Creative Sound Blaster card slips to headphones mode

mike acker · 01-23-2020, 03:52 PM

I installed a Creative Systems / Sound Blaster SB1570 in my Debian-10 system today.

This was done because the ROG STRIX B450-F MoBo built-in audio would drop into a 60 hz AC hum whenever no sound app was playing -- e.g. if a video were put on pause.

The SB1570 seems to fix this, BUT: the SB1570 does not have a dedicated LINE-OUT port: it has a shared headphone/line-out port -- and it seems to shift into headphone mode when I don't want that.

So, the question is: can I set a parameter someplace to force the SB1570 into LINE-OUT mode 100% of the time ?

hopefully

aus9 · 01-23-2020, 08:15 PM

until you get a better reply....please take a screenshot of this command

Code:

alsamixer -c0 -Vall

If above command reveals hdmi....we want analog then change -c0 to -c1 -c2 etc until you get the right device
upload it to a sharing site like ingur.com and link to it

here is my example
https://imgur.com/JhmmH5i

look at the input control in yellow I have used the up or down arrows to select line
(but this is line in)

as you say your hardware is shared out or in....we should be able to see a control for it?

Leaping ahead....we use the arrow keys to navigate to the control then press the up key a number of times or down to get to change the setting
Then we have save that new setting with

Code:

sudo alsactl store

Secondly.....you probably want to turn off "auto-mute" if you have such a setting. Not all sound cards have a control for it. But the reveal all command (Vall) should show it.

Leaping ahead use the arrow keys to navigate to that setting press up or down to disable it
and save the setting with the alsactl commmand

Naturally you can do all changes at the same session to save mixer settings and levels

mike acker · 01-24-2020, 04:59 AM

thanks for the help--

hopefully i have the screenshot attached here properly,...

this sound card has a shared port for line-out | headphones

it's OK this morning: it's set to line-out -- which is correct for the feed to my amp which uses the old-style RCA stereo hook-up. Last time it shifted on me to the headphones -- the card has its own headphone amp -- I had to restart the OS to get it back. Maybe this alsamixer interface will let me set it? you would think it could be selected/set in the Sound Setting dialog.

we'll see. anyway I have a lot of fun fussing wit these things !!

aus9 · 01-24-2020, 07:15 AM

1--auto mute is still showing as enabled

2 The control right of LFE is line...use your arrow key to it and then look at top left hand corner of alsamixer
does this say line out?

If it does press the m key to unmute that control and raise volumes

3 You have 3 input sources. Navigate to each. use the up or down keys to see if you can make one of them line OUT
if one of the controls gives you the option of headphone....that is the correct control to play with.

4) I have a tower and I have 2 sets of controls one for front and for the back.

So IMHO the first of the "lines" is the front line if it exists
second is the rear line if it exists
no idea about your third one

mike acker · 01-24-2020, 08:02 AM

thanks!! this is a big help!!

I think I need to be quite careful though: after I looked at this "alsamixer" I must have touched something wrong as it created a 1/2 sec delay on the audio and added a scratchy sound

rebooting cleared that up

right now the card is presenting as "line out" in the Sound Settings. there's a switch on that panel that should let me adjust the output device. when it jumped into headphone mode earlier the Sound Settings dialog didn't offer me the option to change the headphone option back to line out.

I should have made sure to select a card that did not use a shared port. But: we live and learn ! It's All Good !

aus9 · 01-24-2020, 06:30 PM

I am not an electrician but pretty sure the wiring and resistance to a dedicated line out......differs from a headphone jack

so if I try to record sound in the old days to a tape recorder using a 3.5 mm jack in the headphone socket I had distorted sound.

Quote:

I must have touched something wrong as it created a 1/2 sec delay on the audio and added a scratchy sound

I may be wrong to assert you need auto mute disabled.

I did not ask if this was a laptop. With a laptop...using laptop speakers inserting a headphone jack....you need "headphone or jack sense"
and that is what auto mute supplies.

ie auto mutes the speakers and sound goes only to headphone.

so can you redo alsa and disable auto mute and re-test please.

mike acker · 01-25-2020, 07:50 AM

it's an ATX tower. ROG STRIX B340F MoBo; Debian-10 op sys.

yes: the headphone is 600 ohms; line-out is the old RCA standard: 1/2 v 50K or 100K ohms. so they have to have a switch in there that is triggered by the driver.

this morning the Creative Sound SB1570 again reverted to a 1/2 sec delay in delivering sound. I think that setting is there for videos that are a little out of time ( I run into them once in a while )

anyway my conclusion is: I don't like the driver: it's doing two things that don't work for me -- (1) shifting into headphone mode for no known reason, and (2) setting this 1/2 sec sound delay -- again -- for no known reason .

