[gravydog]

Hi I am hoping you can help me.
I have no startup sound on my iMac.
I have no audio at all.
When I go into System preferences and sound settings, to choose anything, the Sound Input & Output boxes read "No Input/Output Devices found"
I try to open the Audio MIDI setup application, but it crashes.
I have NOT added any hardware to my Mac.
I reformatted the Hard Drive, and reinstalled Mac OS X 10.3, but the problems keep happening.
I did reset the PMU on the motherboard, but there was no change.
I reset the PRAM, also with no change.
Whenever I try to play a movie, using either QuickTime or the Finder's column preview, if the volume slider is turned up any, the Finder or QT crashes. If the volume is turned down all the way, the movie plays without any problems.
But...
whenever I burn a CD or DVD, the burnt CD or DVD HAS audio on it.
My guess would be something like Open Firmware ( I currently have 419f1)

iMac G3
500 MHz
640 MB SDRAM (128 MB pre-installed, 512 MB user-installed)
Mac OSX 10.3.8

[Nobody]

well, burning a CD/DVD doesn't actually involve your audio I/O circuitry ... a computer without any sound card could theoretically burn a CD/DVD, although i'm not aware of any such computers.
the fact that this keeps happening even after a clean install makes me suspicious of a hardware problem.
what kind of "crash" happens when you play a quicktime movie with sound? does it do a total system freeze? does it kernel panic? does it relaunch finder and spit out an error message?
also, try playing an audio CD and see what happens.

[Reboot]

Try an Open Firmware reset. Apple-Option-O-F at startup till you see the text screen. Then type the following and hit Return after each, it will reboot after reset-all;
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all
Boot from an OS 9 CD, do you have any sound then? You can go to the Sound Control Panel in the 9 System Folder on the HD when booted from the CD and see if it has any function. Also double click an Extension when in 9 so it throws up a dialog box. Click outside the box, does it make a noise or does the menu bar flash? If you plug in external speakers do you have sound?

[Nobody]

Gravydog, it could be a hardware problem like shrimppesto mentioned. My guess is you could do two checks to narrow down the cause. One check is to connect the mouse and keyboard to the main USB ports on the iMac. Try to use the iMac the way it had seem to cause the no audio effect. The other check is the RAM. Open the System Profiler and see if the RAMs are showing for the 256MB RAM and user installed 512MB RAM. The system could possibly run with 256MB RAM and if the 512MB is probably not seated correctly in the RAM without you knowing about the problem of the 512MB RAM. Reinstall the 512MB RAM, anyway. This could cause apps to crash when used. I would believed a fault found on either checks could cause no audio.
Edit: If your using a mouse other than Apple's, the mouse probably needs to be connected to the main USB port the Apple keyboard could not handle the power the third party mouse draws. Using the System Profiler and mouse and KB connected to the main USB ports, you could tell if the mouse needs to remain connected to the main USB port.

[gravydog]

Hi all. Here is some more info:
I tried booting from the OS9 CD-Rom, but it crashes while loading extension, and I get the white error box. This happened on all OS9 Cd-Roms (Software Restore, OS 9 Install).
I don't have OS9 installed on my hard drive.
The Apple Hardware Test CD loaded properly, I ran all the tests, and no problems were found.
I removed the mouse & keyboard & my 512 MB of extra Ram, and checked that the Apple installed 128 was properly seated, but no change.
I have also just noticed that using Safari or Firefox, when clicking a link for a media file (mpg, mov, mp3, etc.,) the web browser crashes.
When I try to play an audio file in iTunes or the Finder, it plays, but there is no sound.
I have Mplayer installed, and it plays .mpg files with no problem (except no audio), it doesn't crash like QuickTime does.
QuickTime & the Finder will play the first 1 or 2 frames, then crash and quit. Sometimes the pplication (QuickTime or Finder will freeze), and when I choose Force Quit, nothing happens. If I choose Force Quit 3 times, on the third time, the Application window will disappear, but the application doesn't quit, it will just say "Application Not Responding"
If I double click an .mpg file, or drag it to the icon in the Dock, I get the error code "The Application Cannot Be Launched -600"
The Crash Report box pops up, and has a list of:
Date/Time: 2005-03-13 17:24:04 -0600
OS Version: 10.3.8 (Build 7U16)
Report Version: 2
Command: Finder
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Version: 10.3.2 (10.3.2)
PID: 327
Thread: 5
Exception: EXCBADACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000000
com.apple.audio.CoreAudio
com.apple.QuickTimeMPEG.component
apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore
com.apple.CoreFoundation
com.apple.HIToolbox
com.apple.framework.IOKit
This is only a short list of everything included in the Crash Report.
But this has happened with every version 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, & 10.3.8.
I don't know. I'm no expert, but I'm stumped.
But, thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll try anything!
-

