New iMac (9,1, March 09) headphone jack works, speakers do not

Just a thought, as I once was a field service tech for macs about ten years ago: do you have individual software volume controls just for the speakers, by any chance? Are all the speaker controls et according to how the user manual settings say should produce speaker sound? And I assume that if these are external speakers that you have a cable hooked up for them? Those items burned me once each in the field, so I felt I had to ask! Sorry if this seems silly, but it happens.

^set for et

good question, because it's always good to check the obvious stuff first. I have all my speakers set to max, and I've made sure everything is unmuted in sound properties. I've hooked up headphones and the sound plays fine. If I unplug them I don't get sound out of my speakers.

Hi,

Please try this procedure:

Step 1: Open Terminal from "Applications->Accessories->
Terminal"

Step 2: Run the following commands (copy/paste each command into the Terminal and then hit <enter>)

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Add these 2 lines to the end of the alsa-base file:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

# Add the following line at the end of the options file:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

Step 3: Reboot pc and retest sound.

Step 4: If audio output still does not work, then try replacing model=<MODEL> with one of the following <MODEL> values (for example: 3stack-6ch):

 ALC883/888
   3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
   6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
   3stack-6ch 3-jack 6-channel
   3stack-6ch-dig 3-jack 6-channel with SPDIF I/O
   6stack-dig-demo 6-jack digital for Intel demo board
   acer Acer laptops (Travelmate 3012WTMi, Aspire 5600, etc)
   acer-aspire Acer Aspire 9810
   medion Medion Laptops
   medion-md2 Medion MD2
   targa-dig Targa/MSI
   targa-2ch-dig Targs/MSI with 2-channel
   laptop-eapd 3-jack with SPDIF I/O and EAPD (Clevo M540JE, M550JE)
   lenovo-101e Lenovo 101E
   lenovo-nb0763 Lenovo NB0763
   lenovo-ms7195-dig Lenovo MS7195
   haier-w66 Haier W66
   3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
   6stack-dell Dell machines with 6stack (Inspiron 530)
   mitac Mitac 8252D
   clevo-m720 Clevo M720 laptop series
   fujitsu-pi2515 Fujitsu AMILO Pi2515
   auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

Regards,

Mark

Thanks Mark, but unfortunately I couldn't get any of those to work.

The jack worked in every case, the speakers did not.

I did some more troubleshooting and found something interesting

aplay -l
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC885 Analog [ALC885 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC885 Digital [ALC885 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The device, ALC885 is different than ALC 883. When I first did aplay -l, it was on a fresh install of Intrepid Ibex, before any updates. I ran the update manager and now I'm being told that I have an ALC885. Do you have a list of the options for that sound chip?

Also, what is the difference between modprobe.d/options and modprobe.d/alsa-base ?

Hi,

Please try one of the following options for /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base and /etc/modprobe.d/options:

 ALC882/885
   3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
   6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
   arima Arima W820Di1
   targa Targa T8, MSI-1049 T8
   asus-a7j ASUS A7J
   asus-a7m ASUS A7M
   macpro MacPro support
   mbp3 Macbook Pro rev3
   imac24 iMac 24'' with jack detection
   w2jc ASUS W2JC
   auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

 /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base only allows configuring sound module options

 /etc/modprobe.d/options allows configuring lots of different types of kernel modules, not just the sound kernel modules

Regards,

Mark

Thanks Mark, but unfortunately that second list of options didn't work. I still get sound only from my headphone jack and not the speakers of the iMac. I (tirelessly) tried every option in the first and second list in 8.10, and 9.04 Beta.

I appreciate your help, any other ideas?

Hi,

I recommend filing a bugreport for this at https://bugs.launchpad.net/

Regards,

Mark

I have the opposite problem. I have sound from my internal speakers and if I try to play sound from the headphone jacks, it does nothing. The sound continues p laying from the internal speakers and nothing comes out from the external speakers.

Any idea?

I forgot the leave the lspci -v information about it:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Apple Computer Inc. Device 00a0
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
 Memory at 90600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
 Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
 Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
 Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel <?>
 Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link <?>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

Thank you.

Hi Marc,

Please create a separate thread for your issue.

Thanks,

Mark

This guide provided me with a solution to the internal mic issues I had with my iMac 8,1 24'' with the same chipset as you have: http://idebian.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/24-imac-alsa-configuration/

I added: options snd-hda-intel model=mbp3 to /etc/modprobe.d/options and rebooted.