[X550LA, Realtek ALC3236, Mic, Internal] No sound at all

[Saman]

I've been trying to fix this myself for a while now, and just a day or two ago, the speakers stopped working, too. Neither the internal nor external speakers I've been using with my laptop have been working, with two exceptions: the bongos noise when the login screen comes up, and the tones made during a system test. I have tried the commands "alsamixer" and "gstreamer-properties" in terminal and have had success with neither of them, and have also tried using the pulse audio volume controls to no avail. My assumption is that there is an issue with the drivers, as even the microphone produced a few sporadic noises ONLY when I was playing with the mic volume controls, but at no other point in no other program has it been so responsive.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-30.55-generic 3.13.11.2
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-30-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D3p: jake 1815 F...m pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Jul 14 20:25:02 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-23 (52 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaRecordingTest: ALSA recording test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_DevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D3p: jake 1815 F...m pulseaudio
Symptom_Jack: Mic, Internal
Symptom_Type: No sound at all
Title: [X550LA, Realtek ALC3236, Mic, Internal] No sound at all
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/26/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: X550LA.403
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: X550LA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrX550LA.403:bd11/26/2013:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnX550LA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnX550LA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: X550LA
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

So you had sound before a few days ago?

It looks like a pulseaudio issue (no analog output profile). Try resetting the user config and restarting pulse:

rm -r ~/.config/pulse*
pulseaudio -k

[Gregory Lamaur Cheatham (whyohwhy033)]

Yeah I'm acknowledged in the troubleshooting but sorry I'm really busy I'll
keep you in mind.
On Jul 14, 2014 5:40 PM, "Saman" <email address hidden> wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> I've been trying to fix this myself for a while now, and just a day or
> two ago, the speakers stopped working, too. Neither the internal nor
> external speakers I've been using with my laptop have been working, with
> two exceptions: the bongos noise when the login screen comes up, and the
> tones made during a system test. I have tried the commands "alsamixer"
> and "gstreamer-properties" in terminal and have had success with neither
> of them, and have also tried using the pulse audio volume controls to no
> avail. My assumption is that there is an issue with the drivers, as even
> the microphone produced a few sporadic noises ONLY when I was playing
> with the mic volume controls, but at no other point in no other program
> has it been so responsive.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
> Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu4
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-30.55-generic 3.13.11.2
> Uname: Linux 3.13.0-30-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
> Architecture: amd64
> AudioDevicesInUse:
> USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
> /dev/snd/controlC1: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
> /dev/snd/controlC0: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
> /dev/snd/pcmC0D3p: jake 1815 F...m pulseaudio
> CurrentDesktop: Unity
> Date: Mon Jul 14 20:25:02 2014
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-23 (52 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64
> (20140417)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> SourcePackage: alsa-driver
> Symptom: audio
> Symptom_AlsaRecordingTest: ALSA recording test through plughw:PCH failed
> Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
> Symptom_DevicesInUse:
> USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
> /dev/snd/controlC1: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
> /dev/snd/controlC0: jake 1815 F.... pulseaudio
> /dev/snd/pcmC0D3p: jake 1815 F...m pulseaudio
> Symptom_Jack: Mic, Internal
> Symptom_Type: No sound at all
> Title: [X550LA, Realtek ALC3236, Mic, Internal] No sound at all
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
> dmi.bios.date: 11/26/2013
> dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
> dmi.bios.version: X550LA.403
> dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
> dmi.board.name: X550LA
> dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
> dmi.board.version: 1.0
> dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
> dmi.chassis.type: 10
> dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
> dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
> dmi.modalias:
> dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrX550LA.403:bd11/26/2013:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnX550LA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnX550LA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
> dmi.product.name: X550LA
> dmi.product.version: 1.0
> dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
>
> ** Affects: alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
>
> ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug trusty
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
> Audio Team, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu.
> https://bugs.launchpad.n...

[Saman (whiteoakwillow)]

i reset and restarted pulse as detailed in your comment, Daniel, and the sound works again (thank you so much [as a musician, this is a big deal to me])! however, this didn't do anything for the microphone. any ideas?

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/commit/sound/pci/hda?id=13fd08a339f174840046d0b229f434c0a5ee9925

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[tobiasBora (tobias-bora)]

I have a similar problem : the microphone doesn't work *when the mic-boost is on*. So with pulseaudio, you shoud try to reduce the sound until is disable mic-boost (quite annoying to do), or you can use "alsamixer" to set "Mic Boost" to 0.

It gives at least sound, but it's not very high... If anyone knows how to be able to use the mic boost I would be very interested !

[Carlos (solrac-azathot)]

I have the same problem that has Tobias in my Asus X550L. The internal microphone only work when the boost is set to 0, but with a low volume and high noise.
Here is the link for the information that I get with alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=37b426e58cd6c599e3cee05a22a928d5cd1c18d8

Regards.

[eltimbalino (eltimbalino-org)]

I also have the same problem with my Asus X550L. Speakers work, internal microphone is useless-quiet. Alsamixer has microphone turned on and at 81%, no boost. Auto mute is disabled.

Using headphones with a built in microphone I get a good recording with plenty of volume.

Using Audio Recorder to record sounds played through my browsers does not work.

Running Ubuntu 16.10

If I boot to Windows 7 it all works fine.

[TimSC (timsc)]

I have a problem with my sound suddenly stopping working (I'm on Mint 18.2 based on xenial, asus x555l). The work around is to reboot.

Another work around without rebooting: disable pulseaudio, first by turning off autorespawn https://askubuntu.com/questions/8425/how-to-temporarily-disable-pulseaudio and then pulseaudio --kill

Then sudo alsa reload

alsactl init

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

This responsed (with no audio playback):

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1029:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
aplay: main:722: audio open error: No such file or directory

However, this works: aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav --device=plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0

Then "pulseaudio --start" and my audio is back and working!

[Tanguero (sanric)]

The problem still persists but I found a curious thing: in my X550LA if I start the computer directly in Ubuntu, the microphone doesn't work, no matter what I do.
If I start the notebook with Windows 7, access the built-in microphone with any tool or website and then restart in Ubuntu, the problem is gone: the microphone works perfecty.

I don't know why but it works like this...