Silent Beige Tower

[zodraz]

This is really a puzzler for me. But to begin, here's the history.

Brand new Beige G3 tower (Rev-A board) purchased many moons ago.

After it's first year the sound slowly died. It became muffled and finally the startup chime made only a "chrrrck". Then complete silence.

I had a "tech" come in. He said he tried everything except replace the mother board. At that time, it was out of warranty; whilst replacement boards were only available from Apple at exorbitant prices. And since the machine was otherwise running fine I decided to not incur the cost.

This is an "company" machine, so it wasn't a priority and couldn't really be justified.

NOTE: The headphone  jack was also dead.

This machine has run faithfully (but silently) for many years.

Now let's ZOOM to the present!

Since at my company we can't just buy a computer (a "capital request" has to be made - in April, approved by a committee that has no knowledge of what we do; and who only use PCs; then maybe in September they'll order one), I needed to update this machine for one of our new editors to use.

I purchased a new "old stock" Rev-B board and swapped out the parts.

Booted it up – SILENCE.

I tried zapping PRAM, resetting the "CUDA", booting off a CD, then a ZIP disk. Even pulled out the "AV" board, and disconnected the CD, it's AV cable and the hard drive. I also pulled all the RAM and tried booting with each "stick" by itself.

Booted with and without extensions from HD and "boot disks".

Besides no sound, I can't move the audio slide controls off of "mute".

   Everytime I move the volume control (control strip or sound control panel) off of the "mute" side, it snaps back as soon as I release the mouse button!

I also put the processor in another Mac (PowerForce daughter card/ 8500) which had sound.

So, it seems that the only parts I haven't swapped, or disabled is the power supply, the Video RAM, the cache card and the powerconverter board.

Thanks!
     

[Bill]

Bumping this up so it doesn't get lost.
In the mean time till someone comes along,I'll throw in my 2¢
I'm sure you tried the most obvious checks first like speaker connection,speaker itself,dumping the sound preference etc correct.

[pendragon]

In the WAG Department, and since most everything else has been swapped out, have you tried changing keyboards? (I am hoping the Mute/Volume key(s) is stuck).

Harv

[Al]

You said you pulled the AV card, but have you replaced it?  Or just reseated it?  Sounds like something is wrong with the AV/sound card.

What OS are you using?  If a flavor of OS 8 or 9, forget if it has one, but, did you trash the sound preference file?

[kbeartx]

I agree with Al - my beige G3 DT once behaved precisely the same way and it turned out that the sound board (called a Personality Card by some) was not completely seated in its socket.  

Either that or it's fried - do you have another beige DT or MT to swap cards?  

If it does turn out to be bad, you can get them on eBay pretty cheaply.

 - kbeartx

[zodraz]

Thanks folks for the quick replys!

I booted the computer from a Norton SystemWorks disk (OS 9) and then from a ZIP "Rescue Disk" (using ZIP tools).

I booted the ZIP disk with the ATA cables pulled from the board (the internal ZIP is SCSI).

So the machine booted with different systems/prefs/extensions/etc.

The machine never made a sound – not even the startup chime!

The personality card IS a possibility. BUT I don't have another card. By the way, what is that slot? A PDS like those used in the old 68Ks and 601 PPC machines? I do have PDS cards from my 6100 parts bin.

I pulled the speaker and tried adjusting the volume (in case the speaker was shorted), but the controls acted the same weird way - snapping back to mute.

I can boot the machine without the personality card. And yes, it's silent. However, the speaker plugs into the motherboard, not the personality card, although the personality card has the audio out/in jacks.

One thing I can try is removing the internal modem card that's part of the personality card "module". I don't need it, and that's the only part I haven't "tested" via removale (except when pulled out with the personality card).

Thanks!
     

[zodraz]

pendragon,

Volume controls on the keyboard?

Ha! In all my years on the Mac I never knew! Which ones are those?

My new dual G4 has the extra keys specially marked.

Also, the machine had a different keyboard for awhile - and no sound of course.

     

[pendragon]

Zodraz,

Of my three machines, two have this keyboard muting/volume capability, but it is you said, the keyboards are marked. So, if you have no markings, I suspect the conclusions are obvious.

Because you can not move the volume control/slider off of Mute, I suspect the problem is SW related and lies with the sound control panel, preferences or some such. On the other hand, my record of late has left a bit (a very large bit) to be desired.

I suppose you ran TTP, Disk Warrior, or other utilities and all reported a clean bill of health...

Harv

[kbeartx]

QUOTE(pendragon @ Jun 26 2003, 9:33 AM)

Because you can not move the volume control/slider off of Mute, I suspect the problem is SW related and lies with the sound control panel, preferences or some such.

 When my G3's Personality Card was not well-seated, the Volume Control 'acted' exactly this way.

I cannot say for certain that a SW prob could not also cause this symptom, but in my direct, personal experience, this points to a HW prob.

You might want to remove the card and blow out the socket (using a can of compressed air) and / or swab it (and the card's contacts. too) with a Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol, in case there is some dust, dirt, minor corrosion, or debris preventing good electrical contact.

 - kbeartx

[snuffysbluff]

Try using an external speaker. Mine 'puter went silent and the external gave me sound again.
Your mileage may vary.

Gary B

[Gregg]

QUOTE(zodraz @ Jun 26 2003, 7:57 AM)

Volume controls on the keyboard?

Ha! In all my years on the Mac I never knew! Which ones are those?

 I once had a little add-on program that allowed me to set F keys to volume controls, among other things. When OS9 came out with the enhanced keyboard control panel, development stopped. I can't even remember the name of it. But it was a step down on that score when I upgraded to OS9. Before, I could use F5, Shift-F5 and Ctl-F5 for three different functions. No more with the basic OS9 capabilities.