Mac Mini Sound Almost Dead

[Laisha]

My Mac Mini's sound didn't exactly die, but it's as if it's on extremely low volume. I have to really, really strain to hear.

Facetime is worse though. I can't hear a danged thing. Nor can the person on the other end of the line. (This might or might not be the same problem.)

I went into System Preferences and checked, and it is on Maximum.

I have two LG Wide monitors, each apparently with speakers, but they are both greyed out when I select them in System Preferences.

Any ideas for a fix?

 

[jerwin]

time to poke around Audio Midi Setup? It's in /Applications/Utilities

You may be able to get the LG speakers working, too.

https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/audio-midi-setup-your-macs-secret-sound-manager

 

[DeltaMac]

Is the volume extremely low, even through headphones?

Have you tried an NVRAM reset?
Restart, holding Option-Command-p-r.
You should hear the boot chime.
Keep holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys for a normal boot.

 

[adam9c1]

Take out the audio cable. Does it play ok via the built in speaker?

Plug in headphones.

Perhaps the audio cable and/or jack is bad.

 

[Laisha]

time to poke around Audio Midi Setup? It's in /Applications/Utilities

You may be able to get the LG speakers working, too.

https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/audio-midi-setup-your-macs-secret-sound-manager

Wow! Thanks. That was helpful! I would never have tried it due to the MIDI fakeout in the name.

LG speakers still don't work, but the internal Mini speakers do. (I think the LG speakers don't work because of the HDMI cables. (I read that it's a problem in several forums.) Anyway, sound output is good.

But now, the mic isn't working. Not sure if it's because of the Audio Midi thing or not. God knows, I poked around enough places that it could have messed the mic up.

Any fixes for that? Or should I start another thread?
[doublepost=1515025916][/doublepost]

Is the volume extremely low, even through headphones?

Have you tried an NVRAM reset?
Restart, holding Option-Command-p-r.
You should hear the boot chime.
Keep holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys for a normal boot.

I did the NVRAM reset before I posted here, but tried it again just for the heck of it.
[doublepost=1515026035][/doublepost]

Take out the audio cable. Does it play ok via the built in speaker?

Plug in headphones.

Perhaps the audio cable and/or jack is bad.

Would that work for the microphone.

 

[jerwin]

I use an imac-- so refresh my memory-- what microphone?

 

[Laisha]

I use an imac-- so refresh my memory-- what microphone?

Doh! I forgot details...again.

Any microphone I have connected to my Mac.

The original red flag was when my web cam microphone suddenly stopped working. I figured it was just old, so I tried another one. Same problem. Then I took one from my husband's office. Still no sound.

So I clicked on the sound icon and it took me to System Preferences which shows what the input and output devices are. No problems there with either input or output.

(I hope that explained it..)

 

[jerwin]

is this microphone connected via usb? or the analogue port?

 

[Laisha]

is this microphone connected via usb? or the analogue port?

No. The mike jack.

 

[DeltaMac]

Ah, so that's not actually your sound volume OUTPUT, but the audio that comes from the microphone.
And, you can barely hear what is spoken into the microphone (as well as whoever needs to hear that audio, such as when having a conversation through Facetime)?

That makes sense now.

If you are using the analog mic jack for input, you probably need to use a microphone that has line-level output, not mic-level. Macs have seldom been able to use a standard low-level mic through the older analog microphone input jack, and the volume produced through that hardware will be too low. You need a line-level mic (one that is advertised to be Mac-compatible is a good start). Or, use a mic that plugs into the USB port, which will naturally be a much higher volume for throughput.
More info here - www.mac-microphones.com/desktop/mac-mini-mic.html