[arch-general] Why does my sound work sometimes & not others?

[David Rosenstrauch]

David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. wrote:
> Listmates,
> 
> 	I have the most atavistic sound known to mankind on my laptop running arch. 
> Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The card specs are:
> 
> 0:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
>         Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff08
>         Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
> Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
>         Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- 
> <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
>         Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
>         Interrupt: pin ? routed to IRQ 16
>         Region 0: Memory at f8700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>         Capabilities: <access denied>
>         Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
>         Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
> 
> 	The Intel modules loaded are:
> 
> snd                    65928  13 
> snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
> snd_hda_codec          68112  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
> snd_hda_intel          29256  1
> snd_page_alloc          9760  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
> snd_pcm                80920  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
> 
> 
> 	When I first start arch and start kde, everything is fine. However, if I log 
> out and then back it, most times the sound is gone -- dead. The sound will 
> not start again until I reboot. Anybody got any ideas on what to check or 
> what to keep a watch out for? Also, any ideas on how to bring the sound back 
> once it dies without having to reboot?
> 
> 	Thanks for any help you can provide. I always hated chasing sound problems. 

snd-hda-intel encompasses many different chipsets/codecs.  Which one 
does your card use?  You can find out like so:

[darose at daroselin ~]$ grep Codec /proc/asound/card0/codec#0
Codec: IDT 92HD71B7X


As far as general things to check/try:

* Try restarting the KDE sound system.

* Try checking to see if anything got muted in the mixer (i.e., check in 
Kmix or alsamixer).

* Try seeing if this is a KDE issue or not by hitting ctrl-alt-F1, 
logging into a non-X console, and testing the sound using alsaplayer.

* I had a problem with my sound card whereby "analog loopback" was 
getting set and muting the sound.  (See: 
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=535521#p535521)  Tore my hair 
out over that one for a LONG time.  Maybe this is your issue too?

HTH,

DR