Sound effects not working

Question

Level 2

348 points

Sound effects not working

Just yesterday, I noticed that I wasn't hearing my New mMil sound though new mail was arriving. I also wasn't hearing the crunch of trash being removed. I went into System prefs>Sound and found that none of the effects would work. I also noticed that the "Play through Internal speaker" optioon was greyed out.

All other sounds work fine...iTunes, videos, etc.

I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but if any of you have any suggestions to help me get my sound effects back, I'd appreciate it.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 6:48 AM

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Answer 1

Kurt Epps Author

Level 2

348 points

Apr 22, 2009 7:18 AM in response to Kurt Epps

If it helps, I tried using headphones and all the sounds work. The sound in system prefs shows playthrough headphones, but it, too is greyed out. if i remove the headphones, it goes back to Internal speakers, but it's greyed out. Shouldn't that be accessible?

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

Apr 22, 2009 11:25 AM in response to Kurt Epps

Hi Kurt, seems to happen on MacBooks frequently enough...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9338966&#9338966

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Answer 3

Kurt Epps Author

Level 2

348 points

Apr 22, 2009 11:57 AM in response to BDAqua

They seem to be working now that I inserted and removed some headphones. But what bothers me is that greyed out selection in the Sound System Prefs. Shouldn't that be selectable?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

Apr 22, 2009 12:03 PM in response to Kurt Epps

Yes it should, but have you rebooted since the switch has started working?

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Answer 5

Kurt Epps Author

Level 2

348 points

Apr 22, 2009 12:08 PM in response to BDAqua

No. Will that fix the issue? Thanks for all your help, BD.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

Apr 22, 2009 12:41 PM in response to Kurt Epps

I'm thinking that it may only check if it's available when first initializing the hardware at boot time, but not certain. 🙂

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Answer 7

Kurt Epps Author

Level 2

348 points

Apr 22, 2009 12:43 PM in response to BDAqua

I rebooted, but no change. It's working though. Thanks again, BD.

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

Apr 22, 2009 1:48 PM in response to Kurt Epps

Might try trashing these files & reboot...

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.soundpref.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

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Answer 9

May 12, 2009 2:04 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes. Trashing those files worked for me. I have been struggling with this for a while on my wife's computer. Problem solved. THANKS!

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Answer 10

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

May 12, 2009 8:55 AM in response to Jonathan Payne1

Great to hear, thanks! 🙂

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Answer 11

Jun 1, 2009 11:59 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes, I've been having this problem for a while now too. It just started in the last few days and I don't know how. Yesterday I restarted the computer and the sounds came back for a while before disabling again. The option to play alerts and sound effects is also grayed out. I trashed the files you listed, and it worked for the other guy, so I hope it works for me.

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Answer 12

BDAqua

Level 10

239,435 points

Jun 9, 2009 5:13 PM in response to Jeremy Caesar

Hi Jeremy, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Did it work for you?

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