of hope! The thing is that it´s the same with the startup sound, not good...
 

twomiracles

macrumors regular
Dec 30, 2006
195
0
i had this problem, called apple and they had me to some reset involving removing the battery. I *think* it just happened again, but it is working again now. On top of that, I now have the shadowing in the screen...ugh. So happy to have a quirky $2500 laptop.
 

eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
Thank you very much!

So there´s hope after all. There´s no way I can give away my mac right now, so I hope I´m as lucky as you and that the trick will work.

It´s kind of irritating that such an expensive peace of equipment has issues such as this. It works like a charm in all other fields, though.
 

Stridder44

macrumors 68040
Mar 24, 2003
3,973
198
California
Hate to bump an old thread, but the right speaker on my early '08 MacBook Pro just stopped working today. :confused:

It was working fine for 2 years, and then suddenly over the past week it started randomly going out, mostly whenever I booted into Windows. So I shut it down completely, restart back into Windows, and it would work fine. Now I get the problem again, so I boot up into OS X, and now the problem's there too. Tried shutting down, restarting into OS X, and no good.

Anyone know of a good DIY MacBook Pro speaker replacement guide?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found one here. Awesome, I'm so glad my $2,500 laptop is falling apart while someone's $700 5 year old HP is working like normal.
 

204353

Cancelled
Jul 13, 2008
955
117
Hate to bump an old thread, but the right speaker on my early '08 MacBook Pro just stopped working today. :confused:

Do you have your MacBook Pro set to a high volume much? My current machine's speakers seem to tolerate being at maximum a lot of the time, but my old MacBook Pro ('06 model, absolute piece of crap) had speakers that blew slightly after only a couple of months, resulting in horrible crackling at anywhere above 50% volume.

I'm just wondering if your speaker died from too much stress. They shouldn't really, though...
 

Stridder44

macrumors 68040
Mar 24, 2003
3,973
198
California
Do you have your MacBook Pro set to a high volume much? My current machine's speakers seem to tolerate being at maximum a lot of the time, but my old MacBook Pro ('06 model, absolute piece of crap) had speakers that blew slightly after only a couple of months, resulting in horrible crackling at anywhere above 50% volume.

I'm just wondering if your speaker died from too much stress. They shouldn't really, though...

No not at all. I rarely have it turned up high, much less to it's maximum level for this exact reason.

Anyway, so I shut it off again, turned it over, took out the battery and looked around for a minute. Put the battery back in and turned it on, it booted into OS X and now it's working fine again and has been for the past hour or two. *knock on wood* :confused:

I'm stumped. A loose wire maybe?
 

eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
Followup

As the thread starter I think it's in place to give you a followup on my problem. Here goes...

After posting here I tried to call applecare. They suggested the method mentioned a few times in this thread, involving the removing of battery and reset commands thing. Since this didn’t work, I gave it to applecare. When I got it back, I was glad to hear the applesound coming out of both speakers.

However, after two weeks or so I took my newly repaired mbp out for the first time. I put it in my bag, which by the way is designed for carrying computers, and brought it to a friend of mine. Over there I turned on my beautiful macbook, and that horrendous high pitched beep screamed towards me. This may sound pathetic, but this really got me down.

My one year guarantee was soon to go out, so I rushed to applecare again. After two weeks having to use the dell lap-top from work, I was thrilled when I finally got my mbp back again. It was in perfect shape again. A few months later I went to the states, meaning two long trips with an airplane and stuff. I was a bit tired when I got to the hotel and flipped open the mbp. Could it be? Is it just my ears? No. After putting both my ears into the speaker I had to conclude: The beep of death was back!

Enough drama. It still remains a mystery how my speaker, which has been replaced two times, still keeps on dying. What's even weirder is that my mbp works great on every other level. Applecare are also completely out of ideas on how to fix the speaker.
 

Stridder44

macrumors 68040
Mar 24, 2003
3,973
198
California
OK, so I had been using my Mac for about an hour, watching an episode on Hulu, and everything worked fine. So the show ends and for about 20 minutes my speakers weren't used/putting out sound, meaning I was reading stuff on the internet and not using them, not because they were broken.

So then I go to turn up the volume and the right speaker stops working again. But this time my room was completely silent, and I heard a very faint but weird buzz/feedback noise coming out of the right speaker, VERY similar to the weird headphone jack sound that people are complaining about with their MacBook Pros, which is problem I'm also having. :confused:

Is there any way the two could be linked?
 

eivinden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2008
6
0
Oslo, Norway
I heard a very faint but weird buzz/feedback noise coming out of the right speaker, VERY similar to the weird headphone jack sound that people are complaining about with their MacBook Pros, which is problem I'm also having. :confused:

Is there any way the two could be linked?

My MBP has both problems too. Thank you for providing a link to the noise-thread, interesting to read that some unibodies also have this problem. I experience that the sound quality on new lap-tops are getting worse, in general. It’s quite weird that my iPhone has better sound quality than both my MBP and one year old workplace provided Dell. The MBP is tolerable with headphones, perfect with an external sound card, but the Dell is awful.
 

hamis92

macrumors 6502
Apr 4, 2007
475
87
Finland
Bump bump (sorry for that!)

15-inch Early 2008 model with this exact problem. No solution so far (restarted a few times, zapped PRAM). Care to recommend anything before I call AppleCare?
 

Stridder44

macrumors 68040
Mar 24, 2003
3,973
198
California
Alright, so after getting fed up with this issue I took apart my MBP and cleaned off the right speaker, and then lightly "poked" it. Not sure what exactly did it, but it works fine now. :confused: How long it will remain working is anyone's guess, but interesting nonetheless.
 

Yumid

macrumors member
May 11, 2014
59
3
Are you sure that the speaker is actually broken? Because something similar happened to my sister's Powerbook G4 and she thought it was broken, but I figured it was just that the speaker was set to send the sound to the other speaker. I would just check to make sure in System Preferences -> Sound (and in Leopard at least) -> Output and make sure the balance is set to the middle. If it is, then your speaker is broken. I would just make sure before trying to get it fixed.
THank you good sir.

I thought my right speaker was fked hhaa.
 

ABC5S

Suspended
Sep 10, 2013
3,395
1,646
Florida
Both my speakers stopped working. Finally was told to insert a headset cable into the headset jake, than out again. I did and it worked. Both speakers working. Just a thought
 
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