G3 Sound Card -- problems outputing sound

monokitty · Jan 4th, 2003, 02:58 PM

I have a Beige G3 with the standard sound card installed in the Comm slot. In the mini-jack hole, I have my external speakers plugged into. However, for some reason, quite often the left speaker will NOT produce sound but the right speaker will. A quick unplug and plug back in of the cable running into the mini-jack will fix the problem and the left speaker will produce sound. I know it's not the speakers fault, as I tried this with 3 sets of speakers and all had the same problem -- only the left speaker not producing sound. Is the sound card at fault here?

The speakers also create static noises and interference with each other despite being magnatically shielded. Again, this static interference only happens when plugged into the G3 -- when in the G4/400, no problems arise -- no left speaker problems or static noises.

Peter Scharman · Jan 4th, 2003, 03:24 PM

It's a guess, but you may have a speaker jack problem. They're not very robust (like a mini headphone jack) and can have dirty contact problems. Short of a professional cleaning, the best you can do is spray a bit of contact cleaner (you can use WD40 as a substitute) onto the plug and work it in and out of the jack a number of times to try and clean up the contact area. If this doesn't work, there may be a broken solder connection at the jack...simple for any technician type to fix. Try the easy fix first and let us know what happens.