[ SOLVED ] Sound Settings: says speakers unavailable but headphones plugged in

[m654321]

I've just installed LL3.8 (32-bit) on a 12-year-old laptop (Packard-Bell MX37 model AJ300), given to me recently.
However, I'm able to hear sound (e.g. playing a music DVD using VLC media player) only with headphones plugged in; when the headphones are unplugged there isn't any sound coming out of the laptop's inbuilt speakers.

Clicking on the volume icon in panel to show the Output Devices (within Sound Settings), it shows "Speakers (unavailable)" but "Headphones (plugged-in)".

Using terminal:

Code: [Select]

marie@EasyNote-MX37:~$ alsamixer -c0

gives this:
https://imgur.com/a/ijAcLZT     (also includes sound card info)

How do I fix this "speakers unavailable" issue, as the manual indicates this laptop has inbuilt speakers.
Many thanks in advance for your feedback.

[firenice03]

So sound works


Check for mute enabled anywhere - thou speakers unavailable pretty much sum it up...
Perhaps - laptop has been opened and fiddled with, now speakers are unplugged or removed, depending where cables were ran, if along hinge area perhaps pinched or now bad cable - seen a few video cables suffer...


If you have spare parts can confirm with a different set - if similar connection

[m654321]

So sound works
Check for mute enabled anywhere - thou speakers unavailable pretty much sum it up...
Perhaps - laptop has been opened and fiddled with, now speakers are unplugged or removed, depending where cables were ran, if along hinge area perhaps pinched or now bad cable - seen a few video cables suffer...
If you have spare parts can confirm with a different set - if similar connection

Thanyou for your reply, firenice03.
Following what you said I think I might consult the manual & open up the machine sometime this week to have a look inside
(never had this problem before) ...

[Jerry]

Have you upped all the levels in Alsamixer? eg. The Master level for starters is at 1 out of 100. Make sure nothing is MM (muted)

[m654321]

Have you upped all the levels in Alsamixer? eg. The Master level for starters is at 1 out of 100. Make sure nothing is MM (muted)

Thanks Jerry.
Yep, I have upped all sound levels, but still only sound on headphones. You'll see on the screenshot that some of the alsamixer sound level columns remain on muted (MM), notably speaker & mic (I seem unable to unmute them, unless I'm doing something incorrectly): https://imgur.com/a/IMDQ8u4

I think firenice03's idea that it may be a hardware problem, such as a loss of cable connection with speakers, is worth investigating. However, opening up the laptop will be the last thing I do (only if all else fails) as the manual shows access to the speakers is a bit complicated.

[WytWun]

It's a long shot but if you haven't already it might be worth checking whether the BIOS allows control of any audio functions.

[trinidad]

Mechanically it's more likely to be the headphone jack than the speakers themselves. Sometimes because obviously they are so delicate when you unplug the headphones there is still contact to a channel which your system will read as headphones still plugged in even though they are not. You can replace/repair the jack or retask the jack using alsa-tools. I'd bet on this as it is somewhat common.

TC
 

[Jerry]

All good. Please embed any images directly into your posts, rather than linking off site. For people with lower end machines every mb saved makes a difference. Cheers.

Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk

[m654321]

Please embed any images directly into your posts, rather than linking off site. For people with lower end machines every mb saved makes a difference

I don't know how to do that - can you provide a link?
Couldn't find anything on this forum with search word "embed"
Thanks.

[m654321]

@WytWun
@trinidad


Many thanks to both of you for your ideas   
You've given me some further things to consider ...

[Jerry]

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Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk

[m654321]

It's a long shot but if you haven't already it might be worth checking whether the BIOS allows control of any audio functions.

I looked in BIOS settings but couldn't find any mention of audio functions ... maybe I'm looking in the wrong place - I'm not familiar with this.

[minesheep]

Have you tried with live boot media and the correct bios settings? Otherwise I think that it is hardware problem. I use audacity and you could try to make speakers available by manually selecting output device from the list. You can download audacity from lite software even on live boot media. And if you got it working then the problem is likely to be bad connection on the headphone side of the motherboard. If it is hardware problem with the hedphone jack but the speakers works with audacity with manual settings it can be fixed by either software = reconfiguring something or hardware fix.

[trinidad]

I'm going to assume this is an HDA Intel sound card. Find the package: alsa-tools-gui  in synaptic and install it if it's not installed. Use hdajackretask to retask the headphone jack on your card.

TC

[m654321]

Have you tried with live boot media and the correct bios settings?

Next on my list

Otherwise I think that it is hardware problem. I use audacity and you could try to make speakers available by manually selecting output device from the list.

Using Audacity, the Device Toolbar does not show a speakers/headphones choice. Next to the speaker 'icon' of this toolbar it just shows the choice as 'default' or 'pulse'