how to solve greyed out volume control

The headphone trick worked for me too! I am running 10.6.8 on a 2009 Macbook Pro. I tried all of the other options described in this thread to no avail. My computer randomly got the greyed out volume control after a reboot. Appreciate the tip on plugging in to fix it!

Thicot01 wrote:

Finally, I fixed it and so far so good.

What I did is:

Open a console and type in :

sudo chown -R _coreaudiod:admin /Library/Preferences/Audio

This will fix permissions.

Then type in:

sudo update_dyld_shared_cache -force

This will clear and rebuild dyld (dynamic linker)

And finish with:

sudo killall coreaudiod

To restart the audio daemon. The sound should come back instantly and keep working on reboot.

Tried loads of other methods and this have solved the problem permanently for 3 restarts so far!!

I'm unclear how to Type into the Console.

I've tried the first two fixes on this strand to no avail. I've opend the Console and don't see where/how to type in the message you specify. Is it meant to be the Terminal rather than the Console? I'm very marginal in my understanding of the backend of computers, so, super clear, specific directions would help a great deal.

Thanks so much!

What people meant by Console, is actually the Terminal Window, under utilities.

I fixed it finally, after the 3 coreaudiod commands, and the headphone trick, by sequentially playing music over headphones, than Airport, and finally Internal Speakers. Voila, the icon stays black, playing through the macbook speakers.

Incidentally, the 10.8.5 update solved this issue.

My issue was due to the Display link driver because apparently osx didn't have a proper usb 3.0 audio driver implementation, and DL used it.

It Was supposed to be an expected fix in the update, and seems to work for me.

Haven't had and issue since. Remains black.

Before I'd have to manually quit core audio each time.

Lots of suggestions here that seem to have helped some people. Unfortunately, not me. My old MacBook Pro died and our IT department swapped it for another (with my current disk moved to the new MBP). This MBP has the sound icon greyed out and there is no sound, unless I plug in headphones. With headphones plugged in, it plays sound through the headphones, and the sound icon is there, and the sound controls work. Unplug the headphone and nothing.

When headphones are plugged in, option-clicking the sound icon says "Output device: headphones". When unplugged, it says "Output device: digital out".

emailboy wrote:

My old MacBook Pro died and our IT department swapped it for another (with my current disk moved to the new MBP).

Was that the same model MBP as your old one? If not, the OS on the old HD may not support all the hardware in the new MBP.

You might try resetting the SMC, but I'm not sure it would affect the internal speakers: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Yup, same (early 2011) model. Had to be to keep my 10.6.8 and apps running. I tried resetting the SMC and the PRAM and everything else (deleting prefs, etc.) before posting, to no avail.

What finally did work was just plugging and unplugging a pair of headphones over and over. I may try a blunt toothpick or compressed air if it happens again.

I had this problem too, and it's solved after 2 PRAM reset. After the first one, nothing hapend, but it;s fixed afteher the 2 atempt. thx leroydouglas

First try this and it worked for my MBP running OSX.

This happens when your digital audio out has switched on. You can insert a plastic toothpick (or a fine sewing needle) in the headphone socket/hole and try and switch it off. The switch should be at the 3 o'clock position and go towards the 6 o'clock position.

🙂

Nostradamus wrote:

First try this and it worked for my MBP running OSX.

This happens when your digital audio out has switched on. You can insert a plastic toothpick (or a fine sewing needle) in the headphone socket/hole and try and switch it off. The switch should be at the 3 o'clock position and go towards the 6 o'clock position.

🙂

Yes! Worked for me. Thanks

This seemed to work for me, despite the fact that I got the following errors/messages when running

sudo update_dyld_shared_cache -force

Errors in terminal:

update_dyld_shared_cache: warning, found two dylibs with same install path

update_dyld_shared_cache[467] updating x86_64 cache because current cache file contains a different set of dylibs

update_dyld_shared_cache failed: in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iLifeMediaBrowser.framework/Versions/A/iLifeM ediaBrowser can't find dylib /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/CoreGraphics

Update: I'm actually still experiencing the sound cutting out every once in a while as I'm using headphones.. Maybe it has to do with these errors?

That must have been my issue. No PRAM reset or dylib fix (mentioned above) worked. I decided to see if my headphone jack might work. As I brought the jack close to the hole I saw red light, then I stuck in headphone jack and headphones worked and menu-bar speaker icon turned black. I unplugged the headphones and it was still black. I do remember seeing Digitial Audio Out was specified for the Output when looking at the Sound System Preference. Now it says Internal Speaker. How would that have been activated? The only thing I can think of is I plugged in an old iSight (side effect of plugging in an external ACD with iSight connected).

work for me. thanks!!!!

Fixed it by connecting my headphones and then ejecting them. Thanks!