No sound as Root, but sound as standard user
 

How come the sound system in Linux Mint runs just fine as an average user but doesn't respond as Root? I had the same problem with Ubuntu when I used sudo passwd to enable the root account (and this is on an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1545).

Attached is an example of what happens when I run "Sound Preferences" as root:

Attachment 4477

You aren't supposed to be running as the root user, and in modern desktop-oriented distributions the system may behave in unexpected ways if you try.

I'm not sure exactly why this is happening, but this might have something to do with both Ubuntu and Mint coming with root account disabled by default. Anyway, it's always a bad idea to do your daily work in root.

The rule of thumb goes as "Never ever log in a root unless you really have to and you can't get su/sudo to do it". :) Sorry for not being more helpful.

Ubuntu has the root account disabled by default. Mint doesn't. Why? Because I didn't have to run sudo passwd on it. Regardless, it still does this.