strange audio feedback problem
 

Hello,

I installed Ubuntu Edgy a while ago, and ever since then I have been having a very strange problem, which is that I get audio feedback, which sounds exactly like there is a microphone sitting right in front of a speaker, but I have no microphone attached, and the sound seems to be a software glitch.

It happens with either of two different speaker systems, which work fine when attached to my other computer here (running Ubuntu Dapper).

It happens whenever the PCM level on my volume control is above 50-60%, even if the master volume level is turned down to about 20%. This makes it impossible to get an audible level for a sound file that is recorded with low volume.

It happens with any media player I use to play an audio or video file; XMMS, RealPlayer, Totem, VLC, etc., AND it happens if I raise the PCM level above that point with NO SOUND FILE playing.

I have a trial installation of Suse 10.1 on this computer, in dual boot mode. When I boot into Suse this problem DOES NOT happen. I can jack the (PCM) volume up and the sound is fine. I ran Mandriva before Edgy on this machine, and Windows before that, and never saw this problem before. No hardware was changed in all this time.

The on-board audio system is disabled in the bios.

My sound card is a Creative SB PCI512, and the sound module, emu10k1, is listed online as the right one for this card.

I hope someone can help; maybe I should study how alsa and such work in depth, but the demands of the rest of my life are such that I'd have to wait several months for such a project and just put up with the problem 'till then.

Thanks in advance!!