All of a sudden I have no sound
 

I am using 10.6 buster on a 64 bit Lenova all in One. I was using the puter and all was fine. I stopped to eat dinner and when I went back to the machine it would not come back up. I though maybe the keyboard needed new batteries, so I changed them. It still did not wake my machine no matter what I did. So I turned it off and then back on. Only problem is the sound is not working at all.

What do I need to do to find out why the sound just quit. Your help is greatly appreciated.

? ?

Here is the Alsamixer.
┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ │ ▒│ │
│ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 1<>87 │
│ < Master > │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 20<>20 │
│ < Master > │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │
│ ┌───── Select File ──────┐ │
│ │/proc/asound/version │ │
│ ┌────────────────── /proc/asound/cards ───────────────────┐ │
│ │ 0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH │ │
│ │ HDA Intel PCH at 0xdf220000 irq 129│ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │/proc/asound/pcm │ │
│ └────────────────────────┘ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 60<>60 │
│ < Master > │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ ┌─────── /proc/asound/devices ───────┐ │
│ │ 2: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture │ │
│ │ 4: [ 0- 3]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 5: [ 0- 7]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 6: [ 0- 8]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 7: [ 0- 9]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 8: [ 0-10]: digital audio playback│ │
│ │ 9: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent │ │
│ │ 10: [ 0- 2]: hardware dependent │ │
│ │ 11: [ 0] : control │ │
│ │ 33: : timer │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 60<>60 │
│ < Master > │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3: Playback F4: Capture F5:[All] F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │▒ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ ├──┤ └──┘ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ L R │
│ CAPTURE │
│ 60<>60 68<>46 │
│ < Master >Capture │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ──────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: PulseAudio F1: Help │
│ Chip: PulseAudio F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Master Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ ┌───── Sound Card ──────┐ │
│ │- (default) │ │
│ │0 HDA Intel PCH │ │
│ │ enter device name...│ │
│ └───────────────────────┘ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │
│ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 60<>60 │
│ < Master > │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

I tried the pavucontrol and got nothing. It probably needs a command with it but I have no idea what that would be. Sorry at 71 yo I have forgotten a lot.

pavucontrol is the Pulse Audio Mixer. It should open a GUI window which you can use to check various settings.

Here's an article about it, which includes a video tutorial.

If it's the built-in speakers that aren't working and if the machine has an external audio jack, it might be a good idea to doublecheck the audio jack with external speaker or headphones.

This is really strange. I have used this machine for a year with no pavucontrol installed and not had a problem. I just installed pavucontrol and I have sound. I just wish I knew what the hell I did to break it to begin with. Thank you for your help.

Perhaps nothing. I have had machines on which the audio failed intermittently for reasons I never figured out. I bought a USB audio adaptor (only 56¢).

When I asked you to run alsamixer I meant for you to inspect the results yourself - perhaps the mute had been enabled or one of the levels (PCM matters!) had been turned down. The results are hard to inspect copied into an LQ post. Use amixer for that instead.

You can mark the thread as solved.

When other tactics to restore sound don't work I unload then re-load all the sound modules. I wrote 2 scripts: UnloadSound and LoadSound. This is close to being a re-boot just for sound.

My guess, from a position of complete and utter ignorance, is that something might have gotten accidentally muted pavucontrol's default setting unmuted it. That's just a guess.