I have a motherboard that (supposedly) automatically detects 2 channel, 4 channel and 6 channel configurations.

I've been running Slackware on it for the last couple of years. Recently, I started using Skype to talk to other people I work with in other countries. All my other computers work fine for this except this one. I suspect that it's the auto-configure "feature" (I call it a bug) in my motherboard that's screwing me. One of my other systems runs Slackware and the other Kubuntu 64 bit. Both work fine with Skype.

There is no way I know of to disable the auto-detect/auto-configure feature/bug. Turning off "HD Audio" in the BIOS set up does nothing but disable all sound.

Anyone have any other bright ideas? I've been Googling around and I've come up with nothing.

I tried alsaconf, alsamixer, and enabling duplex sound in the KDE menu. I'm close to giving up.

I had a similar problem to this and found it was the Skype app grabbing the wrong input & output. Check the sound under Options--> Sound Devices. I used the test call to resolve the problem.

Thanks for the tip. I'm ready to try *anything* and I hadn't tried your advice before.

Unfortunately that didn't work. I can't seem to get *any* microphone response out of this mother board's sound card. I still think it's the so called auto detection of what's plugged in that's causing the microphone jack to be disabled. I wish I knew of some way to actually get the motherboard to respond. I'm sure it works fine for Windows because you can utilize their sound driver.

Thanks for the response though. I appreciate the shot at it.

Any other bright ideas? Anyone?

Does anyone know if it's possible to use a headset with a USB connection as a solution?

I'd be willing to try that solution as well. I don't really care how I get it working, as long as I can get it working. I'll order USB connected headset if that would work. Anyone have any experience to share with this?

Thanks.

Scott

Hi,

Which kernel are you using? What is the motherboard model ext 'P5NSLI-??'?

Not sure what you mean by the model ext. I can supply any information about it though. I have all the documentation on it. I can certainly attempt to list all the gory details if that would help?

Here's the output of uname -a:
Linux webhost1 2.6.24.5-smp #1 SMP Wed Apr 30 13:18:13 CDT 2008 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

First, can you post the output of '/sbin/lspci -vv', it'll give you something like:

I know you've probably already done this, but make sure all the mics are unmuted in alsamixer. And make sure everything is hooked up right, how did you hook things up ? You put a mic in the mic jack of the sound card, right ? Then you made sure it is un-muted in alsamixer. And normally, sound does work on your system ... thus the sound card is working ?

Output of lspci -vv:

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 818f
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0 (500ns min, 1250ns max)
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at d4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask+ 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Masking: 00000000 Pending: 00000000
Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

"Yes" to all your questions.

That's why I was wondering if the USB option would work because it wouldn't go through the sound card. I'm still thinking it's the autodetection modes that screwing things up. But I'm not an expert on sound cards so I can't be sure.

Everyone has given great suggestions and I appreciated all of them. Thanks.

Scott

Ok here's how I get my mic to work:

1) Run alsaconf, then open alsamixer
2) Press <Tab> until you get to the View: [All]
3) Press <Space> on Capture the bottom will turn red and say L R Capture and increase the volume on it
4) Unmute Analog Loopback (press <m>)

Now it should work. Oh, and make sure Input Source is right, if you have a Mic and a Front Mic the Mic is in the back, and Front Mic is at the front of the case. To make it easier you can just use kmix.

Thanks H_TeXMeX_H

I've already done that and it worked great on all my other systems. I'm pretty convinced my motherboard is not going to cooperate.

I'm still wondering if the USB option would work. I may order a USB headset and try it even if no one has any advice on it.

Scott