Internal mic stopped working on my 27/2010

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Level 1

8 points

Internal mic stopped working on my 27/2010

Probably asked a lot ...But none very technical.

Need far more reasoning before I open my machine.

For some reason, the internal microphone has stopped working on Snow Leopard. I iChat mainly, and has been flawless up till now.

Reset PRAM, SMC blah blah.

The line input works ok (mic in) in syspref using headphones as a mic (heads are a basic mic, so no need for you to have a microphone).

This maybe specific to hardware, possibly the actual mic socket? A loose cable or line connector, rare, I think. Has anyone come across this?

MMB

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2T/8Gb - MBP17/500G/4Gb

Posted on Dec 3, 2012 4:28 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,158 points

Dec 3, 2012 5:35 PM in response to MyMacBytes

There is a micro switch inside both the Audio Input and Output jacks that sometimes gets stuck. The switch is used to switch from Internal Input to External Input and if indeed is stuck, then you will not get any input from the Internal Mic. Once in awhile it can be unstuck by plugging in a mini jack plug, jiggling, twisting and unplugging. If not then the iMac will need to be taken in for service.

Also note that, the Audio Input Port is for amplified (Line Level) devices such as iPods, Stereo Receivers, etc. and it will not pickup the weak signal from an un-amplified microphone.

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