acer 5830tg sound issues

English Hardware
#1

Hi, I am using acer aspire timelinex 5830tg laptop. I have opensuse 12.1 with cinnamon desktop and kernel version 3.4.
The problem is that I cant get any sound from the speakers(headphones work great)
googling over the issue brought me there: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/783582
I tried all solutions stated there, but only suspend-wake workaround works and even sometimes survives reboot.
When I just installed opensuse sound was working. Tried disabling pulseaudio - sound works, but cant adjust volume after it.

The another problem is internal microphone, it just generates noise. Playing with alsamixer didn’t work for me.

#2

That Ubuntu bug report is massive and without further information on the exact audio hardware in your Acer Aspire, it is very time consuming (and possibly counter productive) for anyone to read the bug report. EXACTLY what suggestions/solutions in the report did you try ?

It may help if you could provide more information on your PC’s hardware. With PC connected to internet, please run the diagnostic script alsa-info.sh and select the SHARE/UPLOAD option, and after the script has completed running, it will give you a location on the web where it uploaded your hardware/software audio information. Please copy that web address/URL and paste it here, so we can examine your audio configuration ? You can run the diagnostic script by typing this command in a terminal/konsole:


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

Also, with pulse audio enabled, have you tried installing the application pulse audio volume control (pavucontrol) and using that to tune your audio and your mic ? I blogged on a way to do that here: Pulseaudio Basics for openSUSE with pavucontrol - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Edit - also, you note headphones work and speakers do not. What type of headphones ? USB ? or ones that connect to the audio out jack ?

#3

Edit - also, you note headphones work and speakers do not. What type of headphones ? USB ? or ones that connect to the audio out jack ?

connected to audio jack

so I tried:
downloading HDAAnalyzer tool and enable EAPD in 0x1b and 0x1d nodes, → no effect.
upgrading the kernel → no effect
disabling pulseaudio → can’t adjuct volume.
suspend-wake → works up to the first-second reboot.

tried using pavucontrol - looks like it enabled both headphones and speakers(both of them play when headphones are in), but I can mute speakers via this tool when using headphones as a workaround, → looks like it survives reboot.

while configuring input I noticed that i can hear my voice in a noice from internal microphone, but voice is very quiet comparing to noice. (used skype test call)

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh output: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=9b82e88034856fe78e4a7e068999f4526e0001af

Thanks in advance for your help.

#4

I note you have 3 play back devices. Which are you trying to use ? The analog ? The digital ? The HDMI ?


APLAY

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

when using pavucontrol, ensure you select the correct device in the ‘configuration tab’.

Some things I note from the mixer:


**!!Amixer output**
!!-------------

!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [PCH]

**Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xd1c00000 irq 49'**
  Mixer name    : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
**Simple mixer control 'Master',0**
  Limits: Playback 0 - 74
  Mono: Playback 52** [70%]** -22.00dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0**
  Front Left: Playback 74 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 74 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0**
  Front Left: Playback 0 **[0%]** -74.00dB] **[off]**
  Front Right: Playback 0** [0%] **-74.00dB] **[off]**
**Simple mixer control 'Mic',0**
  Front Left: Capture 0 **[0%]** -74.00dB] **[off]**
  Front Right: Capture 0 **[0%]** -74.00dB] **[off]**
**Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0**
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'

Some obvious comments - Speaker is OFF in the mixer. So clearly the speaker won’t work with that setting. You need to set it ON if you want the speaker to work. Did you have everything setup correctly before running that script ?

The headphone is ON. That explains why the headphones work.

The Mic is at 0% capture and OFF> Its a surprise you can record any thing with that.

The mixer control has auto-mute disabled. That might lead to noise.

I also note in the script:


!!Modprobe options (Sound related)
!!--------------------------------

snd-hda-intel: model=acer-aspire

You have the model option ‘acer-aspire’ selected. According to the HD-Audio-Models.txt file documentation (which is on all openSUSE installs) that option is intended for a “ALC882/883/885/888/889” hardware audio codec. But according to the script your PC has a Conexant CX20588. So that ‘acer-aspire’ option is the wrong option. It will likely make things worse.

And if you look in the dmesg (at the bottom of the script) it has:


   22.401299] mount[856]: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf line 5: ignoring bad line starting with 'model=asus-mode1'

so that confirms ‘acer-aspire’ does nothing to help.

Just what IS the content of the /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file ? I am suspicious that file has had manual edits done with hope but not specifics, where those edits could be contributing to the problem and not helping.

