No sound in software

[monty]

Hi all, I could do with some advice regarding sound.


I got my Pandora (I'm an upgrader, had been waiting about one year) a few days ago. I'm seem destined to like it very much, but right now software problems are getting in the way of this.


Most of it I can work through myself, but there is a persistent sound problem which I haven't managed to shift yet.


When I first started to muck about with it I installed the beta HotFix 5 (see 'software' forum for my comments on that thread). When I tried to use Audacious and VLC to play some music the sound icon on the taskbar disappeared and I could not adjust the volume. For speakers it was almost too quiet to hear, and through headphones it was just quiet. Changing the sliders of either the program or the mixer made no difference.


I've tried reflashing the firmware with both hotfix 5 and the official firmware release (which goes up to HF4), but to no avail. Sometimes the icon is there, sometime not, but never working.


My questions are these; is there a config file somehwere I can delete which would not be automatically deleted during a reflash? Is there a method of totally wiping these files and starting afresh? If neither of these apply, does that mean I have a problem with hardware?

 

[Mr_Loon]

...


When I tried to use Audacious and VLC to play some music the sound icon on the taskbar disappeared and I could not adjust the volume. For speakers it was almost too quiet to hear, and through headphones it was just quiet. Changing the sliders of either the program or the mixer made no difference.


I've tried reflashing the firmware with both hotfix 5 and the official firmware release (which goes up to HF4), but to no avail. Sometimes the icon is there, sometime not, but never working.


...

Did you reinstall the community codec pack as well? If not, then try doing so and report back.

 

[Ben]

Hi all,


Got my Pandora yesterday and I've got a similar issue where the right audio channel is extremely faint (left seems fine).


I had the same as the OP where the sound icon on the task bar disappeared. Also, when trying to adjust volume in an app, the slider seems to jump erratically between various volume levels (with the volume changing as well) even when not moving the slider any more. I installed the codec pack but it does not mitigate the issue.


Also, when I turn the volume on the unit itself right up, I can hear the right channel but there's a lot of static and it's still very faint.


To check whether I'd done anything stupid I re-flashed the firmware and once I was back in the system, the first thing I did (without touching anything else) was opening a terminal and typing "cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp" to have the device make some random noise. Again, the sound was only coming from the left speaker. Same behaviour when using headphones (tried two pairs).


I think this may be a loose connection somewhere but I'm not sure what to check next. Any suggestions as to how I could further debug this would be very welcome indeed.


Many thanks,


Ben


P.S. Aside from the sound issue, I have to say it's an awesome machine. Already played Super Hang-On using the nubs on UAE4ALL