Sudden LOUD buzz comming from the speakers!

Question

Sudden LOUD buzz comming from the speakers!

Hey everyone,

I bought my iMac about 1 month ago, and installed Tiger as soon as it was released. For the second time till now, suddenly I get a VERY LOUD buzz noise comming from the speakers, and it lasts around 2 sec and then disappears. It made me scared to death, since it's totally sudden. Both times it happened I was using iChat and was about to press "return" to send a text messsage (from what I can remember). Does anyone know what might be going on? Anyone with the same issue?

I also got other speakers weird thing: suddenly when listening to music the speakers kind of "get stuck", the sound stops and I hear a few "blobs" comming from the speakers, as if the sound couldn't make its way out. The only way to get the sound back is by pressing the "mute" key. This happened only a few times too.

Thanks

Tadeu

Posted on May 11, 2005 6:13 PM

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Answer 1

mhunter

Level 6

9,191 points

May 11, 2005 6:22 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

Sounds like you might have some kind of software problem going on.

Hardware would not usually react the way you describe. So, I suspect that some weird software bug has occurred.

One really easy check, is to run GarageBand (part of the iLife suite). I know this sound very weird, but it has fixed a sound problem for me, and several other people.

Something about running GarageBand resets some setting somewhere that fixes several common audio problems.

So, I would recommend opening GarageBand, then hit a couple of notes on the piano keyboard it displays. Then, close the program.

If you're lucky, it will fix your problem like it has for me and several others.

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Answer 2

May 11, 2005 6:43 PM in response to mhunter

Thanks! I opened GarageBand and proceeded as you said. If the problem persists, I'll let you know.

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Answer 3

mhunter

Level 6

9,191 points

May 11, 2005 6:48 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

Hope that fixes it for you.

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Answer 4

May 12, 2005 1:38 PM in response to mhunter

I still haven't got the loudy buzz yet, but today I got the "blob" stuck sound thing. Odd.

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Answer 5

mhunter

Level 6

9,191 points

May 12, 2005 4:30 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

but today I got the "blob" stuck sound thing. Odd.

Interesting...

I don't know what to suggest on that one. If it were a PC, I could list a few quick fixes, but I haven't run into that problem on a Mac yet.

Hopefully someone else here might have a good suggestion as to where to start on that one.

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Answer 6

May 12, 2005 10:44 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

I get the buzz usually when i take a screenshot, or any UI sound. I dont know if its related to me playing iTunes at the same time im taking a screenshot or something. I hope this is fixed in 10.4.1

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Answer 7

May 14, 2005 7:58 AM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

I get that noise when I play a game called: world war ii online.

they provide the fix as such:

open audio midi setup and knock the format to 44100.0 hz

it did fix my buzz noise problem

however this was in 10.3

Tiger is FULL of bugs so.....

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Answer 8

May 24, 2005 7:53 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

I've had the LOUD buzz a couple of times in my iMac G5 20" while playing iTunes and only after installing TIGER. (Had the iMac since Nov. '04.) I can't get it to happen, but it sure can scare the ** out of me when I'm working late at night on some project.

Have not updated to 10.4.1 yet. Will try that and hope for the best...

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Answer 9

P Rocka

Level 1

129 points

May 24, 2005 9:17 PM in response to Christopher P

I had that load buzz happened to me as well! Only once so far and I can't remember if it was before the 10.4.1 update or not??

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Answer 10

May 26, 2005 12:36 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

Well, I have installed 10.4.1, and until now I didn't get the loud buzz, but the "blob" stuck sound thing just happened today. It doesn't happen often, so it doesn't really bother me. But I could figure it only happens when iTunes is playing and, for example, I send a msg in iChat. It seems the iChat sending message sound conflicts with the playing song, and it "gets stuck". I have to stop the song in iTunes and push play again so the sounds get back. Increasing or decreasing the volume doesn't bring the sound back, but it makes some weird "blob" noises every time I press a volume key in the keyboard.

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Answer 11

arm77

Level 1

25 points

Jun 3, 2005 9:43 AM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

This also happened to my iMac G5 after upgrading to Tiger. It's a loud buzz that makes you jump out of your seat.

I noticed that it happened in either iChat or Finder. I stopped using iChat and turned off "User interface sounds" in the Finder and haven't heard it since.

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Answer 12

Jun 28, 2005 9:48 AM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

I just got the buzz again! It scared me to death!

And yes, it's definitely something with using iChat while iTunes is playing. iTunes was playing and I was about to start a text chat with a friend. I double-clicked my friend's name on iChat and right after the text chat window opened I got the buzz.

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Answer 13

Jul 6, 2005 8:46 AM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

The sound got stuck again while I was listening to iTunes and a friend sent a file through iChat. As soon as the file transfer window showed up on the up right corner of the screen, the sound stopped coming from the speakers and the "blob" sounds were happening again. I paused and played iTunes and it came back.

Does anybody know any problems related to iTunes conflicting with iChat sounds?

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Answer 14

Aug 4, 2005 6:52 PM in response to Tadeu Magalhães

I also have had this happen a couple of times. It happened just now and I have iChat open and was listening to iTunes. Its pretty dangerous with headphones on. I can't remember if it happened before I updated to Tiger but I don't think so. Must be a Tiger issue.

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Answer 15

Aug 10, 2005 1:13 PM in response to Diane Mcdougald

Same problem here! It mostly happens when mail is finished and it signals that by a sound. Or when making a screenprint. In general when a program makes a short sound.

Also I discovered (related?) that directly after this problem in Activity monitor there is a line "CoreAudioD" with the error message saying "it does not react".

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