Q: MacBook Air no audio output device found ???????? *please help*
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May 22, 2011 9:28 AMby robertomoreno,There is a do it yourself article on how to replace your audio cable.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Air-Models-A1237-and-A1304 -Audio-Cable/861/1
That should fix it. It worked for me and it wasn't hard to replace. iFixit will sell you the cable and the tools if you don't have any.
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May 22, 2011 9:37 AMby stevenfromwoodville,You're my hero. but I think I'll have the Apple Store do this ... I'm already having nightmares about putting stuff in backwards, losing the screws... and I'm not even asleep. Anyway you think it's the audio ribbon. Makes sense that it's a hardware issue.
Thanks
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Jul 5, 2011 3:56 PMby tengfromsanfrancisco,I made an account here just to verify that for my case at least, it was indeed the audio cable that went bad. I spent nearly a whole week's worth of free time trouble shooting this issue, thinking it was probably just software. I even reinstalled 10.5 from the original cd's, which actually got the icon back for like 10 minutes. Then I had to reinstal 10.6 and get all my settings back. What a huge waste of time. I don't remember who was the one who first identified the audio cable as the broken component, but thank you very much. It was very easy to replace on my late 2008 Air.
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Aug 5, 2011 3:54 PMby Eliot Young,Mr. Greenwald's advice worked for my MBA 2.13 GHz/OS 10.5.8. Been having problems for a couple of days, plonked down the dosh for the phone support, which TEMPORARILY got the problem fixed with Disk Utility verifying and repairing permissions, then shutting down and doing the reboot: (1) shift-control-option-power (no response, which is as it should be), then (2) power button, followed by simultaneously hitting control-option-P-R. That worked, as I said, for a while, but the same thing kept happening. Sound would disappear, icon would disappear, and the whole shebang: no internal speakers showing up in Sound preferences/Output.
I tried a few of the other software tips in the thread above: p. 4 said something about deleting a Library/Preferences/com.apple.BezelServices.plist file. Did it. No results.
When I shut down, then held "D" down as I repowered, everything just came up as usual. No bong. I saw no evidence of any "diagnostic mode," until I went to About this Mac/More info/Diagnostics, and saw that indeed diagnostics had been run when I powered up. So, I shut down, did the reboot, and got the Bong.
This time it was different: my volume icon was there! Every other time I have rebooted, IF I got the Bong, I had to go into Sound Preferences and tell it to display my volume control.
Now what I'm trying to remember is: when I did my final reboot, was it a control-option-P-R reboot (see above). I think it was.
Either way, iTunes is playing happily now, and so far so good. Hallelujah! That's fixed it. Thanks, Mr. Greenwald.
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Aug 11, 2011 10:52 PMby doctored,The new cable has WORKED for me!!
It's very simple to replace - took about 15 mins minor surgery. So far no post-op complications and all well.
I think after reading around this issue (MBAir sound loss - input and output disappear form pref panes), it IS a hardware/cable issue. I think the original cable gradually gets cooked.
But the problem is so quirky that it's easy to mis-diagnose as software issue (comes back after re-start, comes back after resetting PRAM etc.), and bizarrely seems to rear its head especially after upgrading to Lion. Seems unlikely, but also seems to be the case.
Diagnosis - loose wire.