I pulled the card this morning and reverted to the integrated MoBo DAC. The original problem returned, of course: I get a 60 hz hum if there is not an active application program running -- and then I have to hit the MUTE switch on my power amp.

so, I'm marking this as a bogey on my score card: live & learn.

I may revert to my USB based Behringer DAC. The trouble there is the use of USB2. The MoBo has only 2 USB2 ports and these are used for the KEYBD and mouse

the tower has an add-on card in the front for SD chips and this uses the USB3 header off the MoBo. The MoBo has only one USB3 header; the other 2 are USB2. Why they did that -- dunno. More live& learn. anyway the factory installed front header on the tower then has two USB2 ports -- although they have blue tounges.

I could connect the Behringer that way -- but -- it would be messy. yuk

aus9 · 01-26-2020, 05:32 PM

some towers still have ps/2 kb and mouse jacks on the back, if so buy adapters ps/2 to usb?

what was the answer to post 4 Question 2 ?

Quote:

The MoBo has only 2 USB2 ports and these are used for the KEYBD and mouse

You could always learn to modify keyboard shortcuts for what ever desktop you are using and get rid of the mouse?

eg
https://opensource.com/article/18/8/...window-manager

and the Wayland variant which is sway?

cheeky I know but I saw that you "have a lot of fun"

mike acker · 01-27-2020, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

some towers still have ps/2 kb and mouse jacks on the back, if so buy adapters ps/2 to usb?

what was the answer to post 4 Question 2 ?<snip>

cheeky I know but I saw that you "have a lot of fun"

sorry, I pulled the Creative/Sound Blaster card. I need something more basic. Linux is very good at recognizing these components and it certainly recognized the SB1570. I googled for linux issues with this card but didn't find anything that seemed related to my setup -- it's probably related to the MoBo -- which is a B450 chipset Ryzen 5 2600 cpu opsys on SSD and DDR4 mem sticks.

so -- I greatly appreciate your interest in this but I want to table the issue for now

aus9 · 01-28-2020, 03:38 AM

yeah good enough.

now as the subject line is about headphone mode....at some point in time you may like to start a new thread on diagnostics for the hum in your external amp.

I use 2 ch desktop speakers so prolly not the best to give you ideas....but if a mic is receiving input to your speakers as a feedback loop eg
that should be easy for you to narrow down?

Good Luck

mike acker · 01-28-2020, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

yeah good enough.

now as the subject line is about headphone mode....at some point in time you may like to start a new thread on diagnostics for the hum in your external amp.

I use 2 ch desktop speakers so prolly not the best to give you ideas....but if a mic is receiving input to your speakers as a feedback loop eg
that should be easy for you to narrow down?

Good Luck

It's not the amp: If I disconnect the RCA cables from the amp it is dead quiet, even with the volume half open (I like to control the volume from the audio volume keys on the keyboard ).

If I disconnect the RCA cables from the LINE OUT ( it uses the typical 3.5 mm TRS male plug ) -- then I do get a hum. But this is normal: it's not proper to have a floating cable connected only on one end

now, here's where it gets interesting: at times: this setup behaves normally: it's quiet, right now. at other times: about 5 sec after a video ( any source ) is paused the hum will present. To me this indicates that when the card is not allocated to an application then it does not hold the signal leads at zero, rather it just releases them. hence the hum. I think I might know why, though---- I'll try some tests and then update this.

++Update:

yep: when I closed Firefox the hum presented. Subsequently when I re-opened Firefox the hum continued until I accessed a Video at which point it went quiet. However: when I paused the video, after about 5 sec the hum came back.

Interesting: Line Out Hum Issue

The problem appears to present when no application has the DAC allocated. It kinda looks like the DAC driver is supposed to hand off the DAC to some kind of idle-time package when no other application is using it.

aus9 · 01-28-2020, 06:35 PM

right can I suggest another test.

Firefox uses PA. Find a web browser with no dependency of PA and re-test for hum. As I can not force you to download big ones that might be bad
use search terms like "debian package <name-of-browser>" and check it deps.

one small web browser is called netsurf has no PA deps

Code:

sudo apt install netsurf
SNIP
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  netsurf netsurf-common netsurf-gtk
Need to get 1,458 kB of archives.
After this operation, 6,047 kB of additional disk space will be used.

