Suddenly the Laptop speakers sound output has become extremely low

[frail falcon]

Hey, i switched to linux mint about a month ago, and since then its been working fine.

I usually play youtube videos on brave with around 50% to 60% volume, which is pretty loud/audible to me.

Since last 2-3 days, the sound output has become surprisingly low out of nowhere. I have been trying to fix the problem, i installed sound 150 from applet, etc, but nothing seems to work. The sound which i was getting initially at ~50% is now available at 100 or 110% (110 after installing sound 150 applet)

Any suggestions/fixes?

Thanks a lot in advanced

this is how the alsamixer looks^

sound in settings:

sound 150 from applet:

also in system sound setting:

[frail falcon]

output of inxi -Axxx

also this:

[unborn yew]

did you tried to put "Speaker" volume to max in alsamixer ?

[frail falcon]

Yes, thats basically making the volume 100% right?

[unborn yew]

It should

[frail falcon]

Even at 100%, the sound is almost half of what it previously was

[unborn yew]

put headphone to 100% too

[frail falcon]

okay, 1sec

[frail falcon]

Zero improvement

[unborn yew]

The issue is the same with any software ?

browser, video player, music player, etc...

[frail falcon]

all browsers yes

music and videos lemme check, 1sec

yea its the same

But when connected to earphones, everything works fine

On laptop speaker, the issue exists

[unborn yew]

One thing surprise me, in alsa you have some Realtek chip, while in inxi you have only Intel Meteor... which appear to be the internal GPU HDMI device...

[frail falcon]

No idea about this , like is this a good thing or a bad thing?

[unborn yew]

a bad/strange thing...

[frail falcon]

😭

[unborn yew]

Launch alsamixer and type F6 to select device

what are your choices ?

[frail falcon]

only 1

[unborn yew]

ok, we will assume this is Intel Meteor thing...

[frail falcon]

Okay

[unborn yew]

If you have proper sound from headphone I suspect this is hardware level issue

[frail falcon]

I see, how do we pin point this issue tho

[unborn yew]

this is a laptop yes ?

[frail falcon]

Yea

[unborn yew]

hard...

[unborn yew]

Try to boot on Mint USB Live sessions, and check if issue is the same

if it is, I am afraid this is hardware related

[frail falcon]

i see, so i should consult a technician ?

[unborn yew]

In that case... yes, or buy external speaker to plug on your laptop

[frail falcon]

😭

[unborn yew]

Try the live sessions first

[frail falcon]

Okay will do

[frail falcon]

One ques, will booting on mint usb cause any issue with the files/data stored on my device?

[unborn yew]

no

[frail falcon]

Also what do i check after booting on live usb?

the sound issue?

[unborn yew]

open firefox, try to play some video...

play with volume, check if you have same result

[frail falcon]

got it

[unborn yew]

wait

[frail falcon]

Ye

[unborn yew]

I think I found the issue...

[frail falcon]

Woah!

[unborn yew]

go there : #1483025796292677815 message

[frail falcon]

Yes

[unborn yew]

What do you have in Outpu Profile ?

[frail falcon]

This is the output tab right?

[unborn yew]

Yes, Output tab

Output Profile Combo box

Where you have "Play HIFI quality music"

[frail falcon]

Only a single option

[unborn yew]

click here, what options do you have ?

ok...

[frail falcon]

Only : play hifi quality music

[unborn yew]

Ok, so try the Live USB, and check if in that specific screen you have the same option in Live USB

and play some sound, video to check if something change

[frail falcon]

I actually did restart with the live usb, but it directly opened my current mint home, instead of showing me any boot options

[unborn yew]

I think you should use tjhe BIOS boot menu to select the USB key to boot

[frail falcon]

Got it

[frail falcon]

Okay i did, the sound is pretty loud, unlike rn, also the option was same: play HiFi quality music

[unborn yew]

ok, so the good news is that hardware is ok

[frail falcon]

Niceee

[unborn yew]

What you should do, is returning in the Live USB session, and take photos of alsamixer and inxi -Axx so we can compare with your installed session

[frail falcon]

Okay, also one more thing i didn't run on compatibility mode, i ran on the first option available that was 22.3 cinnamon

[unborn yew]

that's what you should do.. the compatibility mode is a text-mode installer, you can do almost nothing

[frail falcon]

I see

Okay, rn am again playing the yt vids, the sound is slightly worse than previous

[unborn yew]

beacause alsamixer have reset its parameters, so your speaker volume back to 50%

[frail falcon]

I see

[unborn yew]

if required we can save alsamixer parameter, but we are not here for now

[frail falcon]

Here

[unborn yew]

ok, so this is exactly the same, except the kernel version

[frail falcon]

I see

[unborn yew]

go back to your installed sessions

[frail falcon]

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=445461

Is this a possible fix?
Or its a new kernel issue?

[frail falcon]

Yep am there

[unborn yew]

maybe

what cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf tells you ?

maybe nothing relevant after reflexion

try the proposed fix :

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Add this line at the end:
options snd-hda-intel model=generic

[frail falcon]

discord wasnt letting me paste it sadly

[frail falcon]

okayy

[unborn yew]

It seem to can also try model=hp or model=auto in case model=generic change nothing

I think you must restart each time you change value

[frail falcon]

pasted this line at the end, how do i save it tho?

[unborn yew]

yes, Ctrl+X and confirm save

[frail falcon]

okay

okay generic didnt work after restart, will try hp now

same result with hp

now auto

Same as others
Didn't really fix the audio issue🥲

One thing changed tho

Rn at 90% sound
Its similar to previously 50%
Instead of 100/110%

[unborn yew]

Try boot on previous kernel

[frail falcon]

One issue

Now my external hdd is throwing an error when connected

Error mounting

[unborn yew]

Doubt it is related

[frail falcon]

It never threw any error before today...

