no sound though software says ok

hi

i recently got me a newly assembled PC with windows 7 and ubuntu installed on it for dual boot. at first the sound seemed ok but soon enough there is no sound whatsoever. i checked the drivers and the computer says they're installed. when i play videos the volume manager acts as if the sound is playing normally. after a little tinkering i managed to get to a part where the volume manager says that no headphone is plugged, even though it is. i did system restore to no avail. any advice?

here are my PC specs -

motherboard - Gigabyte G31M-ES2C
ram - 2 GB
Chipset - G31 north and ICH7 south
cpu - E5200 dual core 2.5 GHz

any help is appreciated, and if you need more info, please ask.

 

Greetings, EthioJOB.

Regardless of what Windows states about the drivers, I suggest reinstalling the software. You'll have to plug in your Win 7 architecture (32- or 64-bit) here to get the correct Realtek package. You might even consider uninstalling the audio, running Driver Sweeper to clean any traces, then installing the newest Realtek files.

Are the same symptoms occurring in both Windows and Ubuntu?

 

Yes the symptom occurs in Ubuntu too. I have the manufacturer's driver dvd (think it was made for vista) and reinstalled the driver, with no change (I didn't uninstall it though).

But why should it affect Ubuntu as well? The software here also acts as if the sound is playing normally. I thought a hardware problem was possible but then again I thought the operating systems would've indicated something to that effect.

 

You're right. If the symptoms are displaying in Linux, I might have to lean towards a hardware issue.

Any way you can get your hands on a PCI sound card? Doesn't have to be anything special, even a used one. That way, you could maybe split your troubleshooting in half.

You might also consider reloading any chipset drivers, which often affect audio devices.

 

Is your rear speaker output set as the default playback device in Windows or the front panel output?

As far as Ubuntu, try this: http://www.seopher.com/articles/how_to_fix_the_no_sound_in_ubuntu_7_10_on_a_laptop_or_notebook

 

Hi,

I'm back again. Well I had the hard disk formatted and the sound came back. Its working for Windows. However, there is no sound for Ubuntu, even though the software acts as if the sound is playing normally. Video shows normally, volume indicators act as if the sound is playing normally but there is no sound whatsoever. Definitely not a hardware issue. Any suggestions?

 

I'm curious - did you go through the steps listed in Just Playin's link? If so, is there an 'External Amplifier' showing up?

Also, what app are you using for video while in Ubuntu?

Just trying to get a handle on what's going on.

 

To be honest no, I didn't. I thought things will work fine once it was known there were no hardware issues. I'll try it later and come back if there are any issues.

 

I tried to follow just playin's link but it seems to work for older versions of ubuntu. There is no switch tab or anything that says external amplifiers (I use maverick 10.10). What am I missing here?

 

Hi,

Its been a while. OK, so the sound just stopped working in my Windows partition. I suspect that the hardware might me a little faulty, though software or failing to recognize the sound hardware seemed to be a problem for Ubuntu. My question is, will installing a sound card solve my problems, whether its hardware or software, so that it will solve once and for all the sound problems on both OSes?

 

Welcome back.

Who knows? Only one way to find out. I would think that, if nothing else, adding a sound card would be an important step in the troubleshooting process.

 

OK, I installed the sound card. The hardware seems to be recognized - BIOS indicates that there is a multimedia device at least. I installed the driver. But still not working. :mad

Things I noted -

My motherboard has two PCI Express, one PCI 1 and one PCI 16 slots. The sound card says PCI (it says INTEX 3D multimedia Sound Card). It fitted in the PCI Express. Could the problem be here?

Also, the driver is installed, though the Sound Card says it supports a variety of Window OS, the latest being XP. Does this necessarily exclude support for Windows 7?

Also, Ubuntu is still not working sound. In fact, since the sound stopped working again I tried to check the Volume Preferences, but it says 'waiting for system to respond', which it never does.

Does anyone has any idea what's going on or what to do next? I'm starting to hate Gigabyte motherboards.

 

As far as i know, it is not possible to install a PCI card in a PCI Express slot - the hardware mechanisms are totally different.