Mac Forum / General / Hardware / January 2008

My PowerMac PowerPC G4 (white half dome shaped) recently developed a
very annoying problem... the Apple Pro speakers stopped working. This
led to much poking around and swearing. I tried sacrificing an old 486
chip to it, but that didn't help either.

What I've found is the following:

1. If the Apple Pro speakers are plugged in to the mini-jack, no sound
comes out of them.
2. At that point, even if I unplug the speakers, no sound comes out of
the internal speakers either.
3. If I restart the unit (not shut down) after the speakers have
stopped working, the speakers continue to not work.
4. If I shut down the unit and then power back up, the internal
speaker starts working as long as the Apple Pro speakers are not
plugged in.
5. As soon as the Apple Pro speakers are plugged in again, all
speakers (internal and Apple Pro) stop working.

So, do you think it is the speakers or the sound card?

Dave Scruggs
Captain, Boulder Creek Fire
Sr. Software Engineer, Lockheed Martin