No sound from speakers, but headphones work

Question

I have had a problem with my sound for a while now. Sound comes from my headphones, but not from my speakers. I am running Ubuntu 11.10 on a Compaq 320. I have searched around, but none of the threads have worked, some had made it worse (no sound at all, but I managed to get back to where I am now). Any help would on how to fix this would be great.

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 25 '17 at 13:32

10

I found a post in this Ubuntu forums thread answer #2 with a weird solution that works for me.

Boot the system, log in, close the laptop screen, wait for a few seconds, and open it again. Log back into the system and problem solved!!!

edited Feb 25 '17 at 13:32

Zanna

70,465

answered Feb 25 '17 at 12:16

Ahmad Hoghooghi

109

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – Kevin Bowen Feb 25 '17 at 15:24
On mine, it works a while, then soon it is get muted again ( no sound ) after around 1 minutes :( – Bayu Jun 03 '19 at 05:13
For now it worked for me – Juan Sánchez May 01 '20 at 21:40
@Bayu , same is happening with me. How did you resolve this? – Priyanka Jun 22 '21 at 16:43
@Priyanka , please read again my comment carefully. It works only a while for me. Perhaps we should ask judasane ( comment just right below me ), looks like he had success. – Bayu Jun 24 '21 at 08:09
Hey @judasane please let us know the workaround. – Priyanka Jun 24 '21 at 10:33
does not work, .. – Bersan Oct 08 '22 at 20:43
holy shit it worked. i simply restarted my laptop. so stupid :D this is some "IT Crowd" stuff – Peter Dec 31 '22 at 07:48
This "Boot up and log in. Then with the everything running, close your laptop screen and open it back up." works for me in 2024. – 2017561-1 Mar 13 '24 at 01:29

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 14 '18 at 08:40

5

try using these commands

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get purge linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils
sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdm ubuntu-desktop

Reboot.

if this not help trying running this script

edited Aug 14 '18 at 08:40

David Foerster

36,264
56
94
147

answered Apr 01 '12 at 12:02

twister_void

5,924

Hey Gaurav, Tried the commands but no luck. he script seems to be outdated for 10.04. would it still work for 11.10 – forrest Apr 01 '12 at 21:40
Hey @twister_void, I suggest you to specify on your answer that the display manager to be used is lightdm by default, because these lines - sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdm ubuntu-desktop - could lead to set the gdm3, where you know better than me that lightdm is the default one – Giorgio Vitanza Jul 31 '17 at 19:02
This worked for me on Ubuntu 18. After many many other attempts! – jouell Feb 22 '20 at 19:44

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '18 at 00:05

3

You need to edit this file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and then add a line in its end. Use the following commands:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Now add the following line at its end:

options snd-hda-intel model=generic

Now reboot your computer. It should solve your problem.

Further information:

hxxp://www.computerandyou.net/2011/06/how-to-solve-no-sound-through-laptop-integrated-speakers-in-ubuntu-11-04

The link that was posted here is no longer safe to use, and has had its actual link components stripped. The original link is left here for historical purposes, though the link is defused.

edited Mar 20 '18 at 00:05

Thomas Ward

74,764

answered Apr 01 '12 at 12:11

abhishek

2,696

Hey Abishek, after sing the command, gedit didn't open, so i couldnt add the other line. Why wouldnt gedit open? – forrest Apr 01 '12 at 21:46
I was able to open gedit with the command (had to take out the '&' and the end). – forrest Apr 01 '12 at 22:24
But after adding the line, there was still no sound from the speakers. – forrest Apr 01 '12 at 22:24
@forrest did you try the solution given in the link? It may depend on the sound card as well... the solution worked for me.. – abhishek Apr 02 '12 at 08:17
YEa, no luck from the link. my soundcard is '0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]" so its pretty straight forward – forrest Apr 02 '12 at 13:06
This may sound foolish.. but could you check in the Sound settings if it is not muted .. happened to me couple of years back.. just guessing.. :P – abhishek Apr 02 '12 at 15:49
Been there done that, no luck. Sound cards are recognised. This has happened to me before, and i used to be able to fix it, but now the regular fixes arnt working and its been a few months. Bloody annoying. just upgraded to 12.04 too hoping that that might do the trick but no luck – forrest Apr 02 '12 at 20:19

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 20 '18 at 02:21

I have the same issue on an Aspire.

What's worse I convinced someone to use Ubuntu! Egg on my face!

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.

$ head -n 1 /proc/asound/card*/codec#*
==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 <==
Codec: Realtek ALC888

==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#1 <==
Codec: LSI ID 1040

==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#2 <==
Codec: Intel Cantiga HDMI

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ uname -a
Linux salvatore-Aspire-7730 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The alsa-base.conf does not exist.

Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64bit

Tried this:

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base
sudo apt-get remove --purge pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

Then:

sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indicator-sound

Now audio comes out of both headphone and speaker.

Manuel Schmitzberger · Answer 5 · 2019-01-12T12:07:09.603

1

on my lenovo this works:

shut down the laptop
take off the battery
press the power button, to empty the capacitors or wait for 30 seconds
put the battery back
power on and enjoy sound in headphones again

edited Jan 12 '19 at 12:07

answered Jan 13 '16 at 22:24

Manuel Schmitzberger

141

1

It is not necessary to wait, without the battery press the power button, to empty the capacitors, after that, put the battery back. It worked! – eloyesp Sep 01 '16 at 17:25

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 16 '18 at 15:56

I had the same issue on a brand new laptop Asus R417B. I installed Ubuntu 18.04 over the windows disk. Windows had never been installed let alone run, so the speakers had not been used at all.

In pavucontrol the speakers and the headphones are listed, and the volume bar showed sound being played. The speaker test did not produce sound at the speakers. The headphones, when plugged in, worked perfectly.

My fix was trying to try audio over HDMI on the television. The laptop speakers started to work as soon as the laptop was connected over HDMI. Even after disconnecting the HDMI the speakers kept working. Even after a complete power shutdown and restart.

Then the HDMI sound seemed not to work, but that was easy to fix with fiddling with the profiles in pavucontrol.

My conclusion is that the problem was a bug (at least definitely not a feature) in initializing the hardware/software with the speakers.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 11 '12 at 05:39

0

I find that sometimes all I have to do is choose the correct output by just going to System Setting and then click on Sound on the output tab. Hope this helps.

answered Apr 11 '12 at 05:39

lqlarry

696

Tried that out to no avail, however the 'test speaker' didnt make a sound, but i had a video going on youtube that I could hear. – forrest Apr 17 '12 at 18:41

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 03 '14 at 12:03

0

I had the same issue. Go to "System Settings" select "Sound" and then select "Headphones" as the option in the the "Connector" drop down menu list.

answered May 03 '14 at 12:03

Niall O Shea

1

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 18 '15 at 05:40

0

You can adjust the sound settings for USB using:

Go to sound settings from the volume options on the right.
I you have plugged in USB speaker then it shows setting options as Analog Output Analog Audio.
Click on it and adjust volume.

answered Jul 18 '15 at 05:40

Stallion

1

No sound from speakers, but headphones work

9 Answers9

Linked