My mac book pro just stopped allowing sound and when i restarted it, it does not let me use any of the icons on the desktop, then allows me to use them after 3 minutes,and then still NO SOUND! What do i do? PLEASE help.

Question

I have an issue with my computer.  the volume was working fine on wednesday june 29th 2011 (thats the last I could remember) and today is july 3rd 2011.  so when I start the computer up it does not let me play anything trough the iTunes volume when I start a song it goes immediately to pause but no sound comes out.  When I click on the volume in the menu bar it does not allow me to raise the volume up, nor does it allow me to play volume through my speakers when I am on youtube.com. AND when I go to system preferences it has checked off that it is on mute, BUT  it is a light gray color and it does not let me check the setting off.  please help! what do I do? I think it is still under warranty because it is only between 11 months-12 months old.
*******************************************************ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED THANKK YOU!*************************************************************

Answer 1

That you are getting the BONG is a good sign, it's unlikely to be hardware if you are able to hear that.
Start by running SW update. It's not that there is a specific fix, but when updating it may rewrite some system files which may get this going again purely as a side affect. Worth a go, and should not harm the system.
Try reset the PRAM - Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
Hopefully one of these quick fixes works, otherwise we'll need to try isolate the issue next - so if still having a problem, I'd try create a new user and login as that user to see if the issue persists (which will tell us if it's system wide or user specific)