may-annw

Q: Mac makes really loud noise even though volume is low?

Hello! This is my first post here, so if I submitted wrong or anything, please tell me, and I'll change it! (:

 

So my iMac is about 5-6 years old. And today, when I went to play an audio post on the social media site Tumblr, it made a really loud noise, almost like I had turned the volume up really high. Except it wasn't. It was really low; only about 4 of those little volume bars that you get when you hit the keyboard's volume down key. Furthermore, I had something playing softly in the background, too, so I know that it wasn't that my volume was actually turned up.

 

This happened before on an older Macbook--when I went to delete a file that I had downloaded, the trash sound played much, much louder than it should have been capable of and did so when the volume had been muted.

 

If there's any way to fix this or anything wrong with my computer, please tell me! Thank you.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 1, 2016 11:03 PM

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Q: Mac makes really loud noise even though volume is low?

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  • by seventy one,

    seventy one seventy one Aug 1, 2016 11:48 PM in response to may-annw
    Level 6 (15,098 points)
    Peripherals
    Aug 1, 2016 11:48 PM in response to may-annw

    Hello may-anna,

     

    And welcome to the forums.   I strongly advise you to make an appointment at your nearest Genius bar and take the machine in for assessment.   As far as I can recall, symbolic sounds like trash, mail sent etc are only adjustable within the sound option. 

    But it is odd that you have had such an unusual problem with two machines; have you been into Systems preferences and checked out the settings there.

  • by may-annw,

    may-annw may-annw Aug 2, 2016 8:43 AM in response to may-annw
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 2, 2016 8:43 AM in response to may-annw

    Hello,

     

    Okay, I will probably do that. But it really is not something to do with necessarily symbolic sounds; it also happened when I tried to play an audio post on Tumblr, something that isn't specific to Macs at all (since it is a social media site, after all). And these pretty much only happen once in a blue moon, so I'm honestly not sure what it is. Maybe something is wrong with my computer, maybe not. I'm not sure.

     

    Thank you!

  • by seventy one,

    seventy one seventy one Aug 2, 2016 9:47 AM in response to may-annw
    Level 6 (15,098 points)
    Peripherals
    Aug 2, 2016 9:47 AM in response to may-annw

    I still think you need to check it out in an Apple store.    Can you repeat the problem on either machine when you want to, to show to the Apple people what is happening.   Are the old iMac and the (even) older Macbook synced?

  • by may-annw,

    may-annw may-annw Aug 19, 2016 9:17 PM in response to seventy one
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 19, 2016 9:17 PM in response to seventy one

    Sorry for the late reply. I can't repeat the problem on either machine if I tried; as I previously stated, the sounds only occurred once on both machines... So they happened once in 10 years for my laptop, and once in 8 years for the computer; they're rare occurrences. And nope, they aren't synced.

     

    Thank you!