Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Keyboard audio volume keys not working

I recently had to wipe a drive on an older machine (Early 2008 20", 2.66 GHz Intel Core d Duo, 4GB RAM) which is used by my grandchildren. It had OS 10.11.6 but I was only able to get the OS up to Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

However, the audio volume control keys (Fn 10, Fn 11, Fn 12) are not functioning correctly. Instead of affecting audio volume they make changes to the video display. I've tried various things with the System Preferences but nothing helps. Any thoughts?

My first thought was to suggest that you rerun the Snowy installer, but on second thought, I suspect that you'll be happier with a later OS version, many of which can be d/l'ed directly from the App Store.

How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support

I just remembered that you'll have to upgrade to OS X El Cap 10.11 before you can install a later version.

Prior to everything going kaboom, the machine was 10.11.6 but it's not available from the App store. An El Capitan search just returns a few "How to" guides. The same search at the Apple download site generates a few El Capitan combo updates but all have a System Requirement of at least 10.11.

Check Apple Knowledge Base article HT211683. It has links to download Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, and Big Sur.

The doc to which I linked has direct d/l links for 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11 El Cap.

It's the same doc to which joemike has linked.

I downloaded and installed Yosemite but "About this Mac" continued to say OS 10.6.8 instead of OS 10.10. I did a restart and it still said 10.6.8. Having installed (or so I thought) Yosemite, I installed El Capitan but "About this Mac" continued to say OS 10.6.8 instead of OS 10.11

And the volume keys continue to malfunction, so I'm definitely puzzled.

I did everything from scratch; cleared old downloads from the Download folder and did fresh downloads of Yosemite and El Capitan. I installed Yosemite, and restarted. I installed El Capitan and restarted. Both instlls concluded with "Installation was successful. However, still 10.6.8

Any chance there's something between 10.6.8 and Yosemite?

This is really curious.

Is your desktop after installation the expected one for the installed OS version?

According to the linked doc, both Yosemite and El Cap can upgrade Snowy, so you shouldn't have a problem in that respect.

I suggest that you wipe the iMac's drive and do a clean El Cap install.

Your situation intrigued me and I went searching for solutions. While I was unable find reports of your unique situation, but I did note a consistent thread where installations had failed or had problems. The universally recommended "fix" is almost always the same, "install from a bootable USB stick/thumb drive/SD card'". The trick is creating the bootable USB installer stick or thumb drive. You will find instructions for creating and running an El Capitan USB installer in Apple Knowledge base article HT201372. It isn't difficult, and from personal experience I can vouch for the efficacy of the solution.

That may be the ultimate solution to ryck's problem, but I wouldn't travel that route before trying a much easier drive wipe & clean install as opposed to the upgrades with which he's been having trouble.

Actually it is the best way to do the drive wipe and clean as it is performed while booted from the USB Thumbdrive thus leaving the entire HD/SSD available to be erased and reformatted using the copy of Disk Utility that is contained in the boot image installed on the thumb drive. Since the installer has already been downloaded and the verification step completed during the creation of the bootable thumb drive, the actual install process takes significantly less time. It ends up essentially replicating the Recovery Drive but faster.

FWIW since a total blowup during some early beta testing on the M1 Mac mini, I have since made it a policy to keep a bootable thumb drive installer with the latest release version handy — just in case. It has saved me a lot of time.

Isn't that equivalent to booting the iMac from any other device?

I think that, particularly in view of the facts that ryck has been trying to upgrade all the way from 10.6 to 10.11 in one shot, and that to do a wipe/clean install he'll have to boot the iMac from another device anyhow, he should try that first, if for no other reason than to learn something.

The desktop is the purpley-coloured astral image with the 'explosion' in the centre.

I've been totally immersed in stuff for a coalition, so haven't been paying a lot of attention. This morning I looked for a list of Mac OS's and see that there are three between Snow Leopard and Yosemite: Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks. I wonder if the Snow Leopard to Yosemite jump is just a bit too much.

That's exactly what I suggested may be the case in my last post.

That's why I suggest that you boot the iMac from an external source, wipe the drive, and do a clean install of El Cap (which is what you originally had).

That means nothing to me other than it's not the Snowy desktop, which means that even though Get Info says Snowy, it isn't.

Technically how far you jump should NOT make any difference, provided you jump to a version of macOS that is compatible with your computer as far as the OS and the included Apple apps are concerned. The same cannot be said for third party apps and especially utilities. But even major third party app conflicts should not prevent the installation of an OS upgrade. Even a mandatory change in drive format such as happened with High Sierra and subsequent OS versions should be handled non-destructively by the installer package. (Note my frequent use of the word "should".) The fact you have had multiple installers apparently incorrectly report successful completion is what is puzzling. How and where are those reported successes occurring and why are you unable to boot from them? I would take a hard look at the partition, volume, directory, structure of the internal HD/SSD as well as any other attached drives before proceeding in case there is an issue of some sort there. Unfortunately Disk Utility is about the best tool you are likely to have for examining that structure, but take a look and see of there is more than one partition or volume on the boot drive.

If your sole interest is regaining use of your computer, the idea of doing a nuke and pave installation including repartitioning the internal HD, whether from a bootable thumb drive, recovery drive, or other external boot drive would appear to eliminate the most likely suspects for the previous failures.

ryck is able to boot into his upgrades, but regardless of whether they're Yosemite or El Cap, Get Info still says "Snowy." That's why I asked about his desktop, which, although I cant identify it, I know is more recent than Snowy.

The desktop image is the seventh in this set of images.

Good thing. I found downloads at Apple for both Lion and Mountain Lion but not for Mavericks. It seems only to be available at third party sites, which I'm leery of using. Seems curious that Apple would keep different outdated OSs but skip one.

I ran the installs for both but the result is the same...still 10.6.8

There is only one.

Since I am really just looking to get the Fn keys working for audio volume, starting over doesn’t have great appeal…especially since I’m in the midst of more pressing stuff with my coalition. For another day….but I will definitely advise. Thanks both.

That surprises me! I was expecting your desktop to be that of the version of the OS to which you upgraded, but it's the Snowy desktop.

So it appears that rather than the upgrade having been successful with the glitch being that Get Info was giving you incorrect info, the upgrade failed even though it reported success.

Got me beat!

Understood, but the glitches you've run into may only be the obvious ones, with others lurking in the background.

Personally, I'd be leery about turning the kids lose on that iMac as it stands.

Now that you've got a direction in which to point yourself, I think you ought to go the nuke & pave route as soon as you've got a few spare moments.