MacBook Pro 2010 13" sound issue, works but.. doesn't?

Hello!

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro 13inch which seems to have developed a strange issue.

The sound works fine, the speakers work as expected, however every so often the sound settings go blank (the little speaker at the top of the screen turns to a faded grey and the volume buttons won't let me increase or decrease the volume, displaying a speaker and a stop symbol)

During this time, the sound still works, but I'm not able to change the volume through the system. Resting the SMC and PRAM fix this temporarily, but it goes back to not working a few hours after. Resetting core audio in the terminal also fixes it temporarily, but soon after it's back to normal.

Does anyone have an idea what this may be? I don't think it's a hardware issue as the speakers work, and some of the time I can change the volume as normal. This has me confused.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Steve

Try doing the same thing but when booted using Safe Boot Mode and see if things improve.

If they do improve, then you have some third party software or extension (Pref pane) affecting things. All you'll have to do is figure out what…