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Sound stops working in Helena after recommended updates

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:02 pm
by Eh Train
Hello,

I'm still new to linux (like super green. one would say mint green :P). I installed Mint8 (Helena) on my HP Touchsmart tx2 with the provided "main" iso and I've run into a few problems. Focusing on what I know, I wanted to share my sound problem as it seems many are having my same issue but a few nights in google have brought me several solutions, none of which worked.

When i first install Helena out of the box the sound works perfectly. The mute, and volume up/down buttons on my laptop work perfectly. When I do the recommended updates (132 after a new install) my sound completely stops working. I've tried various options after the updates in my root/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file at the end. (Tried model=auto, model=toshiba, dell, hp, etc etc etc..)

Its clear that it is related to the updates, but with little to no linux experience I'm not sure where to look shy of installing each package individually. I am more than willing to help nail it down, just wanted to know if someone with more knowledge would be able to help me narrow my search.

my Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)

Thanks!

Re: Sound stops working in Helena after recommended updates

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 2:59 am
by Eh Train
All fixed now with all updates installed. I recreated that issue a few times, but when I install all the updates except the gstreamer, reboot then install the gstreamer updates my sound works fine. I doubt I found a real solution, but w/e it works.

Re: Sound stops working in Helena after recommended updates

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:23 pm
by AliceInLinuxland
The same thing happened to me. I did a lot of searching on the internet and at first found nothing. I reinstalled Vista. Fortunately the MSI Recovery Disks worked. Then I started searching Ubuntu forums (Linux Mint is built on an Ubuntu foundation) and found some information. Here's what you can try:

1. Uninstall the software dial-up modem driver. This is what killed sound on my MSI GT735 laptop. When I discovered that the software modem might disable sound, I installed Linux Mint 8 64-bit over the top of Vista and skipped the software modem installation. I held my breath and installed the updates and sound still worked. If uninstalling the software modem doesn't work, try reinstalling and simply skip installing the software modem. Read number 2 below before installing.

2. Someone using Ubuntu and Windows XP in a dual-boot configuration discovered that sound settings in Windows XP could affect Ubuntu. If sound was muted in Windows XP, it was also muted in Ubuntu. Before you install Linux Mint, make certain that sound is not muted in Windows. Make sure that sound is turned up all the way to 100% on every possible sound system setting. Needless to say, this probably only affects a few certain machines -- machines that save sound settings in the hardware.

This is all that I was able to find. Good luck to you. Post your result for the benefit of the rest of us.

Re: Sound stops working in Helena after recommended updates

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:40 pm
by Eh Train
I have windows 7 on my other partition with no problems but that software modem driver did have this issue!

with the software modem enabled, I lose sound. Disabled sound works great.

Good find, thanks for the reply!