Score:1

Why is sound not working on my headphones?

gb flag

I'm running a Dell Inspiron 17-7779 running Ubuntu 21.10 and kernel 5.13.0-19. According to the BIOS, it has a RealTek ALC-3253 Audio chip, and running lspci gives this repsonse

00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)

Audio plays normally through the internal speakers, but when I plug in headphones, there's no audio. According to PulseAudio Volume Mixer, sound is playing on the channels, but there's no sound in the headphones

Occasionally, it will work, I'd estimate about once in every five times I start the laptop, but will often stop working while running.

I've tried switching from PulseAudio to PipeWire with no luck patcl info

Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.38)
Server Version: 15.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo

running pacmd list-sinks gives this

 1 sink(s) available.
  * index: 1
    name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo>
    driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
    flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
    state: SUSPENDED
    suspend cause: APPLICATION|IDLE
    priority: 9039
    volume: front-left: 30129 /  46% / -20.25 dB,   front-right: 30129 /  46% / -20.25 dB
            balance 0.00
    base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
    volume steps: 65537
    muted: no
    current latency: 0.00 ms
    max request: 0 KiB
    max rewind: 0 KiB
    monitor source: 1
    sample spec: s16le 2ch 48000Hz
    channel map: front-left,front-right
                 Stereo
    used by: 0
    linked by: 0
    configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 2000.00 ms
    card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3>
    module: 22
    properties:
        alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
        device.api = "alsa"
        device.class = "sound"
        alsa.class = "generic"
        alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
        alsa.name = "ALC3253 Analog"
        alsa.id = "ALC3253 Analog"
        alsa.subdevice = "0"
        alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
        alsa.device = "0"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xd5128000 irq 150"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "8086"
        device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
        device.product.id = "9d71"
        device.product.name = "Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "front:0"
        device.buffering.buffer_size = "384000"
        device.buffering.fragment_size = "192000"
        device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
        device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
        device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
        device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    ports:
        analog-output-speaker: Speakers (priority 10000, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
        analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
    active port: <analog-output-headphones>
 (with audio playing and the headphones plugged in)

It's a dual boot machine, and the same headphones work in Windows, and other devices.

I've noticed that, occasionally when I open Audacity, some of the options are not available for playback. Sometimes there's no "default" option, there's just "hdmi"

David avatar
cn flag
What version of Ubuntu? What kernel?
heynnema avatar
ru flag
See my answer at https://askubuntu.com/questions/1365905/ubuntu-21-04-no-sound-on-new-dell-inspiron-7700-aio and see if it helps you.
gb flag
Thank you, I've added that as the accepted answer
gb flag
Spoke too soon, started my laptop this evening and no sound from headphones, no changes made to the configuration
mangohost

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.