Problem with sound in all apps except Totem

Asked by Bensin

Sometimes sound stops working for all applications except Totem movie player. When it stops, neither Audacious, Gxine or VLC produces sound. There is no error message in any application

Previously i suspected the NVIDIA restricted driver because I was (twice) able to restore the sound by removing the driver, restarting computer, reinstalling it and then restarting computer again.

In Audacious I use the ALSA 1.2.5 output plugin. If I go to "Output plugin preferences" and change from "Default PCM device" (which usually works) to "SBLive! Value [CT4832]: ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback (hw:1,0)" sound starts to work in Audacious (and still works in Totem), but doesn't work in Gxine or VLC.

I want sound to work in all applications at all time.

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Bensin
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Xebozone (markdavidoff) said :
#1

I had an issue with sound too, which I made in this bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/124730

I was able to solve it by slowing down the clock speed of my CPU. Try adjust your clock speeds (via the BIOS) of your CPU and/or memory.

If this doesn't help, it was worth a try.

You may also want to disable or disconnect your sound card and try with just the integrated sound, or with another card in your box (if you have more than one, or if you have integrated sound) in case there may be a conflict.

You could also try another sound card if you have one available.

I'm no linux expect, I just started with linux recently in fact, but I hope I can still help you resolve your issue. If not, someone more experienced with linux or an offical developer will surely help you

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Xebozone (markdavidoff) said :
#2

You may also want to check the system logs for errors, especially your authentication log in /var/log/auth.log

Look at the auth log as soon as the problem occurs.

You can also use the KSystemLog application (if you have it installed) to view system logs

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Bensin (lejmer) said :
#3

Thanks for your effort Xebozone, but I don't suspect the frequency is a factor.

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Xebozone (markdavidoff) said :
#4

Lowering the frequency will make the system more stable. I didn't overclock my CPU. It was at the default frequency, but lowering it solved the problem.

I didn't suspect it either. The ONLY problem I had with the computer was the sound. Everything else work perfectly and stable and had done so for years.

There's no harm in TRYING! It will only take a min or two and it may solve the problem. If it doesn't work not, then you can prove me wrong and I won't mention it again :)

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Bensin (lejmer) said :
#5

Thanks again, but since it has worked before, stopped working and then started working again without changing the CPU frequency I would like a second opinion first. Thanks though.

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Prashant Vaibhav (mercurysquad) said :
#6

To go for the obvious, I have two suggestions as a starting point for further troubleshooting:
1) I see hw:1,0 instead of hw:0,0. Does your computer have any built-in soundcard apart from the SB Live? If yes, you might want to disable that from the BIOS.
2) I suspect that another application is taking exclusive access to the default ALSA device, preventing other applications from accessing it. It might be the ESD daemon for gnome. Start gstreamer-properties (Alt+F2), and set the audio output to ALSA instead of ESD, then restart. See if that helps.

For further troubleshooting, you should use the aplay -L command to view a list of available devices and then use aplay --device=hw:0,0 file.wav (replace proper filename and device) to test each of the devices and see which works and which gives an error, e.g.

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Bensin (lejmer) said :
#7

Disabling the on-board soundcard in bios solved the problem. Thank you!

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Xebozone (markdavidoff) said :
#8

That's what I asked you to do!!

Read:

"You may also want to disable or disconnect your sound......."

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Bensin (lejmer) said :
#9

No, you asked me to "disable or disconnect your sound card and try with just the integrated sound", and since I want to use my SoundBlaster, not the integrated sound that particular solution didn't work for me. But I do see how your solution would have led me on the right trail, so I thank you too!