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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications System
I noticed after the 10.3.8 update that all of my Non-Apple apps (i.e. Entourage, Excel, PSI (Jabber Client), Flash) lost sound. I got the startup chime, I could use the Volume Keys, but no sound. Finally I got on webchat with Apple and they had me shut down all non-working applications, then open GarageBand, play something, then open the apps again.

I now had sound. I rebooted later in the day and the same thing happened. So I followed the steps again, and once again, I had sound. I just wanted to post this to let others know the solution.
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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: Bartleby84 on Feb 18, '05 10:42:59AM

I don't know if this is related or not, but I found yesterday working with both QuickTime and VLC on my G5 that after switching to VLC, I loose sound in all my other applications. Turns out, VLC was switching the whole system over to using the optical sound out, which has nothing attached to it, and so after it did that I had to go into the Sound System Pref and switch it back to the built in speaker. Oh, VLC also had the option of picking which device it made sound with, but whenever I switched it over to built in as well, it crashed (first time a kernel panic even). I wonder if perhaps these issues are related?



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: golfbarefoot on Feb 26, '05 09:28:24PM

Oh my God!!

I just got of the Apple Chat with this exact issue after the 10.3.8 install and the guy told me to reinstall Mac OSX!!!

so I started backing up all my stuff, but before I did, i searched and found this site..

i tried the quikfix(opened GarageBand) and now everything is working again!!!!!

One im mas he told me to do that so non chalantly and two why is apple sending crap out like this?

what is the permanent fix??



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VLC No Audio-FIXED (kinda)
Authored by: clarkdv on May 15, '05 05:43:25PM

None of these other suggestions worked for me, 10.4, 1GHz Tibook, VLC 0.8.1.

I downloaded the Beta of 0.8.2 but the problem persisted. I then clicked the Audio menu, went to Audio Track and switched from Track 1 to Track 2. That did it.



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: Dirk! on Feb 18, '05 12:25:14PM

Hello,

great hint! It solved my problem too. The bug seems not to be restricted to non-Apple apps. On my fasther's iMac G5 iMovie, Quicktime and the game "Nanosaur" which came with the iMac are muted too since the upgrade to 10.3.8.

But starting GarageBand fixed his Problems too. Since the solution is from Apple, does that mean they are working on the bug?

Choosing a different audio output like USB audio helps too, but that is not an option most of the time.

Thanks!

Dirk



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: miles_thatsme on Feb 18, '05 01:57:52PM

I have had the same problem, and like the first comment in reply suggests, I would bet that the user has a mac with digital audio out ports (e.g. G5)--perhaps also with an iMic. I find that my output source selection sometimes does not 'stick', reverting to digital audio out as soon as I close the Sound Preference pane, after I have already selected an analog output source. This behaviour often occurs after using VLC. Selecting the third (analog) output source, closing the prefpane, reopening the prefpane and selecting the original (first) analog output source fixes the problem for me. It's annoying.



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Try the hidden Apple-provided utility, Audio MIDI Setup Utility
Authored by: steresi on Feb 18, '05 02:21:49PM

I've had sound problems before which affected both Apple and non-Apple programs. To fix them, I opened up the Audio MIDI Setup Utility, which is an Apple-provided program in my main Utilities folder. It has all sorts of settings which might help people. It's like a more detailed version of the Sound control panel in System Preferences. My particular problem was loss of stereo sound, so I had to select 2ch-16bit from a drop-down (and equalize the volume of the two stereo channels).



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: jfunkk79 on Feb 18, '05 04:50:14PM

I think the problem is that after the update the default sampling rate is changed to 96k in Audio/Midi Setup. Switching that back to 44.1k fixed the problem for me.



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: Dirk! on Feb 20, '05 09:10:08AM

Hello,

yes that seems to be the reason for my father's problem too. After booting the system the setting always gets back to 96kHz.
Above mentioned programs run only when 44kHz is selected.

Any ideas how to have the setting stick between system restarts?

Thanks,

Dirk



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A workaround for no sound in non-Apple applications
Authored by: Makosuke on Feb 18, '05 07:08:36PM

I've also noticed that when trying to play various types of video I've had something go wonky with the sound, effectively "muting" my G5 completely though it reported sound as being output. It definitely has something to do with QT Player, VLC, and perhaps only specific types of sound in a movie, but I have yet to figure out exactly what combination of things causes the issue.

I haven't checked the optical out that another poster mentioned, and that may well be what's happening--sound output switched to optical-only instead of analog out.

In my case, quitting VLC and QT Player and then opening and quitting iTunes generally seems to revive the sound, after which all of the above will run fine.

This has nothing to do with 10.3.8, though--it's existed through several previous versions--nor is it limited to Apple applicaitons, but I wonder if these aren't symptoms of the same issue.



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Wonky sound solutions
Authored by: Lectrick on Mar 08, '05 06:00:14PM

I had an issue where VLC would play ear-screeching speaker-killing sound, but only with certain movies. After quitting the app I'd lose sound till I played something in iTunes. Turns out that VLC on newer Macs (in my case a dual 2.5ghz G5) has an incompatibility with the AC3 audio format and the optical audio out (I believe), which I was using. If you download the latest beta of VLC, however, it fixes this issue!

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In /dev/null, no one can hear you scream



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