Very weird poor sound quality

kahenya · February 21, 2009, 6:47pm

Hi,

I have a HP Compaq 8510p 32Bit Machine running opensuse 11.1 which I upgraded from opensuse 11. The sound card is Radeon HD 2600 Series. Anyway, the sound was fine when I got the laptop originally bundled with Vista. It was also fine when I installed opensuse 11. Problems came when I upgraded to opensuse 11.1. The sound quality is bad. The volume is ok when its low, but its low, to a point where I cannot here anything. I thought the problem was a hardware issue, so I had it sent back and they told me hardware was ok. I installed Windows in a partition and the volume is fine. If the volume is high it gets distorted.If the volume is too low, it also gets distorted. Better example is when u listen to an MP3, the beginning is distorted, middle is fine, end is distorted. When I watch a DVD, sound is distorted. I use banshee for audio, Mplayer, VLC and Smplayer for Video and its all the same result.

How do I get the sound to be normal, allowing me to raise without compromising the quality i.e. dropping the bass etc, and on the same levels when I run Windows? I have attached all sorts of output for info. Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Kahenya

To Alsa-info output http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=7bfaa56029da382a184c5684a7b9e94b3451e100

Yast Soundcard Currently Configured


RV630/M76 audio device ]
Configured as sound card number 0
Driver snd-hda-intel

rpm -qa | grep alsa

alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-705.1
alsa-1.0.19.git20090122-1.1
alsa-tools-gui-1.0.18-1.13
alsa-utils-1.0.19.git20090120-1.3
alsa-driver-kmp-pae-1.0.19.20090122_2.6.27.7_9.1-2.1
alsa-oss-1.0.17.git20080715-2.13
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.19.git20090122-2.1
alsa-devel-1.0.19.git20090122-1.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.19.git20090122-2.1
alsa-tools-devel-1.0.19.git20090120-1.3
alsa-firmware-1.0.19.git20090120-1.1
alsa-tools-1.0.19.git20090120-1.3

rpm -qa | grep pulse

libpulse-browse0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse0-0.9.12-9.6
libpulsecore5-0.9.10-0.pm.2
pulseaudio-0.9.12-9.6
gstreamer-0_10-pulse-0.9.7-42.pm.1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.12-9.6
libpulsecore4-0.9.12-9.6
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.19.git20090122-2.1
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-20.8

rpm -q libasound2

libasound2-1.0.19.git20090122-1.1

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# NXNs.WYUlP8TbU_B:RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

oldcpu · February 21, 2009, 8:43pm

My not being an MS-Windows user, I can’t help re: Windows comparisons.

But could you try going to: YAST > HARDWARE > SOUND > OTHER > VOLUME and move both Master and PCM volume UP there. Then close YaST. Then go to your Mixer and adjust both the Master and PCM volume there to obtain optimum sound quality. Note that when you start a new multimedia application, the PCM volume may dynamically change, and you may need to readjust it.

There is also the possibility that the auto probe did not configure the AD1981 hardware audio codec in your Compaq properly. If the above YaST/mixer tuning does not work, we could try applying a custom model setting in your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to test if that is an improvement.

kahenya · February 22, 2009, 9:26am

I have done YAST > HARDWARE > SOUND > OTHER > VOLUME and it did not make a difference. The windows thing was just to check if my hearing was ok, and that I wasn’t screwing up somewhere. How do I do the auto probe thingy? That may be the problem right there. Please let me know how to do sort out the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file. The AD1981 hardware audio codec thing is new to me. I don’t think I have seen that one coming.

Thanks.

Kahenya

oldcpu · February 22, 2009, 9:40am

If you look at the output of the diagnostic script you ran, you will see this entry:

!!HDA-Intel Codec information
!!---------------------------
--startcollapse--

Codec: Analog Devices AD1981
Address: 0
Vendor Id: 0x11d41981

So alsa has identified your PC audio hardware as using an AD1981.