[Reboot]

If it happened through so many revisions might be hardware. Especially if you did a wipe and install on the drive.
When booting from the OS 9 CD hold down the Shift key when you get the smiley Mac till you see Extensions Off. Maybe that will boot it. If you still can't boot from 9 CD's that way then you probably have a logic board hardware malfunction of some kind.
Did you try plugging speakers or a headset in to see if you get sound out of iTunes?

[dcpics]

Have you tried plugging in external speakers or headphones to see if you get audio that way to see if it could be a speaker problem?

[gravydog]

I have plugged headphones into the headphone jack, but there was no change.
Also, I tryed booting from all of the OS9 CD-Roms, while holding down the shift key to turn off extension. The "Extensions Off" dialogue box came on, but then the white bomb box still came on, and froze.

[Reboot]

When you wiped the drive did you try the sound with 10.3 or did you update to 10.3.8 right away? Maybe removing the batery for an hour or so to fully reset the logic board. Is the battery good? 3.6v DC? Did you try the Open Firmware reset?
It's a stumper for sure.

[Nobody]

since the OS9 disk has the same problems, and since you've already reset the PRAM, PMU, and NVRAM (right?), then i'd say it sounds like a hardware problem. :-
you may want to call apple or take it to an apple store...?

[gravydog]

Hi again.
I will replace the battery sometime this week, and reset, refomat & reinstall everything again.
And if that doesn't work, I will take to the local authorized Apple repair center (which is something I don't want to really do too badly).
I am guessing it is maybe hardware related since nothing changed even though I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled the OSes 3 times.
Even if it is caused by hardware, do you think it would cause software problems, too?
Thanks again, everyone.

[Nobody]

HOW DID YOU MAKE OUT WITH THIS PROBLEM????
I have the exact same problem, although my iMac doesn't freeze or crash. I just have NO SOUND at all. I don't know what happened to the sound on my G3 iMac DV Indigo running OS 9.2.2 - THERE IS NO "GONG" SOUND HEARD AT STARTUP...there is just no sound at all period. I checked system preference under sound and mute was not checked, I tried trashing the sound preference file in the System Folder and still no sound at all from the headphones or the speakers, I checked the headphone jack itself - looks fine....I tried putting in a headphone, but don't get any sound out of the headphones either. I even rebuilt the desktop and zapped the PRAM using TechTool. I updated the firmware also. Any suggestions? I recently bought this computer from a gentleman who claimed the sound worked fine for him, but he had done a wipe of the hard disk and did a clean install to 9.2.2 ---- I borrowed a friend's "Griffin IMIC2 USB Audio Interface" and got sound out from that to some external speakers, but still nothing from the Mac's headphones or Mac's speakers.
I'm at a loss! I'm buying OS Tiger from Apple for my eMac, maybe I should install it on this computer also....Can this run Tiger? Any tricks to installing it??? Thanks for any help!
iMac G3 DV Indigo, 400MHz processor, 640MB RAM, DVD-ROM, Airport (wireless card), 74GB hard drive, Apple keyboard, Apple Pro mouse, OS 9.2.2, firewire ports