Powered Computer Speakers - No Sound

Power surges kill electronics. They often fail on turn-on. The chips are generally pretty generic and not too hard to find, but if it's more than the chip you've wasted the time and money on the chip. And remember - JBL - Junky But Loud ( what all the local audio engineers call them)

What is the number on the chip? Likely something like an LM4732 or a tda2822

Reply to
clare
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I sort of thought about a power surge......

The output chip is under the tin heat sink, and that is soldered to the board. So I cant read the numbers. The preamp chip looks like it's BA455B. I.m old, so my eyes are not that good anymore. That alone would make it hard to remove and solder in a new chip. On top of that, Ebay has many speakers of a similar type for $10 or less, with free shipping.*NEW* (Buy it Now). Or for around $20 I can get a pair with a subwoofer added. By the time I get the chip(s), I'd probably pay that much, and there is no guarantee it would work. So, I'm just going to salvage the speakers themselves and toss the rest of it. (I'll save the

12vdc wall transformer too). No sense wasting anymore time on these when I can get new ones for around $10. I hate tossing stuff that can be fixed, but this is not worth my time or the money.

I looked on Craigslist too, but nothing was nearby. No sense burning $20 or more for gas to drive many miles either.

At least I now know that it's the board itself that's shot, and there is no sense messing with it anymore.

I should mention that these speakers always were staticy. When there was no music playing, I always heard some static noise and even some popping sound, which got annoying at times. Kind of makes me think a part was failing. I'd suspect a bad capacitor more than anything, knowing the problems caused by caps these days. And when it died, it killed both channels too.

Reply to
RealPerson

Remember the "J" of JBL.

Reply to
clare

That was certainly a problem in XP. I posted in the XP group about the .wav sound getting muted several times even though I did nothing. It turned out to have something to do with closing Skype. iirc

But that's why I asked about the OS. With Vista and higher, double click on the speaker in the systray and you can see the volume going up and down in the little box that opens.

In addition, right click on the speaker and open up Playback Devices. Each device has a volume/amplitude meter, but only one will show sound. If he's lucky, that will be the one that has the speakers plugged into it, but that's not guaranteed. If somehow it changed to other output, no sound will come out of the speakers.

Reply to
Micky

I bought these a couple months ago for my PC. Replaced a set twice as big and with a big separate sub-woofer. Really cleared up my desk.

formatting link

They are USB powered, have good sound. Heavy metal cases, but small. About 5x5. 2 1/2 wide. Sub-woofers have good bass.

And I bought these a couple weeks ago, for my wife's PC.

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They are powered by AC, and also have good sound. Plastic cases, light, and about half the size of the other ones. No sub-woofer.

I can recommend both of the above. The first one is better to my ears because of the sub-woofers. You can read the reviews on both.

Reply to
Vic Smith

So what brand is halfway decent? I know something like Bose is top pf the line, but I'm not spending $100 to $250. I see a lot of Insignia, Logitec, and Vibe on Ebay. I dont want another JBL considering how it fried.

By the way, I found those non-powered mini speakers for my laptop. They proved that my computer has sound. Pretty lousy sound from those speakers though, but it beats no sound, till I buy something new.

Reply to
RealPerson

You're correct...you should avoid USB and adapter powered unless you have minimum requirements. I bought a Logitech w/sub (p/s built-in) for $5 at a garage sale. [Max. current: 0.5 A (USB 2.0), 0.9 A (USB 3.0 & 3.1)]

Reply to
bob_villa

Thanks for the links. I do tend to question the USB powered ones though. Computers only have limited power, and I found that out when my power supply fried on one of my computers some years ago. The OEM power supply was only 100W. I added several hard drives and other devices and it fried. I replaced it with a 300W supply.

Anyhow, my JBL speakers that just died, had a wall transformer rated at

12Vdc at 1 amp. A fairly hefty transformer and rather large in size. It would seem to me that a computer power supply would need to be pretty hefty too. I know that before that 100W P.S. fried, my computer would constantly crash. After replacing the P.S. my crash problems ceased. Apparently my CPU and main board was not getting adaquate power, and thus it would crash the system.

