I have an onboard AC97 controller - VT8233A/8235/8237, and Suse 10.0. I have sound, but it only comes out of the right speaker. Also, the speaker tends to make strange tapping sorts of noises when it's not in use... I was wondering if there was something I could do with my sound configuration to fix this. I've played with the mixer settings, ran alsaconf (it says I'm using driver snd-via82xx, and didn't change anything), but don't really know what else to do to detect any problems that might exist, or how to fix them. I know the speakers themselves work fine, since I plugged them into another computer, and got sound from both the left and right, with no weird noises. Any suggestions or ideas?

Play some sound that will last a few minutes. Where the speakers plug into the motherboard, jiggle that plug around a little. Pull it in and out, just a tiny bit. Try turning it half a turn, back and forth, several times. When it screws up again you just have to repeat the process.

::headdesk:: Boy do I feel silly for not thinking of such an obvious thing to try. It worked like a charm, thank you very much for suggesting it!

I think God helped me out to help you.