[unborn yew]

Boot on older kernel

[frail falcon]

How do i do that?

[unborn yew]

In grub menu, choose "advanced option for Linux Mint", and select another kernel version

[frail falcon]

um am a newbie, may i ask whats grub menu?

[unborn yew]

The menu you see before Mint Logo, at computer start

https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_images/grub.png

[frail falcon]

I dont really see this menu tho

[unborn yew]

... ok

[frail falcon]

also how do i fix this

[unborn yew]

one thing at a time

[frail falcon]

When i dual booted windows on my old laptop i had this

In this new one, its only linux mint

[unborn yew]

ok, open terminal and type sudo nano /etc/default/grub

what is the value of GRUB_TIMEOUT ?

[frail falcon]

0

[unborn yew]

set it to 5

[frail falcon]

Okk

[unborn yew]

then Ctrl+X confirm save

[frail falcon]

Done

[unborn yew]

then type sudo update-grub

[frail falcon]

Done

[unborn yew]

reboot, you will see the menu now, with 5 second timeout

[frail falcon]

Restart?

[unborn yew]

yes, and select a previous kernel

[frail falcon]

Okay 1sec

[unborn yew]

check numbers and select one with a lower number

[frail falcon]

Tf grub menu didn't show up again

[unborn yew]

ok

[frail falcon]

Even the mint logo didn't show up

[unborn yew]

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

show me what it display

[frail falcon]

Lenovo->mint>log in

But its lenovo->log in rn

[frail falcon]

1 sec

[unborn yew]

change the hidden by menu for GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE

Save, then sudo update-grub again

[frail falcon]

Okk

[unborn yew]

and restart

[frail falcon]

Advanced options?

[unborn yew]

yes

[unborn yew]

choose the 6.17.0-14-generic ... without the recovery mod

[frail falcon]

Done

Sounds better

[unborn yew]

ok

[frail falcon]

~70%

[unborn yew]

go to alsamixer and increase speaker volume to max

[frail falcon]

Perfect

[unborn yew]

exit alsa and type sudo alsactl store

[frail falcon]

Thanks a lot
Its fixed

[frail falcon]

Okayy

[unborn yew]

wait it's only partially fixed, since the problem seem to be the newer kernel, and you'll automatically boot on this one

[frail falcon]

Done

[frail falcon]

Got it
How do i fix that

[unborn yew]

I think the easiest way is to set the 6.17.0-14-generic as default one, and avoid updating untile a better kernel than the -19 come

[frail falcon]

got it, how do i set 6.17.0-14-generic as default tho?

[unborn yew]

I don't know, I check, wait

[frail falcon]

sure sure

[unborn yew]

type sudo nano /etc/default/grub

change the value of GRUB_DEFAULT from 0 to saved

[frail falcon]

okk

[unborn yew]

then add a line with GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

[frail falcon]

done

[frail falcon]

just below the 6 lines in white?

[frail falcon]

here

[unborn yew]

Or after the GRUB_DEFAULT one, this is ok

[frail falcon]

okayy

done

[unborn yew]

It don't matter, it's only matter of readability

[frail falcon]

got it

[unborn yew]

Ctrl+X save

[frail falcon]

done

[unborn yew]

Then your Restart, and you redo the same process as before, selecting the 0-17 one

this will become the new default

[frail falcon]

1sec lemme restart

[frail falcon]

Done

Thanks a lot!!

Even my hdd is opening now

The new kernel has some bugs ig

[unborn yew]

In suggest you open a new thread in #1170387178577207348 explaining your case, that since kernel 6.17.0-19, you have sound volume problems, and you had to back to previous kernel to fix it.

[unborn yew]

Specify that too, in the new thread

[frail falcon]

Okkk

[frail falcon]

Got it

Thanks a lot man

[unborn yew]

I suggest you avoid updates for a while

don't panic, you can avoid update for 6 mouth, this is not a problem

[frail falcon]

Yea absolutely

How do i avoid kernel updates tho? Just avoid sudo apt update?

[unborn yew]

you can apt update

and install new things

but avoid installing updates via update-manager, and yes avoid installing new kernels

If you really need to update Firebox or Brave, you can

you can select what to update in Update manager

[frail falcon]

I do use update manager to update firefox/brave

[unborn yew]

but as I said, you can run without updating without problem

[frail falcon]

Like how do i know its a kernel update not an application update?

[unborn yew]

So, if you want, use this, but unselect any kernel

[frail falcon]

Got it

[unborn yew]

wait

[frail falcon]

Yee

[frail falcon]

I see, i'll keep an eye for updates with keyword kernel in them

Made the post in #1170387178577207348

[unborn yew]

I will not participate since it's now beyond my skills

but maybe someone else will

[frail falcon]

also last ques, this is a safe update right?

[unborn yew]

I guess, yes...

[frail falcon]

Thanks!!

[frail falcon]

Hey @unborn yew sorry for the ping

I just checked, its default loading the new kernel 6.17.0-19 today out of nowhere

I redid the steps for setting 0-17 as my kernel, that is setting GRUB_DEFAULT = saved
And GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT = true

But these were already set as saved and true, still its not loading into last selected option

Any idea why🥲

Should i delete 0-19 from update manager?

[unborn yew]

Do you have re-selected the 0-14 from the "Advanced Options for Linux Mint" grub menu ?

[frail falcon]

I did that
But when i shutdown and open/restart

Its loading in 0-19

Instead of 0-14

[frail falcon]

um sorry for the ping but any idea why? @unborn yew

[unborn yew]

nop... you should open a new thread