Kubuntu 8.04 // Dell 1420 Inspiron // No sound

[alex at crackpot.org]

Quoting Rhune Lord <rhunelord at gmail.com>:

> Guys I have taken the plunge after reading Alan Daley's interview and
> I have a notebook with the following hardware but no sound.

Dumb question, but are you sure the volume is turned up?

Once I thought for several days that the sound was broken on my  
laptop.  I finally discovered the somewhat-obscure sound control panel  
in my XFCE desktop  which had the 'Main' volume turned up, but the  
'PCM' volume turned all the way down.  (The 'simple' volume control  
that I had in the system tray only showed the main volume, so I had no  
idea the other existed...)  I don't know what the volume controls are  
like in KDE, but it might be worth checking into.

I dragged one slider up, and all my sound started working.  Well, it  
didn't start working exactly, because it had never really stopped  
working, but I think you get my point.

Anyway, always good to check the simple stuff before hunting for a  
more complex issue.  Along those same lines, are you sure the speakers  
work?  Have you tried external speakers?  How about any volume  
controls that might be built into the speakers, or the laptop?  (I  
eliminated those possibilities by booting into a different OS and  
hearing sound.)

alex