Possible solder issue with audio

[Andahawk]

So first I want to say I did search and saw that the audio is a somewhat common issue to have. However, those threads don’t seem to completely relate to my issue.

This was my first real soldering project, so I was glad to get the free practice boards along with my MintyPi v3.5. I was very careful doing the practice board and checked it with my multimeter. It was all good and everything was making proper contact.

After moving to the actual boards and taking care getting them soldered correctly, I tested them and they all seemed fine. I loaded the micro-SD card up and did a test boot (with the speaker attached temporarily). It booted fine but there was no sound-I even tested with headphones.

I went back and re-tested the board with the test pads (all was fine). Then went and tested each soldered spot to see if any had made contact with an adjacent joint. They all seem fine, but after testing the pads several times, I notice that the pad to the left of the two 5V pins will SOMETIMES register contact to the 5V pin next to it (see attached photo).

This is the only thing I can think of that might be causing no audio. Unless you can think of something else? I’ve re-downloaded and rewrote the SD card three times now and that does nothing. Everything else seems to function (though I haven’t soldered the L/R buttons or installed everything in its case yet). Is there a way to test the speaker? Or could it be another solder joint somewhere else on the board like some other threads have mentioned? I know there are ways to test this, but could someone spell it out for me so I know I’m doing it properly? I’m a novice when it comes to this, including using a multimeter, so dummy-proof advice would be welcome.

I have some of that Chip-quick and a hot-air rework tool, but if that’s not the issue I don’t want to have to do it.

Thank you guys!

-Hawk

[Helder]

That 3rd pin is a GND so if it was bridged it would no even start up. There is no sound unless you have a game to actually load so more than likely sound works but if you enter a menu like say the Show IP in the Retropie Menu it will cause a pop noise from the speaker so if you hear that then you have sound working or load a game into the Pi to load it and really test sound.

[Andahawk]

Thanks for the reply-but unfortunately I had no luck. I am assuming that it is not the speaker that is bad, as that would mean the headphone jack would still work. From what I can tell, it is either an issue on the board, or I have a bad solder joint between the Raspberry Pi and the mintyPi board.

Any other things I could test before going the route of using the ChipQuik and heat gun to separate the two boards, clean them up, then try again?

[Andahawk]

Alright, so after some trial and error, I actually got the audio working via a game (must’ve had a bad image before)-only thing is that the audio only works through the headphone jack.

Is there a good way to test the speaker to see if it is in fact bad?

[Andahawk]

Update: I went back and used some different wire on the speaker and now I have sound through the speaker, but even at 100% volume, it doesn’t sound quite right. It seems like it’s not as loud as it should be (just guessing since I have nothing to compare it to), and the sounds are somewhat crackly. I’m guessing I might’ve fried the speaker somehow (I have my station set to 300 C, as it was suggested but I suppose that little speaker could’ve gotten a bit too hot and got fried). When tested, the speaker still shows 8 ohms of resistance, so I’m guessing that just means it’s still functional, just not as it should be. (?)

Anyway, I found some on Amazon that look like they meet the specs so I’m gonna give that a shot when they get here.