I just bought a Gateway 3520 (An M210S, basically). After a little bit of tinkering, I have everything working well... except the sound. The actual audio controller seems to be working fine, it's the volume. The volume control on the laptop itself is a little electronic dial that you "click" in either direction to adjust the volume. I think it's a software-driven control, because it worked fine for the... 45 minutes Windows was on here. In a console trying to adjust the volume spits out ^[[26~ for attempting to turn down the volume, ^[[25~ for muting it, and nothing for turning it up.

...Is there anything I can try? I would really hate to have to return this fine little laptop because of the volume dial. I don't even need it all that much, I just need it on.

No problem, dude. I've got a laptop and I have buttons too, though they are fully working. First off, you can most likely manipulate the sound level through software. If you can do this through the sound manager in the Windows system tray (which I'm sure you can), then you're set and good. First, hit up a terminal and run "alsamixer." Unmute everything and bring the levels up but put some music on first, as you can make it really loud. =) I have my hardware buttons working through the hotkey program in the GNOME desktop environment. Since you get text when you press your buttons, you won't have to do anything crazy, since they are working like any other key--you can assign stuff to them. I don't know of any other programs to do this with. Sry.

Everything is turned up in the mixer, I still don't get any sound. I think the speakers are controlled via software or something. It's the actual physical volume control that isn't working (but does in Wndows with a little OSD an everything). Headphones don't work either. It's a real bummer...

Edit: For what it's worth, I've tried on 2.4, 2.6/ALSA and 2.6/OSS kernels. No dice. Each time the kernel appears to see and load everything just fine.

I just re-installed Windows to double-check. Sound works, controls and all, in XP. It's definitely some sort of driver/software issue.

I've got an older version of this laptop, an M4525GZ, and I had the same problem. I finally figured out that I had to TURN OFF (thats right) the external amplifier under alsamixer. For some reason, the sound is muted when that is turned on.

Eric

P.S. My volume control does not work either, but thats ok.

Awesome.

Thank you sooooo much. It's still an annoyance, but it's an annoyance with SOUND.

I'm gonna google around see if the ALSA people know this. Maybe there's something they can do about it.

Thanks again,

Basil

I have the Gateway 3550GZ (same as M210?) and have struggled with the lack of sound for weeks (on Ubuntu 5.10). This thread helped immensely. The advice was spot on.

1. Put a CD into the drive and play some music. You can verify it by running Volume Monitor in Sound and Video Applications (Gnome) . I saw activity on the monitor but could not hear any music.

2. Open Volume Control (aka Alsa Mixer --- again, in Sound and Video Applications).

3. Under "File" select "Change Device" to confirm that the selected device is "Intel 82801DB-ICH4 (Alsa Mixer)"

4. Unmute every control in "Playback" and "Capture" and, where possible, put the slider control somewhere in the middle for every output and input.

4. Under "Switches" uncheck "Headphone Jack Sense," "Line Jack Sense," and "External Amplifier."

5. Enjoy the music.

Don't know if this will work on other machines/distros/ALSA versions (Gateway 350GZ, Ubuntu Breezy Badger, ALSA 1.0.9, here) but the crucial element was getting all three toggles turned off. If any of them are "on" --> no sound.