Getting sound working on an Acer Aspire 1640Z
 

Hi all -

I'm not a Linux newbie -- I've installed Linux distros on two other Acer
laptops with only minor irritation. But this Aspire 1640Z I got for my
daughter is making me crazy!

I got the video and wifi running fine; but the audio is not making any sound,
even though it *seems* the drivers for the hardware are correctly loaded and
running.

"lspci" reports the audio as:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

And "lsmod" shows the appropriate driver is loaded:


snd_hda_intel 18324 0
snd_hda_codec 127104 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm 71940 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 22404 1 snd_pcm
snd 50532 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 10592 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10504 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

I loaded "alsamixer" and made sure the volume isn't muted. I looked through
all the other likely threads on this forum to see if anyone had a helpful hint
- and I tried all the hints - and still, no joy.

I would be most appreciative if someone had some experience with this model
and could help me out. I would be even more appreciative if Acer would not
change the hardware so radically between models! <grrr>

Did you run alsaconf?

Yes, alsaconf found the intel-hda hardware, and the sound system *seems* to be active since sound apps actually run. But no sound comes out. I did run alsamixer as well to make sure the devices were not muted, but alas! no sound.

I _don't_ have experience with the model. From the beggining: CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL must be enabled in the kernel, as a module, normally; if it isn't, slect it as module and recompile. Do (as root always) "modules-update". Then: "modprobe snd_hda_intel". Restart Alsa: "/etc/init.d/alsa restart". Try again.
If that doesn't make it work, you have to add a line "options" (with specific options) in "/etc/modules.d/alsa", some laptops need line: "options snd-hda-intel" other aggregate " model=z71v position_fix=1" for the headphone jack to work., but I don't think that's your case.
Is an Alsa supported sound card that works on other laptops.

I do have snd_hda_intel loaded, but it seems to not completely like my hardware. I'm going to contact the driver developers and see if they can help me out (or if I can help *them* out :)

Just reported a new bug on the ALSA bug tracking system, and contacted the main developer(s).

I am having the same problem...
I have tried virtually everything i found diging in google for weeks

I am using the alsa-driver 1.0.12_rc1-r1

I see many lines in the output of dmesg like this:

ALSA alsa-driver-1.0.12rc1/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:212: hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

Hi all
I'm a new linux user and i'have the famous problem with the sound card.
I' ve insalled redhat 9 for Aspire 1640 Z, no problem , but when i'm opening as root i see this message :
Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device/dev/dsp can't be opened (no such device)
the sound server will continue,using the nul output device
If anyone know how to resolve this, please tell me.

miske, I would install a new realease of a linux dist, such as fedora Core 4/5, or Centos 4.3...

that error means your sound isn't recognized.

you better look for some HOWTO's online about installing linux and configuring it... they help a lot.

acer 1640Z and sound card alsa mandriva 2006
 

Hello,

I' have the same problem with alsa dectection of snd_hda_intel...

And I don't know how to fix it.
Please let us know if you have an idea...

Thanks

Hi, I have an acer aspire 9113 laptop with the same audio chip (intel high definition audio). In fact it is a realtek ALC883 chip based on intel HDA. I have installed both suse 10.2 alpha 2 (kernel 2.6.16) and gentoo (kernel 2.6.17) and I had absolutely no problem with it. The intel HDA codec works fine!

I suspect that you are using an old kernel or an outdated version of alsa. (You might also be running a recent but buggy version of alsa or kernel). Try updating your kernel, and if you compile it, compile it with alsa support + oss emulation without native oss support and make sure you select the hda codec. Also, check your windows installation (I hope you didn't remove them) to see if you also have a realtek chip. Realtek provides working alsa drivers on their website. (Other sound card manufacturers also provide working alsa drivers. Check it out!)

may be late, and the bug is already posted. IMHO this is not a brand-name problem, but a problem with the alsa driver for the Intel 82801 chipset.

I did get a [crippled?] sound to work.
Running aadebug on my Dell Inspiron B130 showed the alsa OSS
emulation to be installed and rinning......so -
I went into the config of mplayer and kaffeine and set them for OSS sound, and now they work.
A maybe interesting note - I had system sound (login/logout) on this machine until I updated the kernel, at which point it went away. I do not know if alsa sound was working on that, as the update was done as a part of the initial install, and I did not go back and redo it just to find out.
I do not know if the mike works.
Sound does not work on KsCD, even with oss selected.
I was so tickled that that much worked that I didn't check a lot of the rest. And, since the notebook is not my primary computer, I can live with this as is.
I have the outputs from several diagnostics (aadebug, cat-proc, lsmod, and two flavors of lspci) should anyone desire to see them.
Ciao

About KsCD... KsCD plays CDs in analog mode, which requires an analog connection between the cd device and the soundcard. Most modern PCs don't have this because most modern media players including Windows Media Player can play CDs in digital mode. Use kaffeine or amarok instead of KsCD.

Now, if you have mplayer and xine (kaffeine) working, there is no problem at all. To get system sounds back, go to KDE control Center -> Sound and multimedia -> sound system and select OSS there too. Or you might want to go to system notifications and select sounds to be played with an external player (use mplayer for that. Not gmplayer!).
(I assume you use KDE because you referred to kaffeine and KsCD)

Thank you gkiagia for the prompt reply. I am using kaffeine for ced playback, and mplayer for everything else - I prefer the mplayer controls to those of kaffeine.
I will implement your suggestion for system sound.
Thank you very much.

Thank you again, gkiagia, for the timely tip. Took a bit of twiddling, but the system sound now works. Only thing left is streaming A/V -
When a news clip is selected from my DSL ISP, the mplayerplug-in show to be the selected app, and the video plays - but no sound.
I welcome any suggestion(s).
Ciao