Volume and quality problems with dell inspiron 9300 laptop

[Saivann Carignan]

Binary package hint: gnome-volume-manager

This problem is experienced with this audio card : 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family)
This problem doesn't happen in Linux Ubuntu edgy eft

My computer is a Dell inspiron 9300 laptop with a 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) audio card and internal speakers, 2 normal speakers in front of my laptop and a little one under for more bass.

When lowering volume with the general volume bar in gnome-volume-manager, the volume is lowered for the foreground speakers of my computer but not for the speaker under the laptop. So the sound isn't lowered but just distorted.

When using external speakers plugged into the speaker port, the volume isn't lowering at all with the general volume bar.

WORKAROUND: The only universal way to mute sound correctly is the PCM bar..

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu May 10 13:15:19 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-panel
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.18.1-0ubuntu3.1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
ProcCwd: /home/zxz
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fr_CA:fr
 PATH=/home/zxz/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=fr_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-panel
Uname: Linux zxz-laptop 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 07:36:31 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

* Update

In Ubuntu Gutsy Tribe 6 with all updates, lowering the volume from the gnome-volume-manager now works flawlessly

However, the soundcard now only partially works ; the front speakers of the laptop works OK but the little bass speaker under the laptop never works. It's not really better because it worked on feisty, the only problem was that it was impossible to lower the volume of that speaker like it's described in the bug description. In Gutsy, It now just never works.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

* Update

In Ubuntu Gutsy RC

The status of the soundcard came back at the first state described in the bug description. all speakers works but lowering the volume just apply to the front speakers.

[Jeff Anderson (jander99)]

This is also true in Kubuntu. The workaround I have found is to set the primary channel to "PCM" and leave "Master" and "Master Mono" at about half volume. That way volume controls and muting will mute the PCM channel. Not the most elegant solution but it works for now. Incidentally, doing this causes the volume onscreen display to not work.

[Eric Amundson (sewmyheadon)]

I have the seen the same issues running Ubuntu on my Inspiron 9300. Now, I'm running Gutsy and my main complaint with sound is that the mute button on the front of the laptop doesn't mute the bass speaker by default; only the main speakers, so it distorts or sounds funny and there's no quick way to mute the machine without opening the volume manager and dragging PCM control all the way down.

Even then, if the volume manager in Rhythmbox isn't all the way down, you can still hear sound. Not good sound, but it's definitely audible and not at all muted. Haven't found a fix yet.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Still the same with Hardy alpha 3

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

This bug still exist on Hardy alpha 5

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is not a gnome-media one

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Still confirmed on Intrepid alpha 5

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Not a kdemultimedia issue either.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please execute the alsa-info.sh script referenced from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems and attach the URL here.

Also, note that you can (generally) work around the muting problems by selecting additional mixer elements to control via the multimedia hotkeys using System> Preferences> Sound> Devices> Default Mixer Tracks.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

alsa-info.txt attached.

Unfortunately, only changing default mixer to any of the existing mixer does not have any effects here, that's why it can qualify as a bug report, none of the mixers is able to mute the volume completely. The only way to mute volume (for PCM sounds only), is to mute PCM volume bar.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

This bug report is a duplicate of bug 84505, so marking it as such.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Saivann Carignan, regarding the original problem in the Bug Description:
>"When lowering volume with the general volume bar in gnome-volume-manager, the volume is lowered for the foreground speakers of my computer but not for the speaker under the laptop."

this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/113862/comments/2 this being fixed with an update to gutsy. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.