Problems w/ Mac Pro system audio routing

[ghobish]

I'm having a problem with my early 2008 Mac Pro 8 core 2.8 under 10.6.8. (Never had this problem until today.)

First, I am not having any problem sending audio from third party apps (Digital Performer, PT9, Peak, DSP-Quattro, etc.) to output on either of my Core Audio devices (MOTU PCI-424, Metric Halo 2882).

Starting today, I cannot send any system output to the internal speakers (I usually send system sound effects there), nor can I route audio from Apple ausio apps (Quicktime Player, iTunes) to either the internal speakers OR any Core Audio device. If I try to control speaker volume from the keyboard, I get an icon showing the "circle with the line through it" and no change on the graphic as I adjust volume.

The Sound control panel takes forever (well, close to a minute) to open or to react to any mouse click.

I tried trashing the (root) Library/Preferences/Audio folder, logging in as a new user, starting in Safe mode, restarting while resetting PRAM, re-installing the latest 10.6.8 Combo Updater. No help. The startup chime does sound.

It is not a hardware issue- I have a separate boot disk with Mountain Lion on this machine and when I boot from that all is well.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks-

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Anything from the headphone or Mac audio line out?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have a similar machine (3,1) but with a dual 3.2 processor. I was also having issues with the System Preferences taking a long time. Just a shot in the dark here, but have you run the maintenance routines? I use this:

http://www.giantmike.com/widgets/Maintidget.html

I am NOT giant Mike, BTW. I'm just plain, ole' fat Mike.

[ghobish]

I have a similar machine (3,1) but with a dual 3.2 processor. I was also having issues with the System Preferences taking a long time. Just a shot in the dark here, but have you run the maintenance routines? I use this:

http://www.giantmike.com/widgets/Maintidget.html

I am NOT giant Mike, BTW. I'm just plain, ole' fat Mike.

Good call, but yes I have. I have a feeling I'm going to have to either reinstall Snow Leopard (I wish the Archive & Install option was on the SL installer but it's not) or restore from a backup (except I don't want to overwrite all the files...)

I have been working off my Mountain Lion disk and it's OK (I haven't yet been able to discover any "advantage" in doing so), but I can't open PT9 (which I occasionally need for clients) in ML.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Can you install just the core audio stuff via Pacifist or a backup?

[ghobish]

Can you install just the core audio stuff via Pacifist or a backup?

Actually, there is no problem with core audio. It's system audio, stuff that relies on the Quicktime architecture.

It would be easier to figure out what I don't want to overwrite- address book, calendar, that kind of thing.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Good luck, bud. Sorry I am out of magic buwwetts.

[ghobish]

I did a restore from backup excluding several sets of extensions and preferences, and applications updated since the last backup. The problem did not clear. Then I redid the restore, but including all prefs and extensions, and the problem cleared. Reinstalled several drivers to cover the extensions.

All is now well.

(No, the problem did not occur directly after some driver or application install... something previously installed must have gotten corrupted.)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Maybe as simple as a plist? I am certain you then repaired permissions.... I just know you.

[ghobish]

Maybe as simple as a plist? I am certain you then repaired permissions.... I just know you.

Of course. Could have been, though I suspect a .kext file.