Audio is Driving Me Mad

[logan01]

So I do the BIOS thing today. No audio settings. I punch out and it boots to Windows. I have it and Kubuntu 14.04 on my laptop. I hard boot and Windows again. Uh oh. When I was searching for "how to boot to BIOS", the correct method on my HP is to tap, tap, tap ESC followed by the f9 which gives boot options. The first time I only tapped ESC. It went to a HP diagnostics screen that had that funny look like safe-boot has. When I got to BIOS finally, I made no changes though I booted to it 2-3 times and I believe one time I exited with no changes and the others I exited with save changes. Since I had made no changes, I figured what the heck. I believe that booting with ESC only messed with my Grub screen. Doing the esc / f9 gave me the Ubuntu option. Thanks to Qqmike, I installed and ran the boot repair tool and I now have my Grub screen again. I freaked then laughed when all was well. I am very uncomputery. No more BIOS, no more BIOS, no more B......

[whatthefunk]

Are you by chance trying to get audio running through HDMI?

[logan01]

No. For some reason a few weeks ago, I noticed when watching a music video in youtube the audio only would randomly stutter once or more times. I then discovered the same happening with audio files saved to my hard drive. And they also sound very treblely / tinny. Don't have that issue with the Windows 10 side of my laptop. Yesterday I saw I had 3 media players; VLC, Dragon Player, and Amarok. They play fine in Dragon Player, stutter in VLC, and I can't really remember about Amarok. One of the folks helping me thought it might be because of HDMI. If you look in post #11 at the graph, in the upper left corner, there is something called Chip: Intel Valleyview2 HDMI. I believe he feels it shouldn't be there and might be the problem or part of the problem. Appreciate your question.

[Nasty7]

Logan01, do you know that you can use a piece of software called "Timeshift" to backup your Root Partition? It is pretty simple to use and installs in no-time! Then you can make changes to alsamixer without worry. By choosing "Default" in alsa-S you might get the settings back to normal, if they indeed have changed.
http://www.teejeetech.in/p/timeshift.html

It might be a little confusing at first but if I can do it you should be able to also. You will just select the "Backup Device" as your "home" Partition, as in the first GUI Image at that page. I don't use the Schedule part of it because I also run a laptop and shut down every time.

If you have another post concerning Backups just point me to it. This is like system restore in windows only it is done manually, for me at least. Super simple super fast. The first Image will be slower, but subsequent images will be faster.

Again - as Al suggested - it would be good to boot the Kubuntu DVD and take another look at alsamixer, especially the "Chip" Entry where it says "Something HDMI"

[logan01]

Thanks Nasty7, I'll check it all out.

[logan01]

Logan01, do you know that you can use a piece of software called "Timeshift" to backup your Root Partition? It is pretty simple to use and installs in no-time! Then you can make changes to alsamixer without worry. By choosing "Default" in alsa-S you might get the settings back to normal, if they indeed have changed.
http://www.teejeetech.in/p/timeshift.html

It might be a little confusing at first but if I can do it you should be able to also. You will just select the "Backup Device" as your "home" Partition, as in the first GUI Image at that page. I don't use the Schedule part of it because I also run a laptop and shut down every time.

If you have another post concerning Backups just point me to it. This is like system restore in windows only it is done manually, for me at least. Super simple super fast. The first Image will be slower, but subsequent images will be faster.

Again - as Al suggested - it would be good to boot the Kubuntu DVD and take another look at alsamixer, especially the "Chip" Entry where it says "Something HDMI"

Boot to my Kubuntu Live flash drive.
When Live is operational, open Konsole and enter [sudo aplay -l] as I did with my installed Kubuntu. Compare the Live results to these installed results and note / post any changes. Or do I run the command [alsamixer] to generate the alsamixer graph and observe the "Chip" line?
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3227 Analog [ALC3227 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
richard@richard-HP-15-Notebook-PC:~$

[Nasty7]

Or do I run the command [alsamixer] to generate the alsamixer graph and observe the "Chip" line?

I would do this if it were me just to compare, the alsamixer thing. I don't have any better advice logan so I'm out. Was hoping someone else would jump in with the little bit of data you provided. When I get time will play around with the "S" Option in alsamixer and see if I can figure out how to change settings. My pc don't show HDMI at all in any of those outputs.

Sorry

[logan01]

That's quite alright. I greatly appreciate the help and look forward to any more of your findings / suggestions. Thanks.

[logan01]

Just sounding off here. Listened to a few youtube music videos tonight. Quality was terrible (very tinny) and did the once / twice / three times a lady (couldn't resist) stutter thing. Went over to my Windows 10 side and played same videos. Much, much better (low end laptop quality) and no stuttering. Blows my mind. Seems to me I could just magically uninstall all audio related players, drivers, stuff and install "quality" stuff.

[Nasty7]

Do you have a spare USB to install another distro to for a comparison? If you like Kubuntu then maybe Mint KDE would be a good choice, or one of the most functional Mint Mate, to test sound issues?
This Installer works really well, it's for Windows.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

[logan01]

Do you have a spare USB to install another distro to for a comparison? If you like Kubuntu then maybe Mint KDE would be a good choice, or one of the most functional Mint Mate, to test sound issues?
This Installer works really well, it's for Windows.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

Thanks. I'll see about it. I'm hoping today to boot to a live Kubuntu 14.04 (usb) to compare the alsamixer graph to my installed one. Keep getting external interferences such as struggling with installing mower deck belt, gotta go see why someone's printer won't print (Me? Poor folks. ), garage door opener stopped working, etc. Typical day of late.

[Nasty7]

I suggest USB because it might stream music better than a DVD. And testing another distro will tell you if it is Kubuntu or not. Mint Mate works with most any hardware it seems, so that would be a good choice to test with.

EDIT: This might be of help also, be sure to allow ads to show so he can make a living, well if you want to.
https://sites.google.com/site/easyli...sproject/sound

[logan01]

I suggest USB because it might stream music better than a DVD. And testing another distro will tell you if it is Kubuntu or not. Mint Mate works with most any hardware it seems, so that would be a good choice to test with.

EDIT: This might be of help also, be sure to allow ads to show so he can make a living, well if you want to.
https://sites.google.com/site/easyli...sproject/sound

Ok. Gotta make a living. I understand that for sure. Thanks.

[logan01]

Do you have a spare USB to install another distro to for a comparison? If you like Kubuntu then maybe Mint KDE would be a good choice, or one of the most functional Mint Mate, to test sound issues?
This Installer works really well, it's for Windows.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

You're right. No Chip > HDMI in the Mint alsamixer.

[logan01]

Audio seems better in Mint than Kubuntu yet still has the stutter / static deal going.