Comment 13 for bug 455357

Funny. I've been running a second Karmic box for a week without this bug, almost.

Only instance also had broken sound - turning mute off & level up only gave very low, crunchy sound, which soon went to none. Both machines feed the same amp, so it wasn't an exterior hardware problem, and yes I checked cables. This cleared up with reboot.

Otherwise a prime difference between the boxes is the new one's a fresh install, while the afflicted box is an upgrade.

=box 1=
karmic upgrade

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)

- boots muted with levels down about half the time, in a random pattern.

=box 2=
karmic fresh install

00:04.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

- only booted muted once, noted above.

...so, are the other afficted machine upgrades or fresh installs? Perhaps there's a conflict with something carried over in the configs.