(audio) My audio is no longer stereo
My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it stopped working in stereo. Depending on headphones, - only 1 side has sound, or - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on both side). Anyone experienced this? How long before the whole motherboard dies?
Do you use an audio jack or USB? If an audio jack, it is possible that the contacts are dirty and need cleaning. You can try a little electrical contact cleaner. But this should not affect the stereo/mono settings. On Sun, 21 Sept 2025 at 22:11, William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it stopped working in stereo. Depending on headphones, - only 1 side has sound, or - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on both side).
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I'm using 3.5mm jack, not USB. I don't think any internal contact is broken, because it's the same via front "headphone" or rear "line-out". On 2025-09-21 22:14, Don Tai wrote:
Do you use an audio jack or USB? If an audio jack, it is possible that the contacts are dirty and need cleaning. You can try a little electrical contact cleaner. But this should not affect the stereo/mono settings.
On Sun, 21 Sept 2025 at 22:11, William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it stopped working in stereo. Depending on headphones, - only 1 side has sound, or - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on both side).
Anyone experienced this? How long before the whole motherboard dies? ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/2IYO2YZ...
William Park via Talk said on Sun, 21 Sep 2025 22:10:52 -0400
My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it stopped working in stereo. Depending on headphones, - only 1 side has sound, or - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on both side).
Anyone experienced this?
I've experienced similar, but not exactly this.
How long before the whole motherboard dies?
Whoaaaaa, don't get ahead of yourself. My current mobo has had a bad audio jack for 3 years and the mobo still works fine. So the answer could be that the motherboard lives another 40 years. Your first step is to follow the suggestion of Don Tai. Put electronics lubricant on your headphone plug, push it in and pull it out about 40 times, and see if the symptom changes. Do this with each headphone. If the symptom goes away, Merry Christmas. If not, you've at least learned it's not simple fretting corrosion. You can get USB sound cards of all price ranges and qualities. If you're going to do recording, I suggest at least 24 bit. I replaced my computer's defective sound card with a $20.00 USB sound card, and have been happy ever since. In another message you said you're getting the same symptom with the rear "line-out". A line-out can't drive a headphone: It doesn't have the current. Perhaps it's a rear speaker jack? SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com
Yours is probably not this problem but just in case: I occasionally get sound on only one stereo channel and it has turned out that the balance slider in the audio settings has mysteriously moved all the way to one side. -- Scott
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you. On 2025-09-22 08:48, Scott Allen wrote:
Yours is probably not this problem but just in case: I occasionally get sound on only one stereo channel and it has turned out that the balance slider in the audio settings has mysteriously moved all the way to one side.
Why would KDE have separate left/right volume controls? Just in case one ear has more wax than the other? No slider for L/R balance, and then you have overall volume? Anyway, it was good that you solved the problem, there were no oxidized audio jack contacts, and your motherboard can now last another 20 years. On Mon, 22 Sept 2025 at 17:10, William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
On 2025-09-22 08:48, Scott Allen wrote:
Yours is probably not this problem but just in case: I occasionally get sound on only one stereo channel and it has turned out that the balance slider in the audio settings has mysteriously moved all the way to one side.
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Don Tai via Talk wrote on 2025-09-22 14:13:
Why would KDE have separate left/right volume controls? Just in case one ear has more wax than the other? No slider for L/R balance, and then you have overall volume?
Having separate left & right volume controls in the settings is the same as having a control for volume and a control for balance. On the widget in the "panel" that one interacts with on the desktop, the left & right are presented as a single volume (per app & per device in KDE), so we only interact with a single volume control unless we want to dig a little deeper into fine-grained settings.
William Park via Talk said on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 17:10:15 -0400
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
That "loud crack" sounds to me like an intermittent problem: I suspect your problem will reappear later. The intermittent could be in software, or it can be in hardware when the amplitude of your signal overcame the contact oxide layer, drilling a hole through it. If the latter, more oxide will grow. SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com
USB boot with some other linux version and retest the audio out jack. On Mon, 22 Sept 2025 at 18:35, Steve Litt via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
William Park via Talk said on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 17:10:15 -0400
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
That "loud crack" sounds to me like an intermittent problem: I suspect your problem will reappear later. The intermittent could be in software, or it can be in hardware when the amplitude of your signal overcame the contact oxide layer, drilling a hole through it. If the latter, more oxide will grow.
SteveT
Steve Litt
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On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM Steve Litt via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
That "loud crack" sounds to me like an intermittent problem: I suspect your problem will reappear later.
This has been my experience as well. Indeed it could be a catalyst of the software issue. One stereo channel may have gone temporarily dead (or cracking) and the software might respond by disabling that channel (which is why the slider moved). - Evan
Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote on 2025-09-23 00:56:
This has been my experience as well. Indeed it could be a catalyst of the software issue. One stereo channel may have gone temporarily dead (or cracking) and the software might respond by disabling that channel (which is why the slider moved).
This seems plausible. Normally, when headphones are plugged in, volume to speakers is muted. Perhaps some software confusion? But I also like Steve's theory too.
Steve Litt via Talk wrote on 2025-09-22 15:35:
That "loud crack" sounds to me like an intermittent problem: I suspect your problem will reappear later. The intermittent could be in software, or it can be in hardware when the amplitude of your signal overcame the contact oxide layer, drilling a hole through it. If the latter, more oxide will grow.
This makes sense to me. I wonder if the "crack" could be merely a static discharge that had built up and caused flakiness. Perhaps causing some sensor to be confused into thinking one channel of headphones was plugged in or something? Hopefully it's all cleared up, but if it reappears, my hope is that William will let us know.
Ron via Talk said on Tue, 23 Sep 2025 01:02:57 -0700
Steve Litt via Talk wrote on 2025-09-22 15:35:
That "loud crack" sounds to me like an intermittent problem: I suspect your problem will reappear later. The intermittent could be in software, or it can be in hardware when the amplitude of your signal overcame the contact oxide layer, drilling a hole through it. If the latter, more oxide will grow.
This makes sense to me.
I wonder if the "crack" could be merely a static discharge that had built up and caused flakiness. Perhaps causing some sensor to be confused into thinking one channel of headphones was plugged in or something?
Very true. And I, nor as far as I know anyone else, asked whether he power cycled the machine. SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com
That is such fantastic news! Karen On Mon, 22 Sep 2025, William Park via Talk wrote:
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
On 2025-09-22 08:48, Scott Allen wrote:
Yours is probably not this problem but just in case: I occasionally get sound on only one stereo channel and it has turned out that the balance slider in the audio settings has mysteriously moved all the way to one side.
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well..it might have just been a short of some kind. Sometimes that pop gets the channel going again. Karen On Mon, 22 Sep 2025, William Park via Talk wrote:
KDE has separate left/right volumn control. I moved "right volumn" all the way to 150%, there was loud crack, and sound is now in stereo. I don't believe it. Thank you.
On 2025-09-22 08:48, Scott Allen wrote:
Yours is probably not this problem but just in case: I occasionally get sound on only one stereo channel and it has turned out that the balance slider in the audio settings has mysteriously moved all the way to one side.
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participants (7)
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Don Tai -
Evan Leibovitch -
Karen Lewellen -
Ron -
Scott Allen -
Steve Litt -
William Park