Plugged in subwoofer and lost all sound

[Ric Moore]

On 02/20/2012 03:51 PM, Wade Smart wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 14:30, Ric Moore<wayward4now at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On 02/20/2012 02:09 PM, Wade Smart wrote:
>>>
>>> A friend gave me his older Altec Lancing subwoofer
>>> after getting a new one. I plugged it into my sub port
>>> but had no sound. I went to Sound Preferences and
>>> under the hardware tab, highlighted my Internal
>>> Audio card and in the Settings for the selected device
>>> below changed from Analog Stereo Duplex to
>>> Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input.
>>> Nothing happened. After trying several of the choices
>>> I lost sound all together.
>>>
>>> I rebooted and noticed I heard the ubuntu start up
>>> sound. I went back into the Sound Preferences and
>>> under Sound Effects under Sound Theme I changed
>>> from Ubuntu to No sound and back, I can hear the
>>> sounds there. But when you try to play youtube or
>>> or a cd or anything else with sound - there is no
>>> sound at all.
>>
>>
>> Do alsmixer first. Then the pulse audio pavucontrol second. It should be
>> detected. Is that woofer self powered? Or is it just a speaker in an
>> enclosure? If the rest of your speakers are self powered (built in amp) then
>> the woofer would probably have to be as well ...but I'm guessing there. My
>> computer with the MSI motherboard won't auto select it's builtin audio outs
>> to pre-amp mode. It's trying to power my speakers like they have no amps and
>> buzzes like crazy. POS. No problems with the same surround sound set up with
>> my ASUS board. Ric
>>
>>
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>
> It is self powered.
> I unplugged the sub, restarted my computer, chose
> Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
> and my normal speakers worked again.
> However, the sub is not working.
>
> I have a Shuttle pc and some older posts in various
> forums say they got theirs running but... it didnt say
> how.
>
> In out Sound preferences Output tab for Internal Sound
> the settings show a Subwoofer and its set to max through
> there is no sound at all.
>
> I installed alsamixer. It doesnt show anything for the sub.
> I installed pavucontrol and it crashes almost immediately
> with "Connection failed: Connection Terminated". It does
> show the sub and its set to 94% default with the other
> speakers.


In alsamixer, check to see if anything is muted (MM) and if so hit the m 
key to toggle it on (OO). Then set the volume level to around 85% (up 
arrow). Pulse can't see it if alsa is blocking it. Also, clear to the 
right side of the alsamixer options is "channel" ... select something 
larger than just stereo using your up/down arrows. Alsa must tell pulse 
what you're dealing with and be set correctly.

Make sure the woofer is already plugged in when you reboot. If you just 
have one set of stereo speakers, plus the woofer, then you have 2.1 
sound. But, I don't see a configuration for that spec in pavucontrol. 
Again something greater than stereo plus .1 .

You DO have the woofer turned on, volume up about half way by it's 
controls, plugged in, etc.? I've made that mistake ~more~ than once. If 
you have the system manual it should tell you where to plug it in, so 
you're not plugging into an input jack. It OUGHT to work! <grins> :) Ric