No Audio, sound preferences not loading, no sound at all except startup chime.

Ok,

Firstly, hello.

If you're reading this then congrats, you're about to see what absolute defeat looks like, to the point even apple support failed to help me.

So right now, I need some form of macintosh godsend to come and beam their glorious light of knowledge down upon my sweet metallic child (the mac).

My issue exists amongst the community, so it's not rare:

MY DEVICE:

OS: Mojave - 10.14.6

Macbook Pro 15 inch with touchbar, 2016 model

Processor: 2.6ghz i7

Hard-drive: 500gb internal with about 50gb space available

The Issue:

Sound preferences in settings won't load, no sound coming out of my mac, sound icon greyed out and touchbar shows no sound icons as greyed out.

This also seems to have slowed down other things, such as the security settings menu being sluggish along with trying to use web browsers which also run slow. Itunes also will not open on this mac and youtube freezes. I also can't open Logic Pro X anymore.

AND, my screenshot function takes a very long time to bring up the screenshot window too.

*NOTE - THE SPEAKERS ARE NOT BROKE, because the startup chime still plays when I turn on the mac

Now here's the part where I need that deep rooted knowledge base:

The things I've tried to do, based on what everyone has said online, including talking to apple support directly, to which nothing has worked:

• Reset the PRAM, and the NVAC and the SMC - Did not work

• Deleting files and restarting (based on community answer). Note, some of these weren't actually in my files to start with - Nope, doesn't work

/Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/SyncedPreferences/com.apple.syncedpreferences.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

• Starting the device in safe mode - Felt safer, but still no luck

• Created a new admin account and checked sound there - Became supreme ruler, but still no audio

• Turned off all permissions for devices that 'use the microphone' in security settings. Not sure what this would do, but apple support told me to try it - Felt like I achieved something, but really achieved nothing. Audio no.

• Restore previous backup through time machine from when I knew it was working - Regained some youth, but no sound.

• Reinstall current OS - Mac felt fresh, but still no audio

• Try numerous 'sudo' terminal commands, to delete files in HAL folder of mac that affect core audio, amongst manually doing this - Gained some space for more selfies, but no audio

• Tried to kill coreaudio process in activity monitor (yes I checked under all processes and not just my user) - THIS ONE IS KEY...i think? - THERE IS NO 'COREAUDIOD' PROCESS, so something tells me this is the suspect in this game of whodunnit

• Connecting an external audio device/interface, as I have a music studio - Nope, the device is recognised and shows as connected via it's own control panel app, but it can't be selected as an output device (as I can't access the mac sound options)

• Checking input/output devices in Audio MIDI Setup - Checked, but no devices show up in here, at all.

• Run apple diagnostics test - Test came back with no issues, which was a lie, because the audio still wasn't working.

• Removing any recently installed applications - Felt hopeless as time machine would in principle do the same thing, and I was right, audio still didn't work

• Removed antivirus software - Hackers started swiping right, but audio was still declined

Now I know someone will say to update to the new version of the mac OS, but I utilise a lot of 32 bit software/plugins for music production, to jump to the new OS is production suicide as it doesn't support any of these, I'm also pretty sure if doing the other steps didn't work, this wouldn't either.

Apple supports final suggestion was to take my mac in for a service repair, which I thought was ridiculous because to buy this mac now is only a few hundred £'s and the service repair wouldn't be far off this.

If somebody knows the answer to this and how to fix it, you will have surpassed all others in my eyes, including apple support, and I will forever owe you the greatest gratitude.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]