My laptop, with the Intel HDA ICH 7 audio controller is not outputting any sound, usually. I am running the 2.6.20.7 kernel with sound support compiled as modules. The card seems to be working fine (the relevant modules are loaded, it appears in alsaconf and alsamixer, but no sound is output, usually. As far as I can tell (I am running madplay with a known good mp3 file to test), the sound card will only output sound for one command after bootup. If I, say, ctrl-c out of the program and start it again, I get no sound. I can understand sound not working, but this inconsistent pedrformance is really irritating me.

My questions:

Where would I find relevant error messages?
Should I download the newest ALSA drivers?
Is there some other arcane magic that might be invoked to get this sound card running properly?

I will gladly provide any more information that might be useful.

Run your program using your sound card in a terminal, error should apear here...

Alsa driver are in kernel unless you compile your sound module with your alsa package but this isn't standard

try editing your alsa configuration file for allow more than one program to acces your sound device.
-->http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...p/asoundrc.php
see Software mixing section

in alsamixer
kmix
gnome-volume control

look for the digital output setting

theres a good chance either something is muted or digital output is enabled.

My onboard hda Intel i had to mute/unmute a few channels.
Cant remember the titles all i remember was there was 2 front left and 2 front rights
1 of each had to be muted before i got it worjking