My onboard sound doesn't work with KDE (completely updated as of today) (SOLVED)

[Jim Dandy]

Hi. By way of introduction I used to post here a long time ago, had lots and lots of posts and at one time helped proofread the magazine. I am posting under a different name now, apparently the account I had before has been deleted due to inactivity. As I explained to a couple of friends on here, my inactivity was due to being in a different country and the house where I was living had a home network and it was Windows. And it was use Windows or nothing.

But to the point. I downloaded pclos and installed it to the hard drive. Everything on it works very well except for the sound. I did finally get the sound to work somewhat but it was distorted and had a lot of static on skype and music cd's (it would play a youtube video just fine). To make a long story short I took it in to a computer shop and they charged me seventy dollars--they told me that my onboard sound wouldn't work with kde and suggested I use the distro I had already kicked to the curb. When I got my computer home I didn't have ANY sound at all*--no sound on youtube and none on anything else. They took a bad problem and made it worse and charged me seventy bucks to do it.

The sound card on it is Beaver Creek HDMI Audio, Radeon HD 6500D. If you need any more information I will be happy to supply whatever I can (the motherboard is an ASUS and fairly new). Thank you.

*I almost forgot to add this. When I called them they told me to check the bios to see if the sound was enabled. I did check it and it was but I still have no sound. I couldn't believe that people would set up a computer repair business, charge you for repairs that never got done and let you leave with a computer that was in worse condition than it was when you took it to them. I wouldn't be saying all this but I called them back (twice), got an answering machine both times, left messages and they never called back. To say I am not a happy camper would be an understatement.

[Just17]

Check your BIOS again carefully to ensure there is not a second setting for sound.

The DE has little or nothing to do with whether sound will work or not.

First thing to try is to run

alsaconf

as root from a terminal.

It should find and set up your audio.

As you say the motherboard is quite recent, then I guess it is likely you have an HDMI socket on board.
In that case it is also likely that in the absence of sound, the sound is being router to the HDMI socket and thus not to the speakers.

Please supply whatever relevant info you can.
Go to PCC - Hardware - Browse and config hardware and post back exact details of sound cards listed there ......  and the modules they are using (bottom right pane)

[Jim Dandy]

Check your BIOS again carefully to ensure there is not a second setting for sound.

The DE has little or nothing to do with whether sound will work or not.

First thing to try is to run

alsaconf

as root from a terminal.

It should find and set up your audio.

As you say the motherboard is quite recent, then I guess it is likely you have an HDMI socket on board.
In that case it is also likely that in the absence of sound, the sound is being router to the HDMI socket and thus not to the speakers.

Please supply whatever relevant info you can.
Go to PCC - Hardware - Browse and config hardware and post back exact details of sound cards listed there ......  and the modules they are using (bottom right pane)

Hi and thank you for your reply. I had already run alsaconf. Here (I believe) is what you asked me for:

Description: ‎BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G series]

Media class: ‎Audio device

Connection
Bus: ‎PCI Express

PCI domain: ‎0

Bus PCI #: ‎0

PCI device #: ‎1

PCI function #: ‎1

Vendor ID: ‎0x1002

Device ID: ‎0x1714

Sub vendor ID: ‎0x1043

Sub device ID: ‎0x84c8

Driver
Module: ‎snd_hda_intel

Alternative drivers: ‎unknown

[Jim Dandy]

Check your BIOS again carefully to ensure there is not a second setting for sound.

I went back into the bios and it showed something called Atheros Lan which was enabled and an Atheros Rom which was disabled. I enabled it, saved the changes, rebooted and still no sound. Now it doesn't even recognize an audio cd, says no disc (KsCD).

[Just17]

Check your BIOS again carefully to ensure there is not a second setting for sound.

I went back into the bios and it showed something called Atheros Lan which was enabled and an Atheros Rom which was disabled. I enabled it, saved the changes, rebooted and still no sound. Now it doesn't even recognize an audio cd, says no disc (KsCD).

I have no idea what that setting is for .....  check the motherboard manual.

You have not said if you have a second audio card or not (HDMI connection)

What is the result of the following command?

lspci | grep -i audio

[Jim Dandy]

Check your BIOS again carefully to ensure there is not a second setting for sound.

I went back into the bios and it showed something called Atheros Lan which was enabled and an Atheros Rom which was disabled. I enabled it, saved the changes, rebooted and still no sound. Now it doesn't even recognize an audio cd, says no disc (KsCD).

I have no idea what that setting is for .....  check the motherboard manual.

You have not said if you have a second audio card or not (HDMI connection)


What is the result of the following command?

lspci | grep -i audio

I don't have a motherboard manual. I bought it some months ago from the same people I took it to to get my sound issues sorted.

From your command I got this:

[danny@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
# lspci | grep -i audio
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G series]
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson Azalia Controller (rev 01)

[Just17]

As I thought .......  you have two audio devices in the PC ......  so it is likely the sound is going to the one the speakers are not connected to, thus giving no sound.

There are several ways to ensure the speaker sound card is the default ..... and I am not thinking straight at the moment so cannot recall correctly the best option.

I suggest you try the following ......

