How to make audio work on old laptop?

Question

I'm trying to make a working install of Ubuntu 14.04 on a Toshiba Satellite U200. Ubuntu is running pretty well, except there is absolutely no audio.

I have already followed all the advice in the Sound troubleshooting page, and the results were:

I checked the audio settings tons of times: it is not muted, and the volume is at 100%. I can see the indicator on the panel and it seems active and not muted.

The sink is listed if I use pacmd and the list-sinks command. However the output is the following:

$ pacmd
Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information.
>>> list-sinks
1 sink(s) available.
  * index: 0
    name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
    driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
    flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
    state: SUSPENDED
    suspend cause: IDLE 
    priority: 9959
    volume: 0: 153% 1: 153%
            0: 11,00 dB 1: 11,00 dB
            balance 0,00
    base volume:  89%
                 -3,00 dB
    volume steps: 65537
    muted: no
    current latency: 0,00 ms
    max request: 0 KiB
    max rewind: 0 KiB
    [...]
    used by: 0
    linked by: 0
    configured latency: 0,00 ms; range is 0,50 .. 341,33 ms
    card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
    module: 5
    properties:
        [...]
        alsa.name = "AD1981 Analog"
        alsa.id = "AD1981 Analog"
        [...]
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0x44080000 irq 43"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "8086"
        device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
        device.product.id = "27d8"
        device.product.name = "NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
        [...]
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    ports:
        analog-output-speaker: Altoparlanti (priority 10000, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
        analog-output-headphones: Cuffie analogiche (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
    active port: <analog-output-speaker>

I don't really like the state: SUSPENDED, nor the used by: 0, linked by: 0 and, at the end, available: unknown, however I'm not really sure what all this output means.

When playing the test sounds I don't hear anything, even when using sudo. The user wasn't in the audio group, I have added the user to the group and nothing changed.
I tried to log in the guest session, but the audio doesn't work either.
The sound card is recognize by Ubuntu and aplay -l does show it.
find /lib/modules/uname -r| grep snd does find tons of modules, so the drivers seem to be there.

Output of lspci:

$ lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 0001
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 43
    Memory at 44080000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
$ sudo lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 0001
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 43
    Memory at 44080000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
    Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel

I don't understand whether the sound card is supported. I can see ICH7 in the Intel list, but I cannot find NM10/ICH7. Also it seems like ICH7 devices use the snd-intel8x0 driver, which I have:
```
$ find /lib/modules/`uname -r` | grep snd-intel8x0
/lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko
/lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0m.ko
```

Does somebody know how to fix this issue?

On this page it is me tioned that on some toshiba laptops not muting headphones may sometimes automatically mute the master volume. I have tried a lot of combinations of mute/unmute the various channels but nothing worked.

Later on the same page suggest doing:

$ sudo iecset audio on

And I get the following response:

control "IEC958 Playback Default" (index -1) not found

I don't whether this might be useful, but the internal microphone works perfectly. I can record sound but I'm unable to play it.

I just noticed that when doing alsa force-reload, it says that it fails to unload some modules:

$ sudo alsa force-reload
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-hda-codec-si3054 snd-hda-codec-analog snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-page-alloc snd-timer (failed: modules still loaded: snd-hda-codec-si3054 snd-hda-codec-analog snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-page-alloc snd-timer).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-hda-codec-si3054 snd-hda-codec-analog snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-page-alloc snd-timer.
$ echo $?
1

Can you run alsamixer from the terminal and check to see if the Master is muted? — Elder Geek, May 05 '14 at 21:57
@ElderGeek I already stated that I'm SURE that the volume is not muted. alsamixer show the OO for everything and the volume is at 100%, the GUI in the settings shows the volume not muted and at 100%, in my question the output of list-sinks of pacmd shows muted: no. — Bakuriu, May 06 '14 at 06:22
In the U200/U205 The speakers are located in the lid, just below the screen. Have you tried connecting a pair of headphones to the headphone jack? the speakers may be completely blown or disconnected. — Elder Geek, May 06 '14 at 13:27
@ElderGeek Headphones don't work too. This laptop isn't mine, and its owner confirmed me that with windows XP audio worked fine (i.e. until few days ago). From pavucontrol I can see that headphones are detected when plugged in. — Bakuriu, May 06 '14 at 16:39
Does the output of pacmd list-sinks regarding headphones available change from no to yes when you plug them in? — Elder Geek, May 06 '14 at 16:54
@ElderGeek Yes, it shows: analog-output-headphones: Cuffie analogiche (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes) and also: active port: <analog-output-headphones>. It really seems as if the hardware is all recognized correctly, only it doesn't produce any sound. — Bakuriu, May 06 '14 at 17:42
@ElderGeek Are you there? I have already joined the chat room. — Bakuriu, May 06 '14 at 18:34
If you dual boot with Windows 8, see this answer. If headphones work, and the speaker doesn't work or works intermittently, please click "Does this bug affect you?" in the upper left of this bug. — Claudia, Aug 07 '14 at 07:59

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 13 '15 at 18:53

I was having your same issue. I found this:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=175110

So I used the following steps:

add "blacklist i82975x_edac" to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base-blacklist.conf
sudo modprobe -r i82975x_edac
sudo alsa force-reload

I did see this:

(failed: modules still loaded: snd-hda-codec-analog snd-hda-codec snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-page-alloc snd-timer)

But sound now does work.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 19 '16 at 14:12

1

Those of you who are having trouble with this type of sound card:

Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller

You shouldn't uninstall anything. It is enough to change the default output device in your alsa settings. It is normally set to the speakers, so change that to analog headphones and your problem should be solved. I've had this issue on several different machines and this solution has always worked.

edited Jun 19 '16 at 14:12

terdon

100,812

answered Jun 19 '16 at 10:57

rault arnaud

11

@Videonauth You should not add translations for the OP. It's their responsibility to provide the proper English version. – Bakuriu Jun 19 '16 at 12:36
3

@Bakuriu well, this is not stack overflow, and here we do that if we have the time as it helps others to understand and react on it properly if it goes into review queue. Also I don't see any improvement on it if it was left as it is. – Videonauth Jun 19 '16 at 12:45
1

@Bakuriu the objective is to have useful content for the site. Who does it is completely irrelevant. The right action here is to either simply downvote and flag as NAA, or if you so chose, to provide a translation. Of course the OP should do it but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with someone else doing it. – terdon Jun 19 '16 at 14:10
@terdon Yes, there could be something wrong when someone else does it. For example inaccurate translation, if not outright completely different content. If the OP makes edit to the original language version then the translation has to be updated to. It's far simpler to just flag it for removal and be done. – Bakuriu Jun 19 '16 at 14:46
@Bakuriu simpler, yes, but not better. Non-English content is useless, a translation already increases the information content. There's nothing wrong with someone else doing it. Also, if the OP posted in another language, they're probably not capable of translating it so their translation would be worse, if anything, not better. In any case, there's never any call to berate someone for attempting to improve the site. Yes, flagging it would be appropriate, but that doesn't mean that translating it is harmful. – terdon Jun 19 '16 at 14:50

How to make audio work on old laptop?

2 Answers2