Mac Mini sound goes to zero on its own.

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Level 1

14 points

Mac Mini sound goes to zero on its own.

I have had my mini since 2009. This issue has happened intermittantly since I got it but has happened several times in the last while. The sound output goes to zero. On it's own. I go into system preferences to sound and slide the bar back to my desired level and all is ducky until it happens again. I suppose I should have spoken to Apple about this when Applecare was still in play but it did not happen much. Silly me. Any ideas about the cause? I am guessing this is mobo related and a cure will be costly. If I go that route.

I run a line out of the headphone jack that splits to my amp and a set of headphones.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 1, 2012 4:43 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,453 points

May 1, 2012 11:52 PM in response to mykeymac

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Accounts, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does Sound work in the new account?

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Answer 2

mykeymac Author

Level 1

14 points

May 2, 2012 3:39 AM in response to BDAqua

As I posted above,this is an intermittant problem.Ergo, it does not happen all the time. I have sound now. There is no specific circumstance that brings it on as as far as I know.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,453 points

May 2, 2012 6:30 PM in response to mykeymac

Next time it happens... Open Audio Midi Setup in Applications>Utilities, see the input & output options & KHz setting there, some things will change it for their own use, then not set it back.

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Answer 4

mykeymac Author

Level 1

14 points

May 4, 2012 3:54 AM in response to BDAqua

This still does not answer why it happens. And,as I mentioned previously,going in to Preferences/Sound and sliding the level back up solves the problem . I opened up Audio midi and it is using the built in output at 44100.Hz with a value of 0.712 and db at -10 which means very little to me. And I am not an audio idiot. Still learning about the mac after three years though.

For the record, the only audio app I've used is Garageband to record some voice overs. Other than that FCP and iMovie but not in a while. Odd,too,that I have found no one else with this issue.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,453 points

May 4, 2012 9:57 PM in response to mykeymac

Well, it was just a shot at a possibilility.

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, trash these files...

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

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

Reboot.

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