Go to the hardware section as before, and at the bottom of the right pane with the sound card selected, click on Set Current driver options .......  scroll down the list of option and at the bottom enter 0 (zero) on the line for Index.

I *think* this will likely only work if two different drivers are used for the two sound cards.

You would need to reboot to test it.

Other solutions are posted on the forum, so a search might get a better solution .....

[MGBguy]

In my opinion HDMI audio can be a nightmare.  

First, how and to what are you connecting your HDMI cable? A computer monitor or a television with HDMI inputs?
If you trying to connect to a television/monitor you may need to program the television's audio input to speakers.
Have you tried analog speakers through conventional audio outputs?

I ask because I originally tried and failed set up my PCLinuxOS HTPC with audio HDMI to my large screen TV, but ended up running analog sound through my "vintage" stereo system.

[Jim Dandy]

As I thought .......  you have two audio devices in the PC ......  so it is likely the sound is going to the one the speakers are not connected to, thus giving no sound.

There are several ways to ensure the speaker sound card is the default ..... and I am not thinking straight at the moment so cannot recall correctly the best option.

I suggest you try the following ......

Go to the hardware section as before, and at the bottom of the right pane with the sound card selected, click on Set Current driver options .......  scroll down the list of option and at the bottom enter 0 (zero) on the line for Index.

I *think* this will likely only work if two different drivers are used for the two sound cards.

You would need to reboot to test it.

Other solutions are posted on the forum, so a search might get a better solution .....

Thanks. I tried your suggestion, at least as best I understood it, and it didn't change anything (at least I still don't have any sound). But I do appreciate your efforts.

[Jim Dandy]

In my opinion HDMI audio can be a nightmare.  

First, how and to what are you connect[img]ing your HDMI cable? A computer monitor or a television with HDMI inputs?
If you trying to connect to a television/monitor you may need to program the television's audio input to speakers.
Have you tried analog speakers through conventional audio outputs?

I ask because I originally tried and failed set up my PCLinuxOS HTPC with audio HDMI to my large screen TV, but ended up running analog sound through my "vintage" stereo system.

I don't have any HDMI cable. I have a little cable like you hook to a microphone or headset.

[Just17]

In my opinion HDMI audio can be a nightmare.  

First, how and to what are you connecting your HDMI cable? A computer monitor or a television with HDMI inputs?
If you trying to connect to a television/monitor you may need to program the television's audio input to speakers.
Have you tried analog speakers through conventional audio outputs?

I ask because I originally tried and failed set up my PCLinuxOS HTPC with audio HDMI to my large screen TV, but ended up running analog sound through my "vintage" stereo system.

I don't have any HDMI cable. I have a little cable like you hook to a microphone or headset.

Yes, but the sound is likely going to the HDMI output, as I mentioned previously.

Is there any setting in the BIOS to disable HDMI?

That should force the sound to go to the only audio device left.

If you are not using the HDMI output then there would be no negative effects.

[Jim Dandy]

In my opinion HDMI audio can be a nightmare.  

First, how and to what are you connecting your HDMI cable? A computer monitor or a television with HDMI inputs?
If you trying to connect to a television/monitor you may need to program the television's audio input to speakers.
Have you tried analog speakers through conventional audio outputs?

I ask because I originally tried and failed set up my PCLinuxOS HTPC with audio HDMI to my large screen TV, but ended up running analog sound through my "vintage" stereo system.

I don't have any HDMI cable. I have a little cable like you hook to a microphone or headset.

Yes, but the sound is likely going to the HDMI output, as I mentioned previously.

Is there any setting in the BIOS to disable HDMI?

That should force the sound to go to the only audio device left.

If you are not using the HDMI output then there would be no negative effects.

I haven't seen any setting to disable HDMI but I will look again. Thanks.

[Jim Dandy]

In my opinion HDMI audio can be a nightmare.  

First, how and to what are you connecting your HDMI cable? A computer monitor or a television with HDMI inputs?
If you trying to connect to a television/monitor you may need to program the television's audio input to speakers.
Have you tried analog speakers through conventional audio outputs?

I ask because I originally tried and failed set up my PCLinuxOS HTPC with audio HDMI to my large screen TV, but ended up running analog sound through my "vintage" stereo system.

I don't have any HDMI cable. I have a little cable like you hook to a microphone or headset.

Yes, but the sound is likely going to the HDMI output, as I mentioned previously.

Is there any setting in the BIOS to disable HDMI?

That should force the sound to go to the only audio device left.

If you are not using the HDMI output then there would be no negative effects.

I haven't seen any setting to disable HDMI but I will look again. Thanks.

I looked again and can't find anything in bios or in configuration that even mentions HDMI. I would disable it if I could find it but I don't see it.

[Wildman]

Please see if you can locate the directly from the ASUS motherboard. It is usually located between the PCi slots, or perhaps another place close by. Also see if there is a Ver # for it..
Thanks
M~

[Just17]

Jim Dandy,
                    The solution I use for such situations is to install PulseAudio (task-pulseaudio and pavucontrol) and use the PulseAudio Volume Control GUI app to control the sound devices.
It makes it very easy to turn off the HDMI sound output and to ensure that all apps use the other sound device.
It does take a little time to get familiar with it .....  but the control you get is second to none.

That solution might be worth considering