Audio problems with VIA8237 and ALSA

[cumak]

Hello,

My motherboard has onboard audio using the VIA8237. I am trying to use the ALSA snd_via82xx driver which was installed automatically with FC3, but I do not get any sound (at least consistently). I have read many posts about problems with this chip and driver, and unfortunatley I have not come across a definitive solution. I don't mean to start another thread about the same general problem, but there is one specific symptom that I wanted to ask about. Here goes...

When I reboot and run Soundcard Detection, *sometimes* I hear the test sound. I don't get it everytime I reboot, but it seems to work about 30% of the time (especially after a long night's rest, for some reason). Anyway, when I do hear it, I am able to run "speaker-test -c2" and I get test tones out of both speakers. I can also open alsamixer and increase the volume with no problem. Here's the weird symptom: after I've adjusted the volume and ESC out of alsamixer, the sound stops. I have sound, hit ESC, then have no sound. Speaker-test doesn't work, the soundcard detection test sound doesn't work, and nothing else seems to work. So, I figure that alsamixer is changing some setting on me when I exit, but I don't know where to go next with this. Any ideas?

I've tried alsaconf, and it runs without error but never fixes the sound problem. It just teases me and says that everything is all set. Also, I've also messed with various volumes and mutes with no success.

I am hoping that the alsamixer ESC symptom is a good clue as to the source of the problem. A appreciate any tips that you might be able to offer.

Thanks,
Mark

[jim]

are you in gnome or KDE ? kmix can cause some problems
Just a thought i had

[cumak]

I'm using gnome. It seems that I can break it using either, alsamixer or the gnome volume control app. Just now I was playing with it and I managed to kill the sound during speaker-test by just adjusting the PCM volume. I didn't have to exit or anything, I just moved the slider. Setting PCM back to the default value (74%) does not fix it.

[owakroeger]

I'm using SB Live, so this may or may not apply, but if I have the digital output enabled in the alsa menu, my sound crashes. My speakers are not digital speakers. If yours are not digital speakers, maybe that's why alsa crashes.
Just a thought.....
owa