using mandrake 9.2

opened kmix and turned all volumes on and at max
cds dont play at all
mp3s play either real fast and skips or slow
sound on any video files plays really slow
sounds stack and cant play simultaneously - ie. have an mp3 on, switch mp3, and the 15 ims i got thru gaim during that song all bing their chimes away. then the song switches

is it wrong driver or something? tried a handful of the drivers with no luck what to do?

i am using mandrake 10.0 and my sound does not work at all, altough i have only tried off a cd.

djlosch, sound compatibility is a major dissapointment. I have one of the the best soundcards available, but the Linux driver is just crap. Basically, if you don't have a Sound Blaster Audigy (1 or 2) you are basically going to be really annoyed.

Anyway, the sound stacking problem will probably stay. But I would suggest not putting the sound levels all the way up. Here, it is completely distorted when I get too close to 100%. Put it in 88-92% and perhaps it's better.

To really solve your problem you need to go and buy an Audigy 2, just like me *sigh*.

It would help if you tell us your sound hardware, what Window Mgr or Desktop Environment you're using, and what apps you're using to play music.
Are you using KDE? If you are, go to the sound system in the KDE control center and turn off aRts from starting automatically.
What app are you using to play music? If you're using XMMS I think you might have go to Options > Preferences and change the output plugin to Alsa or OSS or something. See what it's using and then try a different output plugin.

I've used every version of Mandrake since 8.0 and getting sound to work is always a PITA. I've never gotten onboard sound to work, but I can get my cheap but lovely sounding PCI soundcard to work.

HTH,
Siri Amrit

mandrake 9.2
tried music with both totem and mplayer.
played around with the drivers and now music plays really fast and skips

however, there are some videos where the sound plays perfectly fine - no idea why (very small amnt tho)

and yes, im using kde

So you think the only way to fix the sound problem is to get a sound card?
On board will not work?

I had this problem when my kernel was complied with support for pentium when I actually was using AMD... (dont ask, an ambitious hardware swap that turned out to be a bit of a hassle).

Recompiled kernel with correct parameters, and sound worked fine.

Having said that, on board sound can present all sorts of latency problems, I went and got a cheap vibra 128 for another of my boxes for AUD$35 worked very nicely and have not had any issues with it.

The CMedia chipset on my soundcard works very well with Mandrake and Slackware. Sounds like an expensive card, costs about $16 at newegg.com

onboard def not working but i am checking out using one of the drivers online. however they all say i gotta recompile the kernel which i have never done b4 so that should be a fun experience.

anyways, thanks for all the help