iPad sound issues

[Husker580]

I have an ipad 3. In the last few days I have had some issues with the speaker. The sound will be working fine. I will set the ipad down and come back, no sound. The sound on the speaker will suddenly work then not work. When it is not working it will project sound to a speaker through Bluetooth. I have not yet experienced it stopping in the middle of sound. It seems to be very random.
I have updated all apps and system update. That seemed to work at first. Then the sound stopped again.
I have done a hard reset. That did nothing. The first time I reset my settings the sound came back. When I lost sound again I tried to reset the settings and it did nothing.
The only thing I have not tried is a system restore. (Yes I have checked the lock button). I have done everything I have seen on any help forum.
I would like to know if its a programming issue or if the speaker needs replaced. If it was the speaker I would expect it to cut out while playing sound. I feel confident its a programming issue.
It is no longer in warranty. Any suggestions on who can diagnose apple programming issues without having to send it to apple?

 

[scifan57]

Have you tried shining a light into the headphone jack to see if there is any debris there that could activate the speaker cut off switch? If you do see some debris, try sucking it out with a smell nozzle on your vacuum cleaner.

 

[twerppoet]

If you have a Bluetooth keyboard paired with the device, it can turn on/off sound. Make sure the keyboard is off, or that you've turned off Bluetooth on the iPad and see if that helps.

I've never heard of an iPad automatically choosing a BlueTooth speaker, but It's probably not impossible. Make sure you have the speaker off also.

Good luck.

Before you try a system restore, try Reset All Settings. This is less drastic, and if it works it will save you a lot of work.