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-   -   Poor sound quality using CMI 9880 and ALSA (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/poor-sound-quality-using-cmi-9880-and-alsa-260210/)

singularity 11-28-2004 02:07 PM

Poor sound quality using CMI 9880 and ALSA
 
Hey

Just wondering if anyone else is having the same problems as I am with the C-Media CMI 9880 Azalia on board sound. I'm running a Gigabyte 915p based motherboard and get distortion when im playing any audio. Its like theres a weird echo / reverb in the background thats got tons of static . The chip seems to reset after about 20 seconds, then the audio is good for about 10 seconds, before the distortion starts again. It doesn't show up in any mixer applications either, which I find a bit strange.


I'm using ALSA 1.0.7 and running fedora core 3.

monkeym@n 12-11-2004 05:26 PM

So what module do you load?
 
Ok, this is an old thread, but I'm pulling hairs here. The only driver I could find for my CMI 9880 is "snd-azx", but when I modprobe it (alsa-driver-1.0.7), I get a "Bad EIP" and a stack trace. Same with the Dec. 10 CVS version of it.

Do you use the Intel HD Audio driver? Pray tell...

Cheers,
Steven

singularity 12-11-2004 06:05 PM

I didn't use modprobe to start the driver, I just used alsaconf, but I did use the same driver, snd-azx. I did try the Intel HD Audio driver, but their shell script threw back an error, saying that I didnt have any devices that were compatable with the driver, even though lspci says otherwise. I didnt have the patience to install the driver manually, so I just stuck with the snd-azx alsa driver. Interesting that Intel say in their install PDF that drivers have been released to the open source community and will hopefully be implemented in the next ALSA version.

When I got sick of stuffing around, and having poor sound quality, I eneded up throwing my Sound Blaster Live in, which works well with ALSA. I figured Id try again a few ALSA versions down the track, because I miss the jack sensing and 7:1.

When I first built the PC, I loaded XP to play some games at a LAN. From what I could see, even the Winblows driver had problems. The mic level was too low and there was no 20db boost option, the headphone volume was way too low, even when turned up the whole way. The CMI interface seemed buggy also. I couldnt find a driver update for the CMI-9880 chip anywhere, all mobo manufactures used the same buggy version. install

Honoriu 03-03-2005 03:16 AM

Now... I have the same problem...it's a bigger one.. I have the same motherboard like you: Gigabyte 915P and I do not have a driver for the on board CMI 9880+ sound card. My Fedora Core 3 (like yours) do not detect my soundcard. Could you give me the link from where you took the driver? On www.cmedia.com there is no driver for linux for this soundcard.
After that I will install it and we will see if I will have the same problem.
What I can tell is that: before i bought this now computer I had an older one and I had red hat 9 running on it. I had a few problems with the sound card. The problems were aproximatly the same like yours. And do you know what i did? I copied modules.conf ( on fedora this file has another name, I do not know the new one by now) from /etc and just when the sound was good. And then by the time the souncard made me problems at the first time, I just copied the modules.conf, that I copied before from /etc, back into /etc and overwrite that one. After that I didn't hve any problems anymor. I would try that on Fedora Core 3 to but I hav no driver.
Please give me the link for tha driver.

Honoriu 03-03-2005 12:45 PM

Help me to please same problem.. :(

gvtlinux 05-21-2005 02:08 PM

C-Media CMI9880 sound crackling.
 
Yes I too am experiencing crackling with this chip. First of all I am using Slackwae 10.1 on an ASUS P5AD2-E Premium with a 775 3GHz P4 CPU. It is compiled for the P4 SMP the Marvell on board chip etc.. Just to get this sound chip to work I had to retrieve from alsa.org the latest beta alsa-driver-1.0.9rc3 , alsa-lib-1.0.9rc3, alsa-oss-1.0.9rc3, alsa-utils-1.0.9rc3. Did the usual configure make make install and then performed alsa configurations with the alsaconfig and alsamixer scripts.

Like you I too have crackling with the drivers. The crackling will get worse with certain frequencies and attenuation. I have some native american flute recordings that drive this chip nutz. On another machine next to this one I have much better sound performance with a CM8738 sound chip same CD.

Looks like they a little more work to do on this CMI9880 sound chip yet.

gvt

pityq 10-20-2005 04:55 AM

Re: C-Media CMI9880 sound crackling.
 
Quote:

Originally posted by gvtlinux
Yes I too am experiencing crackling with this chip. First of all I am using Slackwae 10.1 on an ASUS P5AD2-E Premium with a 775 3GHz P4 CPU. It is compiled for the P4 SMP the Marvell on board chip etc.. Just to get this sound chip to work I had to retrieve from alsa.org the latest beta alsa-driver-1.0.9rc3 , alsa-lib-1.0.9rc3, alsa-oss-1.0.9rc3, alsa-utils-1.0.9rc3. Did the usual configure make make install and then performed alsa configurations with the alsaconfig and alsamixer scripts.

Like you I too have crackling with the drivers. The crackling will get worse with certain frequencies and attenuation. I have some native american flute recordings that drive this chip nutz. On another machine next to this one I have much better sound performance with a CM8738 sound chip same CD.

Looks like they a little more work to do on this CMI9880 sound chip yet.

gvt

Hi!
I'm a rookie in linux. I have the same CMI9880 sound card but I'm not able to install on FC3. I have downloaded the alsa-driver-1.0.9 and I tryed to install but I got stucked. The install doc says that after I run the make install I should edit my kernel module config (either /etc/modprobe.conf) but it does not say with what should I edit.
I don't know what to do now to hear some sound on my machine. Can anybody help please?
Thanks.

ToadProphet 12-04-2005 09:42 AM

'Crackling' sound on CMI9880
 
Howdy, to fix this issue add position_fix=1 or position_fix=2 to the options snd-hda-intel line in your /etc/modules. Cheers.


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