Comment 3 for bug 588031

I have an Optiplex 980 as well, and experienced this problem with one caveat. For me the internal speaker seems to output the correct audio under some circumstances.

Those circumstances are: If in 'Sound Preferences' (Click on the speaker icon in the upper right-hand menu bar, and choose 'Sound Preferences') in the 'Output' tab, the 'Connector' chosen is 'Analog Speakers', I get audio out of the internal speaker. I get no audio at all with 'Analog Output' chosen.

I attempted the fix reported in Bug #589915 (a duplicate of this bug) and it caused audio to output to the rear audio output (did not test front), but (interestingly enough) did not disable / turn off / mute the internal speaker (so the internal speaker plays at the same time as the audio out)

What I have now (a method for getting audio meaningfully out of the sound card) is workable, but clearly not optimal, so I'm definitely signing up for this bug to monitor further progress. That said, Bryan (reporter / magician on Bug #589915) is a rockstar.