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namikun · Jun 26, 2004, 08:45 AM

All you fellow apple fans, please help!

I received my 500mHz icebook back from apple care this week. They exchanged my HD for a 40 GB HD. As the HD was clean except for the preinstalled OSX 9.1, I installed OSX Panther and various other apps I work with.

However, I soon realized that I couldn't use the built-in mic with ichat anymore, moreover it is not detected by OSX at all (checking the Sound panel in System Preferences).

The apple care repair report indicates that the microphone was exchanged together with the HD and other parts.

My first guess was that the mic simply was broken or not properly connected, however it works perfectly well under OSX 9.1!!!

When I called Apple Care this morning they suggested to reset NVRam and PRam which didn't help. Strangely, the mic worked for a couple of minutes after I reset NVRam and PRam the first time.

I was not able to get it back to work with the NVRam and PRam reset afterwards. (I even took out the battery and disconnected the power cord over night)

Moving the Cache Folder out of the main library before rebooting didn't help either; nor did logging in with a different user account change anything.

The Apple Care technician didn't know what else to do, either. I sent her my system profiler log and she promised to get back to me on Monday.

Does anyone have any idea what else I could try to get the mic working?
Is it an OSX issue or hardware related? Sound works fine with an external iSight connected.

Thank you for your help.

pat++ · Jun 26, 2004, 03:08 PM

How did you reset the NVRAM? cmd-option-P-R ? If so, try this :

Boot into open firmware (cmd-option-O-F) and type :

reset-nvram
reset-all

and see if it helps...

namikun · Jun 26, 2004, 05:47 PM

Originally posted by pat++:
How did you reset the NVRAM? cmd-option-P-R ? If so, try this :

Boot into open firmware (cmd-option-O-F) and type :

reset-nvram
reset-all

and see if it helps...

That's how I reset NVRAM.
I also added the line: set-defaults and
sync-nvram

didn't work

but thank you for your reply. highly appreciate it.

pat++ · 07:18 PM

You may want to try to reset the Power Manager (shutdown your iBook, and press the little button on the left, just above the mini jack).

Did you try a clean install?

namikun · Jun 27, 2004, 10:13 AM

I also reset the power manager...
unfortunately this didn't help either.

Thank you very much anyway.

PS
If it really is related to an OSX 10.3.4 update issue, maybe the issue will resolve with the next maintenance update ?

Detrius · Jun 27, 2004, 02:20 PM

Does it work under 9.1? If not, it's not a software problem.

Also, the Mic cable runs across the hard drive in the iBooks. They may not have plugged it back up correctly. It may have just been coincidence that it worked after the logic board reset.

namikun · Jun 27, 2004, 07:11 PM

Originally posted by Detrius:
Does it work under 9.1? If not, it's not a software problem.

Also, the Mic cable runs across the hard drive in the iBooks. They may not have plugged it back up correctly. It may have just been coincidence that it worked after the logic board reset.

It works under 9.1. It seems that the failing microphone is an 10.3.4 update issue. I stumbled over several posts on other sites with people experiencing the same issue with their G3 500 icebooks...

I really hope Apple will fix this bug, soon.

namikun · Jun 29, 2004, 01:16 PM

I just installed the latest update of Sidetrack (trackpad utility) and... boom, my microphone is recognized again.....

might just be a coincidence, but maybe it was this particular software that caused the microphone troubles.
I'll post again, if the problem comes back.

PS
Apple called me back today and said that the issue was not known to them and they suspect it was indeed a hardware defect. A box from applecare is on its way now...