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dfuerpo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2011
21
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I have had my Mac Studio (Max) and Studio Display for about three weeks. No problems until today when the sound from the display speakers had intermittent dropout. For example there would be five seconds of sounds and two of dropout, then seven of sound and one of dropout. The intervals seemed random. This was not the crackling noise that others have described in other threads. This did not happen if I switched the output to the internal speaker of the Mac or used headphones plugged into the Mac headphone jack. I tried using a different thunderbolt port on the Mac without success. Rebooting the Mac didn't help. Just as I was thinking that I had an evolving hardware failure in the display I decided to reboot, i.e. power cycle, the display. This fixed the problem! It has been stable now for a few hours. I wouldn't think that a failing hardware component would get fixed by a power cycle. I have read that the Studio Display actually runs a version of the iOS operating system. Do you think this is a software (firmware) problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I’ve had to power cycle each of my two ASDs due to sound issues as well. Physical unplug and replug. Fixed the problem. So, does sound like a software issue.
 
OK, thanks. I was hoping I wasn't the only one. I wonder how common this is and if Apple even knows this is an issue.
 
OK, thanks. I was hoping I wasn't the only one. I wonder how common this is and if Apple even knows this is an issue.
I’ve got the same issue. Audio through the Studio Display will cut out and/or become distorted. It will happen by itself but I can trigger it by adjusting the volume via the keyboard. The “fix” is to unplug the display for about 15 seconds. Very annoying, but hopefully can be fixed via an update assuming Apple is aware of the problem.
 
Count me in on this as well. I thought it was the website I was using at first giving a poor stream, but then noticed it was any sound from the display. Also checked everything listed above and only a power cycle of the Studio Display resolved the issue. I sure am hoping this doesn’t become a bigger issue as time goes on and can be resolved via a software update.
 
Add me too, just starting having them. I thought it was certain videos in Youtube then it was every video in Youtube. I was thinking for a bit how some of these creators could have released videos with some many audio problems... nope it is just my monitor lol. Good to see I am not the only one.... cycling the monitor seems to make it go away for a little bit.
 
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I’ve had to power cycle each of my two ASDs due to sound issues as well. Physical unplug and replug. Fixed the problem. So, does sound like a software issue.
Just experienced this tonight while trying to watch Tehran on AppleTV+. Rebooted my Mac mini M1 without success. Switched to a Sonos speaker and back to ASD, occurred again. For me, it would play audio from AppleTV+ for a few seconds and then just drop out.

Power cycling (physically unplugging it) resolved the problem.
 
Gruber wrote about this issue with the Studio Display:

“Yesterday I noticed that the audio output from my Studio Display review unit was garbled. All audio, from all sources, was stuttered and jittery. Not just a little bit off, but unlistenable.”
“So, under my desk I crawled. Pulled the power plug from the wall socket, waited a few seconds, plugged it back in. To my knowledge, this is the first time my Studio Display review unit restarted since I first plugged it in.”
“All sorts of devices are really computers under the hood today. My refrigerator has an embedded computer of some sort, for controlling temperatures, ice-making, and notifying me when filters are due to be changed. I’ve owned it for over five years and have never needed to reboot it. I expect a display from the world’s most-renowned computer company to be at least as reliable a computer as my refrigerator.”
“If you’re going to design a display without a power button, it ought never need to be power-cycled.”
 
Happened to me Monday morning too. Power cycling solve the issue so far. Hopefully we get a software update that fixes this soon though as having to power cycling the monitor from time to time isn't the best, and otherwise the monitor is awesome.
 
I had laggy video from the camera that eventually froze when using Zoom. Better when using Facetime. With center stage switched on the video would freeze in seconds, with it off about 1 minute.

Only a power cycle fixed it. I'm running the latest non-beta SW and it had been running for about 10 days before I tried Zoom.

It seems like a cumulative memory leak or something similar. That should be fixable in software, otherwise I may need to put a smart switch on it and power cycle it every night.

Related note - the Studio Display and Mac Studio power cords are very similar when rumaging under the desk in the dark. This thing needs a power button.
 
I seem to have a variation of this... when playing a YouTube video, sound starts playing ok, but after 30 seconds or so, just stops. I can get it to start again by going in to System Preferences and re-selecting the Studio Display as an output device, but its only a temporary fix unfortunately.
 
This hasn't fixed my issue, so I now have two Studio Displays with no reliable sound!
 
Here's the issue, but sadly I don't have a solution: tech's getting too complicated for the programmers to program reliably without bugs. The first wave of end users are beta testers who've paid dearly for the privilege. I'm not singling-out Apple either because they're all the same. As for this problem, it all worked like clockwork when the sound-card was in the computer and you used a jack-to-jack cable to connect it to the monitor or to a pair of external powered speakers.
 
What's weird is that has just started happening of its own accord - there were no software updates for the Mac or displays which caused this.
 
Sound still works reliably with AirPods btw which is probably why I took so long to notice this.
 
Sound still works reliably with AirPods btw which is probably why I took so long to notice this.
If you create a new user, and reboot the computer into the new user, does the problem persist? If not, that might eliminate the display itself.
 
The problem is present on both my displays. I wonder if the macOS or Display firmware updates will fix it...
 
The problem is present on both my displays. I wonder if the macOS or Display firmware updates will fix it...
It seems to be a universal issue (although I haven’t experienced it myself). Hopefully today’s update addresses it.
 
If you're able to try a different Thunderbolt cable, you may want to try that. There's another thread around here where people with similar issues were able to resolve by using a different TB cable.
 
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