no sound. OSS silent, ALSA broken

r00tb33r · 03-09-2007, 12:23 AM

Suddenly in the middle of work the sound goes silent when I start Quake 3... XMMS was running in the background.
After that I was forced to reboot since no sound was working again, and restarting ALSA server did not help.
After restarting everything is silent, aplay returns the following:

Code:

aplay music.mp3
Playing raw data 'music.mp3' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
ALSA lib pcm_params.c:2152:(snd_pcm_hw_refine_slave) Slave PCM not usable
aplay: set_params:879: Broken configuration for this PCM: no configurations available

my .asoundrc:

Code:

pcm.dmixer {
   type dmix
   ipc_key 1024
   slave {
       pcm "hw:0,0"
       channels 4
       period_time 0
       buffer_time 0
       period_size 1024
       buffer_size 8192
       rate 44100

   }
}
pcm.!default {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmixer"
   slave.channels 4
   route_policy duplicate
}

Note that although ALSA no longer reports to work, it does play silent in XMMS. I see the visualization showing that its playing, but both OSS and ALSA plugins are silent.
My PCM is turned all the way up in alsamixer.
I am clueless on this one and its very aggravating. No the sound card did not go bananas since it still works on windows.
*EDIT*
After 2 restarts the sound is working again. I swear I didn't change anything. This is weird... Why? This problem occurred before and I couldn't explain how it fixed itself... If something resets on reboot, how come it doesn't work on every reboot?

lazlow · 03-09-2007, 01:06 AM

I would reinstall the card. I have a PIII slot1 that every six months I have to pull the cpu and reinstall. Goes form doing all kinds of strange stuff to perfectly happy (for the next 6 months).

Lazlow

r00tb33r · 03-09-2007, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazlow

I would reinstall the card. I have a PIII slot1 that every six months I have to pull the cpu and reinstall. Goes form doing all kinds of strange stuff to perfectly happy (for the next 6 months).

Lazlow

LOLz.... Sorry I should have mentioned.
Its onboard, part of the nForce 4 chipset. That one would be a little hard to reinstall/reseat.

lspci:

Code:

root:# lspci
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a3)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Contro ller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f2)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTra nsport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Con troller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscella neous Control
01:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
01:08.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 07)
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a 2)

I am running a 32bit OS btw. Kernel 2.6.18.5.

PS The SB Live! card you see listed is not used at all at any time.

r00tb33r · 03-10-2007, 01:28 AM

Yep, no sound again.

lazlow · 03-10-2007, 01:37 AM

I am betting on a hardware failure. Have you noticed if it occurs more/less when it is hot/cold in the room (cracked motherboard, grounding on case, etc). I know you said it worked in windows but that MAY just be due to luck.