Here's a new one on me... Earlier today, my consumer-grade card was working fine. It's an old Creative aka Ensoniq card, specifically a 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02) according to lspci. I haven't installed or upgraded any software in a few days, no problems at all... then just now, I tried to play a CD and only could hear the left channel. I fired up alsamixer, which appears to work normally, except that nothing I do brings up the right channel... it LOOKS like it's up but I don't hear anything. Must be cables, right? I checked all the connections, swapped cables, and confirmed that only the left channel is appearing at the soundcard output jack. Maybe it's the internal CD cable? I then tried playing some audio files (mp3, wav, whatever) and ... this is where it gets really odd... any app I try appears to hang, and I get no sound at all! For example, here's an excerpt of the output from strace mpg123: ... write(2, "MPEG 1.0 layer III, 128 kbit/s, "..., 54MPEG 1.0 layer III, 128 kbit/s, 44100 Hz joint-stereo ) = 54 open("/dev/dsp", O_WRONLY) = 4 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_RESET, 0) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_SETFMT or SOUND_PCM_READ_BITS, 0x7fff93b8ac2c) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_STEREO, 0x7fff93b8ac2c) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_SPEED or SOUND_PCM_READ_RATE, 0x7fff93b8ac44) = 0 close(4) = 0 open("/dev/dsp", O_WRONLY) = 4 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_RESET, 0) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_SETFMT or SOUND_PCM_READ_BITS, 0x7fff93b8ad4c) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_STEREO, 0x7fff93b8ad4c) = 0 ioctl(4, SNDCTL_DSP_SPEED or SOUND_PCM_READ_RATE, 0x7fff93b8ad64) = 0 write(4, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 16384) = 16384 read(3, "x\17\23z.E\v/2to\212\370\220<\302\274\r\20\207\26\f=%\321"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "^\r\323\306H\304\3\0172\362b\'8\220e\203\244Ni%\22,\260"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "C\215SrDD\223\t\35\260n)\230\206=#\214\16\r3\20,\274t\201"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "#\201\223\223J\304\vO\32\362y\v\310\211<b\346\v\354\177"..., 414) = 414 write(4, "\361\377\370\377\362\377\372\377\360\377\373\377\355\377"..., 16384) = 16384 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\f\215\3238@F\251\351\35$Z%\10\302a\346.\ft\311\30,0\311"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\f\205\23\0170E\203\0172r]\304(\266a\351>MX\307\26\254"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\r\214\323e@\305\203\f3\300Wc\330\260a\351.\r\\\307\30"..., 414) = 414 write(4, "\0\0\374\377\1\0\372\377\3\0\370\377\6\0\370\377\v\0\371"..., 16384) = 16384 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\f\rSgJ\305\3\f\35 Pe(\266a\203\226\r]!\26,0o\301M\17\242"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\r\4\363PP\306\3\f\33pP\244\370\305a\351.\r\344\325\35"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\23\4\30310\306\251\3542pUe\310\321=\206>\f\20\257\32\254"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "\33\200\323\n6\306\253\f\32\360L\2038\300a,\"\vL\221\32"..., 414) = 414 write(4, "\f\0\t\0\r\0\v\0\17\0\f\0\17\0\n\0\17\0\t\0\17\0\n\0\21"..., 16384) = 16384 read(3, "\377\373\222d", 4) = 4 read(3, "-\5\322\344*\306\303\f1rM%\30\321a&N\213\234\341\32,$\307"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "@\200\2\261!\307K\0172pX\247(\345<\303\36\n\220\245\34"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "R\200\2\2560\310K\f1rT\310yL<\303\n\n\220\251!\'\244i\311"..., 414) = 414 write(4, "\370\377\3\0\371\377\3\0\370\377\3\0\367\377\3\0\366\377"..., 16384) = -1 EIO (Input/output error) read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "h\5\2\332/G\311\346\25\260]H\31\31A&\10\nt\241\36L0\307"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "u\f\22\334)\306\213\17\32v]\307\330\365=&\6\v(\251\34,"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "|\205\22\343*\3071\3541r]\250i\10<\303f\vp\245\34\3140"..., 414) = 414 read(3, "\377\373\222D", 4) = 4 read(3, "\202\204\23\0048G3\0171\360_\10\210\325=&2\v\264\231\30"..., 414) = 414 write(4, "\367\377\21\0\367\377\r\0\367\377\r\0\370\377\16\0\372"..., 16384) = -1 EIO (Input/output error) ... and so on. I tried restarting alsa (/etc/init.d/alsasound restart), no joy. I tried shutting down the whole box, restarting it, still no joy. WTF? Is my hardware fried? -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com