#5

I note you have 3 play back devices. Which are you trying to use ? The analog ? The digital ? The HDMI ?

I am trying to use analog (speakers)
in pavucontrol only “analog stereo duplex” or “analog stereo output” gives audio output.

Some obvious comments - Speaker is OFF in the mixer. So clearly the speaker won’t work with that setting. You need to set it ON if you want the speaker to work. Did you have everything setup correctly before running that script ?

script was run while music played in headphones.

The Mic is at 0% capture and OFF> Its a surprise you can record any thing with that.

i clearly can hear my voice inside a noise microphone produces.

I also note in the script:
Code:
!!Modprobe options (Sound related)
!!--------------------------------

snd-hda-intel: model=acer-aspire
You have the model option ‘acer-aspire’ selected. According to the HD-Audio-Models.txt file documentation (which is on all openSUSE installs) that option is intended for a “ALC882/883/885/888/889” hardware audio codec. But according to the script your PC has a Conexant CX20588. So that ‘acer-aspire’ option is the wrong option. It will likely make things worse.

Thanks for documentation - I set laptop-eapd and then after reboot selected ‘analog speakers’ as connector in sound settings - now both speakers and headphones work as needed.

And if you look in the dmesg (at the bottom of the script) it has:
Code:
22.401299] mount[856]: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf line 5: ignoring bad line starting with ‘model=asus-mode1’

While googling some time before I found some asus user with same sound card and that line helped him. I actually misspelled it (mode1 instead of model)
and forgot to change conf file back.

So now, speakers problem is over, but microphone is still noisy.
here is alsamixer config: http://i.imgur.com/IqPPC.jpg
and a new alsa-info output http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=75a84619f435700826ca74bf1bd30df8f7c61e36

#6

Thats good news.

The alsamixer print is inconsistent with the script. It appears they were made at different times with different settings. I also do not use alsamixer myself, so given it was not run at the same time as the script (from what I can see) I will ignore it. Its not helpful if run at a different time. Sorry.

I note from the script:


**Simple mixer control 'Mic',0**
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 80
  Front Left: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] **[off]**
  Front Right: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] **[off]**

why is that off ?


Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 4
  Front Left: 0 **[0%]** [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 **[0%]** [0.00dB]

Why is that boost turned down all the way to capture at zero?


Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic',0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 80
  Front Left: Capture 80 **[100%]** [6.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 80 **[100%]** [6.00dB] [on]

Could the noise you hear be distortion ? Back off the 100% to 70% or to 80%.


Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic Boost',0
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 4
  Front Left: 4 **[100%]** [48.00dB]
  Front Right: 4 **[100%]** [48.00dB]

Could the noise you hear be distortion ? Back off the 100% to 70% or to 80% (it is likely a discrete level you select - possibly 66% ? ).

#7

I note from the script:
Code:
Simple mixer control ‘Mic’,0
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 80
Front Left: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [off]
why is that off ?

Code:
Simple mixer control ‘Mic Boost’,0
Capabilities: volume penum
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 4
Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Why is that boost turned down all the way to capture at zero?

those are for analog microphone, changing them doesn’t seem to affect internal mic. Tried them with analog microphone(jack port one) they really control it, boosting volume(analog microphone works perfect).

Code:
Simple mixer control ‘Internal Mic’,0
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 80
Front Left: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [on]
Could the noise you hear be distortion ? Back off the 100% to 70% or to 80%.

changing that affects both the volume of noise and voice.

Code:
Simple mixer control ‘Internal Mic Boost’,0
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 4
Front Left: 4 [100%] [48.00dB]
Front Right: 4 [100%] [48.00dB]
Could the noise you hear be distortion ? Back off the 100% to 70% or to 80% (it is likely a discrete level you select - possibly 66% ? ).

yes, discrete level, looks like it also manages both volume of voice and noise.
100% - both loud.
57% - somehow quieter.
26% - hardly can hear anything.
11% - cant hear anything.

#8

Sorry, I can’t tell from your post. Does both analog and internal mic work now ?

When backing off the boost (to reduce distortion) one should also tune the other capture levels.

#9

Just found the solution to the internal microphone noise problem, setting default sample rate to /etc/pulse/daemon.conf did the trick.
In case somebody will need it, the guide is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#Static_Noise_in_Microphone_Recording
after setting default rate, i set internal mic capture volume to 92% and internal mic boost to 11% and that eliminated rest of noise.
Anyway, thanks for the help.

#10

Glad to read its working better now. Thank you for sharing your solution.