I am also tempted to suggest a brutal test of adding PA configs from etc to your home .conf
edit your home config to disable respawn of PA
killing PA and seeing if your sound works OK only on Alsa.
then do you still have hum.

If no hum....PA is your culprit. I can expand on this if I have been too terse

mike acker · 01-29-2020, 04:52 AM

I take it "PA" references Pulse Audio,-- the Pottering thing. The alternative being ALSA.

I have my Audacious player set to ALSA but this exhibits the same hum issue as with Videos on Firefox: If you put it on pause you get the hum.

It's interesting to me that this did not occur when I had the SB1570 installed. The SB1570 had its own issues,-- it would switch to headphone mode -- on its own, and also it would add a 1/2 sec. sound delay -- again on its own. so the driver used for the SB1570 was unstable and that is why I pulled the card.

one thing that I neglected: with the SB1570 installed I should have run an APT UPDATE.

++

the dialog that is presented by that alsamixer command is nothing short of intimidating. there is a man file for it but right now I need the card to work on its default settings.

++

Browsers: I've used Opera at times; it's a good browser. I see more and more notes advocating Vivaldi; I have the latest download but no signature for it

It's probably safe to use; if there were any issues with it they'd have been discovered by now,-- probably. But, "probably" is the best we can do with modern electronics

So that leaves me with the repos packages: Firefox and Chromium .

++

This system is running a straight Debian-10:

Code:

$ inxi -F
System:    Host: Office2 Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.8 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING v: Rev 1.xx serial: <root required> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1201 date: 12/07/2018 
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           Speed: 1375 MHz min/max: 1550/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1375 2: 1372 3: 1380 4: 1460 5: 1373 6: 1375 7: 1373 
           8: 1377 9: 1372 10: 1409 11: 1374 12: 1372 
Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Baffin [Radeon RX 460] driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Radeon RX 560 Series (POLARIS11 DRM 3.27.0 4.19.0-6-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network driver: igb 
           IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: 40:b0:76:dc:f8:ac 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter driver: rtl8192ce 
           IF: wlp5s0 state: up mac: 9c:5c:8e:b5:e5:f1 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 5.91 TiB used: 1.15 TiB (19.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT500P1SSD8 size: 465.76 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0 size: 1.82 TiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0 size: 1.82 TiB 
           ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0 size: 1.82 TiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 47.81 GiB used: 12.12 GiB (25.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
           ID-2: /home size: 1.79 TiB used: 1.14 TiB (63.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc1 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 25.33 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 31.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 35 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 gpu: amdgpu fan: 502 
Info:      Processes: 272 Uptime: 41m Memory: 31.41 GiB used: 1.67 GiB (5.3%) Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.32

I took up running Debian-10 when the MINT project was slow getting LMDE/3 ready. We'll see how they do with LMDE/4. I wish they drop their "standard" version and concentrate on their LMDE edition.

--

aus9 · 01-29-2020, 05:33 AM

Quote:

when the MINT project was slow

I am drifting off topic but try a more basic desktop without 3d accel etc?

try openbox, easy to set up and configure

all I am asking you to do is test a web browser that has no dependencies of PA....not requesting you change your life. giggles

BTW

Quote:

when I had the SB1570 installed

did bios have a setting to disable onboard sound?

mike acker · 01-29-2020, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

I am drifting off topic but try a more basic desktop without 3d accel etc?

try openbox, easy to set up and configure

all I am asking you to do is test a web browser that has no dependencies of PA....not requesting you change your life. giggles

BTW
did bios have a setting to disable onboard sound?

usually when you add a card -- video, or sound -- it cuts off the MoBo default support and this seems to be the case here. I did not find any options in the BIOS dialog related to the sound output. To my thinking, the bottom line here is pretty simple: the on-board audio throws a 60 hz hum when it should be quiet. Hence I need to move to some other option. The add-in card didn't work out well either so for now I have switched back to my USB/Behringer external DAC. These little gadgets just plain work but It's kinda messy having the external device attached to one of the two USB(2) front system ports. I normally buy ASUS parts and I'll be getting an ASUS card for this in a week or so.

I don't want to shake up this system a whole lot at this time: I may switch back to LMDE when 4 is available -- but, more likely, I'll stick to straight Debian.

Thanks for all the help !!!!!