I believe when a PC boots openSUSE Linux, alsa probes one’s hardware, and tries to determine what hardware codec is in use, and tries to apply the setting specific for your PC’s hardware implementation of the codec. For the AD1981, the following list of options is contained in the 1.0.19 alsa HD-Audio-Models.txt file:

AD1981
======
  basic		3-jack (default)
  hp		HP nx6320
  thinkpad	Lenovo Thinkpad T60/X60/Z60
  toshiba	Toshiba U205

If we work under the assumption that the autoprobe did not succeed (and that may not be a valid assumption, … but we need to start from somewhere) then, for example, to try the “hp” option from that list, you need to change your PCs /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=hp
# NXNs.WYUlP8TbU_B:RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

and then restart your alsa sound drive by typing the following in a gnome terminal or kde konsole: su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ and enter root password when prompted. Then restart your mixer, and test your sound. Again, move up both PCM and Master volume to 95% to test sound. Once you have basic sound, back off to a lower level to avoid distortion.

If “hp” does not work, then try each of the other items in the list, one at a time. ie replace “hp” with “basic”, save change, restart alsa and mixer, test … if that does not work, try each of “thinkpad” and “toshiba”.

Could you also paste to a web site the contents of your dmesg, immediately after booting your PC and post the URL here. Just the URL. You can do that by copying and pasting into a gnome terminal or a kde konsole (with pc connected to internet):
dmesg > dmesg.txt && curl -F file=@dmesg.txt nopaste.com/a
Perhaps that dmesg may give a hint as to the problem.

kahenya · February 26, 2009, 9:47pm

Hi,
Sorry was away on business. I tried all the choices possible, and toshiba and thinkpad came without sound. Basic was almost muted.


options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=hp
# NXNs.WYUlP8TbU_B:RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

Currently using HP and the quality is still the same

This is the DMESG/Nopaste Link

dmesg.txt - nopaste.com (beta)

Thanks.

Kahenya

oldcpu · February 26, 2009, 10:22pm

Looks like you have many devices using IRQ 17 which is your sound interrupt?

What is the output of:
cat /proc/interrupts

kahenya · February 27, 2009, 10:31am

Hi,

This is the output.


           CPU0       CPU1
  0:    5919953    5937985   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:       1672       1629   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  3:          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      pata_pcmcia
  7:          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      parport0
  8:          0          1   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
  9:       5030       4815   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:        895        904   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:      56043      53045   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 15:          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 16:     490303     485170   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb1, yenta, fglrx[0]@PCI:1:0:0
 17:      26848      25637   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb2, yenta, HDA Intel, HDA Intel
 18:      56107      54427   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb5, uhci_hcd:usb6, ohci1394
 19:        106         92   IO-APIC-fasteoi   mmc0
 20:         28         21   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb3, ehci_hcd:usb7
 22:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb4
217:     172290     165726   PCI-MSI-edge      iwlagn
218:       2517       2718   PCI-MSI-edge      eth0
219:      62717      62104   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci
NMI:          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:    3920276    4965024   Local timer interrupts
RES:     642819     602417   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:       1557      25912   function call interrupts
TLB:       6349       5881   TLB shootdowns
TRM:          0          0   Thermal event interrupts
SPU:          0          0   Spurious interrupts
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

oldcpu · February 27, 2009, 10:45am

With the “model=hp” applied, make certain you again try going to: YAST > HARDWARE > SOUND > OTHER > VOLUME and move both Master and PCM volume UP there. Then close YaST. Don’t forget you MUST then go to your Mixer and adjust both the Master and PCM volume there to obtain optimum sound quality. And finally, don’t forget that when you start a new multimedia application, the PCM volume may dynamically change, and you may need to readjust it.

oldcpu · February 27, 2009, 10:46am

Can you explain what you mean by “distorted” ? …

Especially follow my recommendation re: YaST and re: your mixer.

kahenya · February 27, 2009, 11:00am

I have done the YAST bit of adjusting the volume and as well on the mixer.

By distorted, I mean that the sound becomes choppy when the volume is too low or high. It also gets a white snow effect noise effect. http://connectedhome2go.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/tv-snow.jpg
(sorry, only example on google).

On DVDs without earphones, there is basically nothing to hear because if you adjust the volume, the sound is choppy, so have to watch with earphones to have a chance of actually hearing something.

Thanks. Appreciate this.

Kahenya

oldcpu · February 27, 2009, 11:52am

Hmm… could be pulse audio?

How about trying this work around :
SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - possible fix for choppy/skipping sound - openSUSE

After applying it, you will need to reboot your PC.