Mac Mini G4 sound and internet problems

I have a Mac Mini (1.42 G4) using 10.4.11 (so it is several years old). The sound coming out of the internal speakers was ok but I decided to use headphones, which I haven't done in a while. Despite plugging in headphones (and trying some external speakers that worked before), the sound still comes out of the internal speakers. Checked the Sound in System Preferences and only the internal speakers are listed. After reading on some forums, I decided to zap the PRAM. Now not only do the headphones and external speakers not work, but the internal ones are faint even at full volume. One additional thing that might be just a coincidence, the wireless internet connection is also very slow and prone to drop the connection. I have a new iMac which has none of the wireless problems despite being in the same room as the Mac Mini. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Has it been a while since you reinstalled the OS? Best way to rule out any corruption and refresh everything.

I'd also look into another CMOS battery if you've never changed it out. Speaker volume and network configuration are two problems associated with battery, which if you zap the PRAM does not fix.

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

It has been a while since reinstalling the OS. However, things have taken a more ominous turn. I ran Disk Utility on it (booting from the OS CD). It came up with a "Keys out of order" error message, tried to rebuild the Catalog B-tree and said it could not be repaired. Now when I try to start it up it is on the grey window starting up for a couple of minutes and then shuts itself down. Do I buy system repair software? Is it a lost cause? I have a lot of non-backed up documents on the hard drive that I would like to save (I know, hindsight is great, but we have nowhere to back things up to).

CharlesUK said:

Do I buy system repair software? Is it a lost cause? I have a lot of non-backed up documents on the hard drive that I would like to save (I know, hindsight is great, but we have nowhere to back things up to).

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Probably Disk Warrior would fix this. I fixed someones MINI back in December that had the same DU error. It wasn't quick, it took like 5 solid days to complete. In the end I was able to save most of his data.

Disk warrior isn't cheap either, runs about $100 a copy.

Edit: PM Sent

Disk Warrior is well worth the $100 - It would create a new directory so you can retrieve all your data, doing several things Disk Utility and Tech Tools cannot.