I have a Powerbook G4 17" and had the "no sound" problem. I reinstalled the OS but that didn't fix the problem so I took it to the Mac Store and they thought its the "Soundboard" and was going to cost me $120 including labor and the cable for the soundboard. So I decided to unplug and plug the soundboard to see it will fix the problem before paying the $120. Once I opened it I saw the cable for the soundboard was unplugged so I plugged it back in and the sound started working. I have no idea how the cable inside came unplugged since I hadn’t even used the machine in a month or so. And before that I didn’t have any symptom of this.

I found a good guide to replace the soundboard: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/PDF/55/P...Sound_Card.pdf

For me it was the cable on the top left picture so I didn’t have to go pass that step :) Goodluck

Moving towards Cracking the case
 

Thanks for the tip man,

I dug up the original OS Disk and booted... no sound.

2 to go and then I'll open her up. The display hinge is very 'gritty' and loose so I'll have to fix that too. My big problem is that Illustrator on my new MacBook Pro is crashing all the time so I'm still relying on this machine to get me through some jobs.

Plus my kid has lost my mini-screwdriver set.

I'll say this... a few times I had the headphones in (over the years) and I either stood up and gave the port a good yank, or caught the flex in my arm and pulled the plug out in a sickening way (if you know what I mean)... so I wouldn't be surprised if the port had enough abuse and surrendered.

G

Hello friends, am from switzerland
 

I found a solution in a german board.

Seems that its a well known problem for Apple.

Its a problem there where you put the headphones!!!

Sometimes he clicker inside the place where you put the headphones is not moveing.

The solution: Put your headphones again inside,now go with the finger up the place where the headphones are, press alittle bit down and drive the headphonesticker left right a little forced, but not so hard to brake it, then put fast the headphone again out et voila the sound is back;)

peace

#23- Thanks for the tip. I was about ready to try taking apart my PowerBook to see if the sound card wire was disconnected. But I tired your suggestion. It took several attempts, but it worked! The "internal speakers" choice had been missing for several days, and after wiggling the headphone cord (pushing down gently and then miggling from side to side) the speakers became accessible again. Thanks you for saving me some time (and agony)!

Hey ghensey, what exact motions did you use? Did you press hard inward and then wiggle it side to side?

I got this problem a couple of days ago on my PB G4 1.67Ghz (no sound on my internal speakers, only through headphones).

possible fix
 

I found this forum when I needed a solution to the very problem folks here are discussing. I have an aluminum G4 Powerbook and lost sound when I tried to connect a new pair of external speakers.

There are two jacks on the left side of the laptop. By accident, I plugged the speakers into the left jack, the one closer to the power adapter, and that's when I lost all sound even after I removed the jack. I rebooted (silently, alas), checked prefs, ran diagnostics, went a little mental, and still nothing. Then, realizing my mistake, I plugged the speakers into the jack on the right, the one closest to the front of the computer next to the card slot. That brought the sound back. I unplugged the externals just to make sure and was happy to here sound coming from the computer speakers.

I don't know why the computer went totally mute just because the plug was inserted into the wrong jack but mine did. I hope everyone's problems can be solved this easily. Best to you all.

no sound problemo
 

Thank you, very much!! This solution fixed my 'No Sound Problem' on the 2nd go.

It still worries me how this happened? And how to avoid it in the future...

A bit like Fonzie fixing the juke box.

Solution!
 

I found a temporary solution to this problem! I was having the same problem - my G4 sound preferences would read "headphones" even when none were plugged in. So I came to this forum to look for an answer, which I never found it. But then I started doing some experimenting and found a solution!

Simply take your headphones or any device that works in that port and push it in and pull it out over and over. After a few times, the sound should change to "internal speakers" again! I would recommend playing some audio while doing this so you can also hear when it finally works.

I suppose it has something to do with the hardware, but it works in the mean time.

I, too, suffered from the "disappearing sound" problem on my G4 recently. I discovered the problem was that the "mute" button had been activated at some point. I felt pretty stupid when I FINALLY noticed it in the sound control panel. This is something the system did all by itself ... kind of like when the system will change the sound balance all by itself ... something I have experienced on another of my G4's.

May by update software? Check for new versions.

Just for the records, can the internal speakers in Powerbook be upgraded with better sounding one?

The standard one sounds a bit pants to me. :rolleyes:

If you can find speakers with the same specs (ohm rating) and the same size, you should have little problem changing them out. I doubt though, that you'd see much difference in output quality.

Got a fix for the lack of sound
 

Try taking the preference pane out of the library>preferencepanes folder dump it in the trash and then restart.

Seemed to work for me.

17" G4 Powerbook running 10.5.1:)

Sorry Trevor, this is a bit late, but, for completeness... I'd forgotten all about this 'cos I no longer have that machine but, from memory: the user (new or otherwise) made no difference, there's no sound with any app or source, the sound's not muted - the symptoms are those of broken hardware or wrong drivers, and either seemed plausible with a s/h logic board which differs from the original. I didn't try a clean install because on that particular machine, lack of sound was an inconvenience rather than a show-stopper, I was using it for logging still images.

Sound problem
 

I am having a similar problem with disappearing internal speakers. I have a Powerbook 1.5 GHz G4 laptop, with 15" screen, purchased Feb. 2005. I had no problem with the sound until recently, when I installed Mac OS 10.5 and soon after, installed some software updates (now running Mac OS 10.5.2). Upon restart, the speaker icon on the top menu bar disappeared and audio functionality was completely gone. When I looked in System Utilities/Sound, the internal speakers had vanished. I restarted the computer and the sound came back.

Unfortunately, nowadays the internal speakers disappear half of the time whenever I turn the laptop on. Sometimes it disappears when the computer has been awakened from a long period of sleep. Restarting from the menu doesn't help get it back - I have to shut down the computer entirely and then turn it back on manually (with the power button) to get the sound to come back.

I have tried switching AudioMIDI settings to 44100 kHz but no difference. Also tried the unplugging/replugging of headphones as well, but that didn't help. I rarely use headphones, and have never plugged in any other external audio devices.

Does anyone have any suggestions/solutions?

Found this interesting tip in a diff post. Try launching GarageBand, then rebooting. So far it's worked for me.

Powerbook 17-G4 1.33

Let you know after it wakes-up from a long sleep if it has been resolved.............

timemachine
 

hey guys,

Had same audio issue on my 15" PowerBook G4 after updating to 10.5.3 but only when I was at home not at work.

I worked out the only difference was that I didn't have my lacie drive plugged in which I use for timemachine.

After turning timemachine off and restarting, audio works fine. Not quite sure what the root problem is but will report it to Apple.

Cheers,

Jon

I've had this problem on a PowerBook with Tiger, and it is definitely appears related to audio hardware. The way I experienced it was that if playing sound continuously, especially a movie, the sound might start dropping out and then the audio completely goes silent. Like others in this thread, I found it can be reset simply by plugging something into the headphone port, until it happens again. It isn't a question of the port being worn, because I don't use it that often. It isn't a question of software updates, because in my case at least, the OS is always kept up to date.

One time I didn't have anything nearby to plug in, so I tried gently fishing around in there with a toothpick, and lo and behold, the sound came back. So there may some kind of intermittency in the components making up that particular subsystem of the audio hardware.

Powerbook 17-G4 1.67 (low-res) os 10.5.5

Same problem but I definitely don't think it's hardware because I still have the chime at startup.

Launching GarageBand, then rebooting works most of the time for me, (once, just by launchig GB the sound came back, without rebooting)