cd sound

[rhackenb]

I am running RH8 on a Compaq Presario desktop. When I use one fo the cdplayer tools, it is clear that the cd is playing because the track is identified and the the scrollbar advances. However, no sound comes out of the speakers. The whole system works under Windows ME, so I know that the speakers are connected correctly. Under Linux, when I turn on click sound effects, I get the proper sound effects are played. Through the mixer I have the speaker volumn set to 100%

Any idea of what I have to do to hear the cd being played?

 

[sbrews]

Hmmm... the problem could be in several areas.

Start by finding one of the "mixer" programs and check the volume level for the CD. I had this problem recently and it turned out to be that the volume was set too low.

scott

 

[rhackenb]

The mixer was the first thing I looked at. All values are set to max and nothing is muted.

I asked someone at work and the suggestion was that the cable between the sound card and the cd drive was not connected. That means that I have to open up the machine and look. Not sure if I have a spare cable if I need one. They said that some applications pull the sound through the IDE port instead of via the audio cable.

Thanks for responding.

-- bob

 

[sbrews]

That would be the next area to look at. As far as I know, no cdrom pulls sound thru the IDE cable. You will need a cable to go from the sound plug on the cdrom to the sound plug on your motherboard (if so equipped) or sound card. If you dont have a cable, your local computer store (Compusa, Best Buy, Circuit City, local PC store, etc). should have one you can buy - probably around 2 or 3 dollars.

 

[rhackenb]

I think I have one of those cables in my junk box. I seem to remember that it is a thin twisted pair with two small prongs.

Thanks for your help.

-- bob

 

[jwenting]

Only reason to pull data through the IDE interface is to perform DSP on it.
I think older versions of Windows worked like that to play the audio.
In Windows 95 for example you could access an audio CD like a diskdrive and extract quite a lot of information from the files there (which were mere indices into the audio data, but contained info like CD serial number, track length, etc.).

Maybe there are Linux CD players working similarly, in which case you'd need to mount the CD with some kind of filesystem for them to work (most CD players don't need the CD to be mounted).

 

[rhackenb]

I opened up the box and can see that there is no audio cable going to either the cdrom drive or the dvd drive. Not sure if there are inputs on either drive unless I remove them slightly.

However, this Compaq Presario has only sound on the motherboard and I can't find a set of pins to pull the audio from it. I guess I'm SOL. I'll check on the 'documentation' for the motherboard.