Posted on Sunday 10th of February 2008 at 07:12 in Linux

How to fix the "no sound" in Ubuntu 7.10 on a laptop or notebook

I spent hours working this out, literally. There are lots of different things you can do to try and get sound back (as I'm sure you're aware if you're reading this). I tried backport-modules, alsamixer, everything.

The real problem with the sound on your laptop is really daft, it's about "External Amplifiers"

System->Preferences->Sound

Load up preferences and make sure that each item is checked to appear in the mixer. Make sure none of them are muted.

Then click on the "Switches" tab. At the bottom of the list is an "External Amplifier" switch. Toggle that to off, you should now have sound.

Why?
What that's doing is telling Ubuntu not to supply sound to the headphone jack or to the laptop's speakers because it's expecting an external amplifier to be connected. There's no explanation as to why this is true and I don't think I know anyone who has an amp connected to their laptop.

Try that, if my instructions don't make sense then have a read of this thread on the UbuntuForums. It's really stupid and it cost me a good 6-10 hours of my life.

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Showing most recent 20 of 22 comments [View all comments]

Thanks for the tip....Now i can fix this issue .........
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com

by Cheap Computers on Wednesday 1st of July 2009 at 00:10

I had this same problem for my gateway laptop. i fixed it though. if you want to know how u can check it out here http://groovymishmash.blogspot.com/

by Jeff Anderson on Tuesday 30th of June 2009 at 15:21

my laptop is gateway notebook.am using ubuntu 9.04.i have this problem of sound once i connect speakers to my laptop....

by chibo on Monday 22nd of June 2009 at 20:47

what about a PC. same issue. no sound. even after turning it off. that worked in the past. now nothing.

by bella on Tuesday 28th of April 2009 at 18:31

Thanks a million for this post. This is very simple to understand and the best part is - it worked.

by AK on Tuesday 17th of March 2009 at 07:42

I fixed it on a Dell Latitude D600.
Double click and look at all "tracks to be visible"
Find PCM and select it. Make sure to turn up the vol and turn off mute.
If that does not fix it keep trying others and see what happens
Good luck

by Kurt on Saturday 14th of February 2009 at 10:43

Thanks, I have the same problem.

by lookou on Friday 23rd of January 2009 at 21:54

Where is the "External Amplifier" switch? I have Xubuntu 8.10. My switches are Master, Headphone, PCM, Front, Front Mic, Front Mic Boost, Line, Mic, Mic Boost, Capture and Capture1. :-(

by Jan F. on Tuesday 13th of January 2009 at 07:55

On my lap top i cant hear sound i cant even excess my volume control its says theres no driver s downloaded and when i go to download one i wont work...anyone help?

by Jesse on Saturday 6th of December 2008 at 22:15

For me what did it was adding the surround switch and putting it up.

by Shteen on Thursday 4th of December 2008 at 14:28

Thank you for this. Every time I update Ubuntu I lose sound and I can never remember how to fix it. I can verify that this works for Ubuntu 8.10 - Intrepid on my Asus laptop.

by cat on Sunday 9th of November 2008 at 04:38

thank god! and thank you!!!
I spent 2 days digging around.. no driver errors.. nothing! yet no sound! plogged thru pages of help online..
that is~ until i stumble across your blog!
Great help! thanks again!

by Joel on Sunday 28th of September 2008 at 08:22

I love this article, but my no sound problem seems to be something other than the system/preferences/sound.

At first I had a hard time in my fruitless attempts to install ubuntu 8.04 in my brand new HP Laptop, finally I used the previous version 7...., that I had burned on a DVD last year, I've managed to install that one on the Laptop, but now there isn't any sound coming out of my laptop's speakers or the head phone jack, and no video is playing either.

by Juan Enerio Baptiste on Tuesday 23rd of September 2008 at 13:59

I don,t like the f words been used

by bear 500 on Thursday 24th of July 2008 at 14:24

I’m using ubuntu 8.04.
I’ve seen the "switch"option before.

But, it seems to have dissapeared.

It does not currently appear in the list of checkboxes in the preferences of alsamixer wither.

I wonder what could be going on there ?

by sunil on Thursday 17th of July 2008 at 15:02

Helpful post, though in 8.04 you need to double click on the volume control, click on Edit/Preferences, then check External amplifier to be visible. The switches tab then appears. Uncheck External amplifier in that tab. Worked for me anyway.

by David on Monday 19th of May 2008 at 07:12

very strange problem. It’s happened to me a few times, and i got really annoyed. I had to reset my machine earlier just to fix this. this time i thought there must be a solution, and here it is...

turning off the external amplifier is the solution...

thanks

by on Tuesday 15th of April 2008 at 23:51

you dont know what the fuck you are talking bout dawg. Make some more fucking sense and then fucking tell us nigga!;)

by realfoolfolife1234567890 on Thursday 6th of March 2008 at 19:06

Yes, there is not "switch" option. Lame....

by Wayfarer on Monday 3rd of March 2008 at 19:33

"feeb dweeb" lol. what kind of a cock are you?

this advice worked for me at least

by Harpo on Wednesday 20th of February 2008 at 03:14