Anyhow, I'm a little concerned about using speakers that run off USB power, and having my system crash because of high power requirements on peak music output levels..... Just a thought!!!

Reply to
RealPerson

How many watts do you want? USB2 unit load is 100ma, and the computer can supply 5 unit loads - or 500ma total - so a USB power amp can only consume 2.5 watts of power - so can not output more than 2.5 watts of music power.

Reply to
clare

100W PSU? My desktop has 750W PSU. That must be real old box. Ever since I got free bee Beats Bluetooth headphones I never use speakers(Yamaha brand). Being advanced amateur musician I can't stand poor sound coming out of cheap stuffs.

thus it would crash the system.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

You jinxed me!

I pulled a set of old computer speakers out of storage to put in my window so the Trick or Treaters can have some Halloween music. (Pandora, Halloween Party). The music goes along with my decorated yard.

There's a powered sub-woofer box and 2 speakers. I plugged the 12V DC adapter into the sub-woofer box and...nothing. No power light on the box. I moved the box and heard a buzz as the powered light flashed and then went out. A wiggle here, a jiggle there and the power light goes on and off.

I opened the box and found a bad solder joint where the power connector connects to the board. A quick and easy fix.

The spooky tunes are playing.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

You can usually tell if system is working by fumbling with connector in hand. Should get hum touching tip or ring.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

You rock.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

I don't think the system can crash because of too many USB or too much USB usage. What would happen is that the USB device wouldn't work properly, and when you unplugged something everything else would work right again.

If you need more power than the computer will supply, get a powered USB hub.** They're not expensive.

**That's what you have right now, just less power.

I bought my USB speakers for use with my laptop, but I'm having trouble with the connectdions in the back of the desktop and until i fix them, the USB speakers from Logitech work great. They're discontinued however, and i don't know what they sell in their place.

Reply to
Micky

USB speakers.. the WORST idea since power windows & door locks in cars!

Reply to
thekmanrocks

I wont be buying any of them. Why should I buy a powered hub, or install a bigger power supply, when I can just buy speakers that plug into a wall outlet.

Even if I did add a bigger PSU, I'd be concerned about the USB plug burning out from such a high current draw thru small wires. USB is for powering low current draw stuff, like portable drives, keyboards, and so on.

I agree about the power windows and locks too. I had a car that had both and by the time I got rid of that car, only one window opened. I refused to pay over $300 per door to have them fixed. The parts alone were around $150. At least the locks still had the manual buttons, or I could have been trapped in the car when the alternator quit, and I got most of the way home on the battery before it died too.

I avoid buying any car with that junk now.

Reply to
RealPerson

Those two are great. Especially when you're the only one in the car and you want to lower the top and all the windows.

Or you want to unlock the passenger door without crawling over the center console. Or you want to lock all the doors when you leave the car.

The powered hub suggestion was for a broader set of usb devices than just usb speakers. You had expressed concern that usb speakers would use too much current. How much more so a USB harddrive, USB camera, USB keyboard receiver, etc?

I don't see any reason to get a bigger power supply unit.

I don't think that's possible. Whatever powers the USB jacks is limited in power, and not enough to burn out the wires.

All my cars for the last 27 years have had PW and PL, and never any trouble. I think sometimes people park under trees that are losing their leaves and the leaves get in the doors and turn into sludge that keeps the water from draining out of the doors. That can be bad for PW. The one time I heard water sloshing around in a door, I pulled down the rubber cover and let the water drain.

Reply to
Micky

Power door locks are great when you have to drive through the bad side of town. (They keep the hookers from jumping into your car at a red light.)

Reply to
Arnie

Arnie, Micky:

Very simple: Make sure the other three doors(or one if its a coupe) are locked before you settle in to drive off. Then lock your driver's.

In both mine and my wife's sedans, putting them in park unlocks only the front doors - regardless of what position we put the "child-proof" switches. And believe me, it took 15 years of combined ownership of cars with power door locks & windows to finally say I'm SICK OF THIS CRAP!

Reply to
thekmanrocks

A friend of mine's Buick locks and unlocks the doors, automatic. I don't much like that. Not sure he does, either.

I don't like my GM that turns on the lights when it's dark out. That's my job, to decide.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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