Randomly no sound have to restart

[Emanuele_Z]

Hi all,

I installed Ubuntu 10.04 x86-64 on my pc.
I have the following hardware:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.40GHz (Total Cores: 4)
Motherboard: ASUSTeK M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Chipset: AMD RS780 Alternate
Memory: 8002MB
Disk: 750GB MDT MD7500AADS-0 + 1500GB SAMSUNG HD154UI
Graphics: nVidia 470 GTX 1280MB (607/1674MHz)
Audio: Realtek ID 892

Sometime (25%+) happens that when I start the computer I have no sound and if I look at System->Preferences->Sound I see no devices (I have the chip on the motherboard and a USB Headphone+Mic set as default).
When this happens I can't even set the CPU frequency from the same named applet and to shutdown the computer I have to:

sudo shutdown -h now

Usually after 1 restart I'll have the sound, and both audio peripherals are detected.
Am I the only one who's having this issue?
Any idea how to fix it?

Cheers,

[gamer_pro_2000]

Have you tried killing pulseaudio and then restarting it? Try pulseaudio -k and then just run pulseaudio in terminal and see if it comes back.

[lkjoel]

Hi all,

I installed Ubuntu 10.04 x86-64 on my pc.
I have the following hardware:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.40GHz (Total Cores: 4)
Motherboard: ASUSTeK M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Chipset: AMD RS780 Alternate
Memory: 8002MB
Disk: 750GB MDT MD7500AADS-0 + 1500GB SAMSUNG HD154UI
Graphics: nVidia 470 GTX 1280MB (607/1674MHz)
Audio: Realtek ID 892

Sometime (25%+) happens that when I start the computer I have no sound and if I look at System->Preferences->Sound I see no devices (I have the chip on the motherboard and a USB Headphone+Mic set as default).
When this happens I can't even set the CPU frequency from the same named applet and to shutdown the computer I have to:

sudo shutdown -h now

Usually after 1 restart I'll have the sound, and both audio peripherals are detected.
Am I the only one who's having this issue?
Any idea how to fix it?

Cheers,

Try Fix your sound! in my signature.
Then use Post-Fix your sound! in my signature.

[Emanuele_Z]

Have you tried killing pulseaudio and then restarting it? Try pulseaudio -k and then just run pulseaudio in terminal and see if it comes back.

The issue is that PA is running and alive when I see no devices (and paradoxally when I happen to have no audio devices found, SC2 with wine runs 2x faster...).

Any other idea?

[lkjoel]

The issue is that PA is running and alive when I see no devices (and paradoxally when I happen to have no audio devices found, SC2 with wine runs 2x faster...).

Any other idea?

Follow the instructions of my last post.

[Emanuele_Z]

Follow the instructions of my last post.

Sorry mate, I don't want to use OSS. I'll stick with ALSA.

An other idea about my issue?

Cheers,

[blueturtl]

What is your output for command

cat /proc/asound/cards

when this happens?

Based on your symptoms at this point I would say either something wrong with the motherboard, or maybe a bug with the BIOS.

You could try see if the BIOS settings for the integrated sound card can be altered. Here's what I suspect: there is a setting such as "HD Audio Codec" or something that is set to "Auto". Try see if you can just set it to "Enabled". This is based on the idea that for some reason your system thinks it has another sound card and disables the on-board audio.

Just a thought.

[Emanuele_Z]

What is your output for command

cat /proc/asound/cards

when this happens?

Based on your symptoms at this point I would say either something wrong with the motherboard, or maybe a bug with the BIOS.

You could try see if the BIOS settings for the integrated sound card can be altered. Here's what I suspect: there is a setting such as "HD Audio Codec" or something that is set to "Auto". Try see if you can just set it to "Enabled". This is based on the idea that for some reason your system thinks it has another sound card and disables the on-board audio.

Just a thought.

Hi, the output is:

ema@darklady:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfbff8000 irq 16
 1 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset
                      Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:12.0-2, full speed

My motherboard is an ASUSTeK M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3.
In the BIOS the setting for internal audio is Enabled (and it says front device AC97 - which is chones - or I could use HD Audio).

What do you think?
Should I update the BIOS?

Cheers,

[blueturtl]

A lot of care need to be taken to update the BIOS, it shouldn't be done except maybe as a last resort.

Did you run the command when the soundcard was working or when you were experiencing the problem?

[Emanuele_Z]

A lot of care need to be taken to update the BIOS, it shouldn't be done except maybe as a last resort.

Did you run the command when the soundcard was working or when you were experiencing the problem?

When it's working...
I'll rerun the command once is not working an will let you know...

Update.
After a restart, to check BIOS version, the sound doesn't work. The output of the command line is:

ema@darklady:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfbff8000 irq 16
 1 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset
                      Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:12.0-2, full speed

If I go into sound properties, no devices are found, and the output is set to Dummy Output.
Do you still believe a BIOS upgrade shouldn't be needed?

Cheers,