Need help w/ iMac G3 No Sound

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MaxTek's picture
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Need help w/ iMac G3 No Sound

I have an iMac G3 500mhz Dalmation. It does not produce sound through the internal speakers. The headphone jacks on the front work perfectly.

Symptoms:

No Sound
No Bong
No change with zapping the pram
No change with extensions off
Everytime I restart the Sound control panel reverts back to the Headphone choice

I installed a brand new PRAM battery since it was dead. That didn't help.

I have removed all covers and see no visual problems with the speakers, sound board or speaker cables.

Any ideas?

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and the mute is NOT checked

and the mute is NOT checked

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Open it up and make sure the

Open it up and make sure the speaker cables are hooked up and not loose.

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Re: Open it up and make sure the

Open it up and make sure the speaker cables are hooked up and not loose.

Already opened up and that was the first thing I checked.

After I posted the question here I went Googling, further than before. I found a guy that had the same problem and he fixed it by swapping the small headphone board on the inside front of the mac.

I had a spare from an iMac parts unit and just installed it and restarted with a very nice loud BONG!!

The bad part looks perfect...apparently another issue with Dalmation era iMacs.

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Old Solder Cracks...

The problem is the solder on that board cracks with age and causes that problem. I have dealt with the same issue on many Indigo and Graphite models ranging from 400 to 600 mhz. Seems that with age and heat those ports will act up.

Dave

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Does that go for the other bo

Does that go for the other boards in the iMacs as well?

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I have an original Bondi

that doesn't have any such problem.

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any possibility that could ha

any possibility that could happen in a pismo. ive got sound, but no sound in! not from the mic or line in.

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Seems to be a slotload only problem...

I haven't had this occur on a trayload iMac. Probably because the dual headphone port on the front of the computer. That's where the solder weld is found to be failing. Most of them were used in a school setting, so they would be subject to more abuse than normal.

Sorry, can't answer the Pismo problem.

Dave

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Oddly similar issue . . .

crops up sometimes on my daughter's SL iMac, where the internal sound (speakers) won't play until we plug a set of headphones into the front jack, then unplug them, whereupon the internal speakers regain their voice.

Before using this 'reset' procedure, the OS thinks sound should be muted, and refuses to allow it to be unmuted. So my thinking is that somehow the headphone jack is (falsely!) communicating its being in use, and plugging/unplugging something in that jack resets the OS's awareness of what's what.

Maybe the headphone jack has a sensor contact or something that sticks or remains open. In any case, it might be an idea to pop out that headphone jack PCB and inspect the jacks and joints (as others have suggested.)

my $.02,

dan k

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