I have a Dell studio with an ATI Radeon 3450. I have tried just about everything i can find (drivers/envy/ALSA mixer/etc) but I can still not get this thing to work. Others out there appear to be having similar problems. Does anyone have a bombproof fix for this that doesn't involve mojo-twiddling of dials and toggles?

Please don't tell me that your AMP or NVIDIA card works fine..... It appears to be this precise card that is an issue, and particularly with the Dell.

I really want to get vista of this computer, and I cannot do so until i have sound and video.....

Thanks in advance....

Your ATI Radeon (HD?) 3450 is a video card, right? You have a choice of using the xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd driver or the ATI propietary driver which you can download from their site. http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...5&lang=English
That should sort out your video issues.
On the sound front you don't even give a hint of what sound card you're using so it's hard to give you any concrete advice on that subject.
Cheers,
jdk

Thanks, but I have tried both xorg and the proprietory drivers. Neither work. It's an intel soundcard (which is on the m/boardI think....).

I think there may be some issues with the distro I used which is the Linux Format magazine ubuntu distro. It had about a million extra bits of software on it that I will never use (surely they don't think people want all that) and I think it may have some conflicts. I think there is also some issuewit the FOSS drivers and HDMI, but I can't be sure.

At this stage I think I have fried my system by removing the prop drivers and attempting to reactivate the FOSS drivers. Have completely lost contact with the monitor. I may have to reinstall (losing a fair bitof data in the process). If I can'tget it working after this I'm just going to buy another card (never ati again).

Thanks again

I know you don't want to hear this but I have used ATI cards (well one ATI card ) for years with no problems. Also the FOSS xserver drivers have worked but without 3D accleration (in my case at least) so I use the proprietary drivers. One suggestion is to try a live CD like knoppix and see if it can get your video and audio working. If it does then just check out the drivers it uses and you'll know which ones are correct. Intel sound cards are usually quite easy and I've never had any problems with them (I don't use one myself but I've installed a number of systems that do have them). Generally alsaconf can detect the card and install the correct driver for you.

Finally, unless you're really in a bind, installing a system from a magazine CD is not a great idea. The systems tend to be way out of date. If at all possible try downloading one and burning a cd image to boot from.
Cheers,
jdk

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help. The live cd at least has normal operation but no sound or video. I have done a reinstall (managed to save most of my data), but still have no video and audio. Have tried all the various drivers again, but still nothing. At least I can work, but I think I may have to get another card. All this stuffing around is costing me money.

If anyone has a Dell studio with the radeon 3450 working on ubuntu I would like to hear from them.....

Thanks again

Hmm. Have you tried the ATI proprietary driver for Radeon 3450 (it is HD isn't it? otherwise I've been feeding you wrong information.) You have to build your own module and install it but that's not very difficult. Did alsa recognise your sound card and claim to have installed it? You checked obvious stuff like your mixer isn't set to mute and you are a member of the audio group on your system, etc.?

There are just a few things that come to mind.
Cheers,
jdk

Thanks JDK,

Yes checked alsa mixer. Sound card installled. Member of the audio group?? What is that?

Yes I have tried the prop driver for 3450.

It's driving me batty, because either I'm missing something simple or there really is a problem. I screwed my system trying to fix it bother (hence reinstall) so I am feeling a little cautious now....

Just open a terminal and type You'll see a list of the group you (or whoever you're logged in as) belong to. You should see "audio" appear as one of the groups. If you do, all is well; if you don't, that could be your problem.


Jc, you're a little vague on exactly how you tried to install the prop driver. It's a step by step approach with a number of steps including a clean-up phase that needs to be done first. When you're describing a problem it's a good idea so say exactly what you did and what the system response was to your actions at each step. If you made a mistake that screwed up your system before, wouldn't it be a good idea to find out what you did wrong so you don't do it again?
cheers,
jdk