Member Avatar for jbennet

I have a Dell Dimension 5150 - 1gb RAM, 3ghz ish HT pentium 4, and a radeon x600 video card

Ok, ubuntu had a bit of trouble with the video card but otherwise runs great (i edited xorg.conf to say vesa instead of ati)

Only problem is I dont have any sound. (Built into my chipset) , oddly enough does vista or any other microsoft system apart from the version of XP i got from dell.

Anyone know which kernel module i need?
Its a hi-def sound chip i think as i have like 5 or so sound ports at the back

Linux thinks its an intel something but obviously thats not working so it mustnt be.

Windows used to say it was a sigmatel thing

  • 4 Contributors
  • 6 Replies
  • 224 Views
  • 1 Week Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by c_shaft05

Dani AI

Generated

Short, practical diagnostic + fixes for the Dimension 5150 (follow-up to ). The on‑board audio on that generation of Dell commonly uses a SigmaTel/IDT HDA codec that the kernel handles through the Intel HDA driver with Sigmatel-specific codec code; so the fix is usually in ALSA/hd-audio configuration rather than a generic Intel AC97 driver. (android.googlesource.com)

Quick checks to gather useful info (run these and save the output before changing anything):

sudo aplay -l
cat /proc/asound/cards
cat /proc/asound/card*/codec* | grep Codec
dmesg | grep -i hda
lsmod | grep snd
alsamixer

Those commands show the codec string, which ALSA sees, loaded modules and any HDA errors; that info is the single most helpful thing to post if you need more help. See the Ubuntu HDA troubleshooting notes and ALSA how‑tos for details. (help.ubuntu.com)

Common local fixes to try (no need to reinstall Windows drivers). Unload/reload the HDA driver, then try explicit module options for Sigmatel pin configurations — a few Dell/“3stack”/“5stack” style models are commonly required for these codecs. Example:

sudo modprobe -r snd_hda_intel
sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel

# If that doesn't work, add one trial option (edit as root):
# echo "options snd-hda-intel model=3stack" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
# then reload the module (or reboot)

Try a couple of model names (3stack, 5stack, dell-3stack / dell-bios or the Dell/XPS variants) and/or probe_mask options — different Subsystem IDs used by Dell sometimes need a specific model. Community reports and ALSA docs list these choices and the “try one at a time” approach. (forums.opensuse.org)

Final checks: open alsamixer to unmute channels and raise PCM/Master; save working state with sudo alsactl store. If nothing works, update to a newer kernel/ALSA (many Sigmatel quirks were added to the HDA stack in later ALSA releases) and paste the outputs from the commands above when asking for more help. Following ’s suggestion to show the exact codec string will speed up targeted advice; also note the Ubuntu thread mentioned contains several worked examples that may be helpful. ()

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for John A

Anyone know which kernel module i need?
Its a hi-def sound chip i think as i have like 5 or so sound ports at the back

Oh, that's helpful.

Find the brand of the card; the exact model would be even better. If you can't find it, and expect us to know what kernel module to use, you might as well just try random modprobing and see if you get anything.

Member Avatar for jbennet

thats the problem. Windows just says "Sigmatel High Definition Audio" and dell is no help as it was a special deal machine

Member Avatar for jbennet

ah oh yeah my pc is BTX form factor, intel chipset - i think that limits it to about 2 possible mobos

Member Avatar for John A

Well, once you've found out the soundcard brand, come back and tell us. (Try looking in the manuals that came with your computer.)

Member Avatar for blud

The only Sigmatel chipset that dell uses is:
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX

The easy way to get the exact name of the device in linux is the following command:
lspci

You should see something like this:
00:1b.0 Audio device: blah blah blah

Provide this information, and we may be able to provide more insight on how to get this working :)

Member Avatar for c_shaft05

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

Take a gander... I had a headache with this for a while... and then if a lot of the fixes DON'T work... seriously give a look at my contribution (Search the page for webbca01) and try that out.....

I seriously fell off my chair when i found that fix and it actually worked!

Best of luck

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.