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why does my volume lag sometimes?

lucface

lucface

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 4, 2005
191
0
sometimes when i turn up or down my volume, it lags and doesnt respond in real time. the bar creeps slowly up (or down). its really dirty feeling. i dont like my 3 week old g4 acting like its a pc.
my friend and my bro both have the same prob.
 
If your iMac is just three weeks old, then I would give Apple a call. Or if you have a local Apple Store, I would take it there first. Often easier if it can be checked in person.
 
My pbook does that too, but usually only when doing intensive tasks, or having a lot of apps open. When the finder is the only thing running, its usually real-time or just shy of. if you a little light on the ram, that might be doing it, as I noticed a significant reduction in the delay of the volume (this actually goes for screen brightness and keyboard brightness) after adding more ram.

Edit- just saw your sig; you have loads of ram. if you're not doing anything processor intensive and this is happening, check your ram and make sure its functioning properly, and if it is, then i second wdlove, and contact apple.
 
If this helps, the Quicksilver in my signature now has photoshop cs, iMovie (rendering titles), iDVD, iTunes (playing music), and iChat (away). Pressing the volume up/down on the keyboard works fine and the bar moves in real time. Activity monitor shows that I have about 60MB of RAM left.

Looks like you do have a problem. When was the last time you did a clean install of your OS?
 
I'm on a dual 2.0 G5 PM, and I've also noticed the lag when changing the volume. When the computer is idle, there is no lag. However, when the processors are working hard (don't remember specifically which programs/tasks or how many) there is a lag. I say no problem with your machine. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it just makes sense that the volume would lag some when the computer is bogged down a little? How much lag would depend on how bogged down I would assume. Josh
 
I know exactly what you're talking about.. On the powerbook in my sig, with a gig of ram, this happens about 1 out of every 20 or so times, especially with the proc working or just waking up from sleep.

I think it's a Tiger problem though; I had panther installed on this, and it never happened.

Never happened on the iBook in my sig, until I upgraded to Tiger, and I've been using since Jaguar on that.

If it is a Tiger problem, hopefully it gets ironed out soon.
 
yep i think its a tiger problem also. i also have a prob with google and firefox sometimes. i think its tiger aswell. cause ive never had these lags before.
if i am working in two windows with, say 3 tabs in each or so, and i go from one window to the othe,r and click on the google search bar, i get the colorweel loading icon that gunks it all up for like 15-20 seconds before i can type anything in the field. and wile its bugging out, trying to load, i cant do anything within the browser at all.
 
All my macs since installing macos x or any kind do this,


I seem to remember reading, if the sound isn't used for a while the mac shuts down the audio systems, i could be wrong, as this is third hand info :)

This certainly goes with my experience, as if i have itunes running etc. it's fine
 
beige matchbox said:
All my macs since installing macos x or any kind do this,


I seem to remember reading, if the sound isn't used for a while the mac shuts down the audio systems, i could be wrong, as this is third hand info :)

This certainly goes with my experience, as if i have itunes running etc. it's fine
Click to expand...

Same here it seems to be a OS X thing, doesnt bother me though...

ShadOW :D
 
This is almost certainly a Tiger issue. I had my Powerbook with Panther installed and the response to volume up/down keypresses was instantaneous. However, with Tiger now installed, every so often the volume does lag (which is annoying). I think it'll be ironed out soon, hopefully with 10.4.2 whenever it arrives.
 
10.4.2 is here and................................ nope, still frikn lagn
its definately not a memory thing. i have over 1.5 gb still available and 23 meg not even being used at all and it still happens. i think its when the program starts running. if i havnt used it (volume control) for a bit then i try to crank it up its slowly climbs up even after my finger is of the key. but some times after, rite after, ill turn it down and it will be in real time from then on until i dont touch it for a wile. then it starts again.
 
Happens on my machine too. It seems that if you don't adjust the volume for awhile it unloads the volume control module and it takes a few seconds for it to load up again. Once it gets running it seems fine. I remember it happening on my iMac as well, but I can't recall if it was only with Tiger or if Panther did it, too.

Annoying, but not a big issue, imo. Hopefully they fix it eventually.
 
Mine sometimes lags on a PM G5 :eek:
Although that was before I upped the ram from 512 to 1536. Now it's only rare, depending what programs I am using.
 
My mini always lags, and it is very annoying. I just thought that was the way it worked, since this is my first ever mac. My son has an iMac G5, so I will have to try that on his machine, but I think he told me that his also lags (he's running Tiger, I'm running Panther). My pc was always instantaneous.
 
weird...I just began noticing this on my PB recently. When I wake it up from sleep, wait a few seconds, then try the volume, it does weird herky jerky things, some weird click noise, then after 5-6 presses it starts to function normally. Thought it was an issue with my PB...glad it isnt.
 
To clarify, if I press Volume UP twoce before seeing a response, then BOTH responses will eventually get handled after the computer finally "see" the first keypress. It does not seem to lose key presses, but it is slow responding to the first key press.
 
danny_w said:
To clarify, if I press Volume UP twoce before seeing a response, then BOTH responses will eventually get handled after the computer finally "see" the first keypress. It does not seem to lose key presses, but it is slow responding to the first key press.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have this too. It seems to me that I had it in both Panther and Tiger, but that when I first had my iBook, it was responsive even with several programs running, but now, it is not responsive unless there is very little running.... :(
 
I'm getting this problem too. Newest iBook, Tiger 10.4.2. I really hope this is fixed once 10.4.3 comes around. It isn't bad sometimes, but I really hate the fact that it does this. I hope it is being cause by Tiger and not my nice iBook baby.
 
Im pretty sure its the operating system. There has been a few problems since i installed Tiger. The lagging volume being on of them. another problem is the brightness button. I leave the screen on full bright but if i hit one of the brightness keys it goes straight to black.
 
beige matchbox said:
All my macs since installing macos x or any kind do this
Click to expand...
Same for me, I've used every version of OS X since DP4 and to my memory, all have had this problem. Did it on my old Sawtooth PowerMac, my Pismo, and does it now on my TiBook and dual G5 with 1.5 GB of RAM. Sometimes I can move the slider in real-time, sometimes it's horribly lagged, I can't pin down any particular situations where it's better or worse consistently.
 
yea i have this problem too. most of the time its when i'm using a lot of ram or processor intensive stuff. but it also happens just out of the blue too. hopefully 10.4.3 will fix it :D
 
add me to the list of annoyed listeners.

it happens to me usually if i havent been using the speakers or volume control for a while.

i usually hit the up/down key 3-5 times and it will register the first keystroke after a few seconds, followed by a pause (the volume bezzle almost fades out) and then it registers another keystroke.

during this lag sequence i generally hear some crackling, and sometimes it will snap out of it after it lags on a few keystrokes and i hear all of the 'volume change' sound effects at once. its really kind of loud and annoying when im wearing headphones.

i find that if i keep hitting keys (by keys i mean volume up/down), the lag sequence will take longer to break out of itself.

stupid computer. other than that i love it
 
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