# Only getting mono sound



## ImageJPEG (Mar 29, 2016)

Skip two paragraphs to get to the issue if you don't want to know the back story.

I was using Xfce until a few weeks ago. It ran fine...or at least it did. I ran into some issues with loading Xfce. It would crash my computer for whatever reason. I don't remember a particular update causing this issue. It just seemed out of the blue.

I was thinking my video card crapped out on me, however, it crashed when trying to load Xfce on my integrated Nvidia graphics also. I even re-formatted my computer and Xfce still crashed on me. I switched to MATE and no crashes since then. Got myself a new GPU too  seems to be working great so far.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I only have audio coming out of the left speaker channel. It seems that any setting I try to change in MATE's audio controller doesn't keep. I did not have this issue when I was running Xfce. Any suggestions? I am part of the wheel and operator groups.


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## SirDice (Mar 30, 2016)

Sound is done by the kernel so the Desktop Environment shouldn't be the issue. It 'sounds' (pun intended) like a hardware issue. What audio card do you have? Please post the output of `cat /dev/sndstat`.


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## trilok (Mar 30, 2016)

I think it is issue of graphic card.You should test graphic card


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## ImageJPEG (Mar 31, 2016)

```
pcm0: <NVIDIA (0x0051) (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)
pcm1: <NVIDIA (0x0051) (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)
pcm2: <Realtek ALC888 (Analog 7.1/2.0)> (play/rec) default
pcm3: <Realtek ALC888 (Analog)> (play/rec)
pcm4: <Realtek ALC888 (Rear Digital)> (play)
```


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## ImageJPEG (Apr 3, 2016)

Any ideas?


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## shepper (Apr 4, 2016)

ImageJPEG said:


> pcm2: <Realtek ALC888 (Analog 7.1/2.0)> (play/rec) default
> pcm3: <Realtek ALC888 (Analog)> (play/rec)



pcm2 looks to have surround/stereo (7.1/2.0) while pcm3 does not.  Does the mate mixer allow you to select the pcm device?


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## ImageJPEG (Apr 4, 2016)

I don't know :/. Never had this issue before so I don't know where to start.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eokeu4ns3599p35/Screenshot.png?dl=0

For whatever reason, the mute button is greyed out. DIdn't have that issue when I was running Xfce.

Another thing, everytime I set my audio device to the Realtek 7.1/2.0 it always reverts it to the Nvidia HDMI audio device.


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