[alsa-devel] [Alsa-user] Jetway j7f2 via82xx volume problem: sound suddenly stops when increasing volume: "SOLVED" (well ... sort of)

[Zoilo Gomez]

(Sorry for cross-posting from alsa-user; however, on 2nd thought I think
this really belongs in alsa-devel):

===

I think I have found what is causing this problem: in ac97_patch.c / int
patch_vt1617a(...)  there is a line of code:

>>> snd_ac97_write_cache(a97, 0x5c, 0x20);

According to a comment, this code is supposed to "bring the analog power
consumption to normal, like WinXP driver for EPIA SP".

If I comment out this line, the problem appears to be solved ... I can
now put all volume controls to maximum values and the sound will keep
playing.

This is consistent with the apparent introduction of this bug in kernel
2.6.19 (includes alsa-driver version 1.0.12rc1): no such problem
occurred until 2.6.18, but all kernels since 2.6.19 do suffer from this
problem. The line of code above first shows up in linux-2.6.19.

Unfortunately, since I do not have a datasheet for the VT1617A chip set,
I cannot verify the exact semantics, or suggest an improvement.

Can anyone with a datasheet please suggest a proper patch to this line
of code?

TIA,

Z.

======

Zoilo Gomez wrote:
> In the mean time I have found that kernels 2.6.15 and 2.6.16 do not 
> suffer from this problem, whereas 2.6.22 till 2.6.25 do.
>
> Testing for kernels 2.6.17 till 2.6.21 is somewhat complicated in my 
> setup, because there are other problems (NFS-related) which I need to 
> sort out.
>
> So it looks like there is a bug somehow.
>
> Providing the dxs_support parameter does not make any difference, no 
> matter what value I set it to.
>
> Z.
>
>
> Zoilo Gomez wrote:
>> I have several J7F2 boards from Jetway, containing a 8237 via sound 
>> device on the south bridge.
>>
>> Using the alsa-driver, when I increase the volume then at some point 
>> all over sudden the sound stops. On some boards this happens at 75%, 
>> on others already at 60%, or 90%. Bringing the volume down again does 
>> not bring the audio back ...
>>
>> I am using the alsa-drivers with MPlayer.
>>
>> Although to me this smells like a hardware problem, I understand from 
>> googling around that this can be fixed with software, but I cannot 
>> find the correct solution anywhere. I have tested with gentoo kernels 
>> 2.6.22 and 2.6.24.
>>
>> AFAIK there are only 2 ways to get the sound back once it has stopped:
>>
>> 1) reset the mobo
>> 2) rmmod snd-via82xx, followed by modprobe snd-via82xx
>>
>> The strange thing is that in option 2), the problem seems to be gone 
>> once the driver has been reloaded; from that moment on it is working 
>> fine ....!
>>
>> There is a driver from Via Arena (viaudiocombo) that seems to work 
>> fine, but it is OSS i.o. ALSA, and also a development by Via Arena 
>> i.o. the Linux community. Besides, I need synchronization features 
>> from the audio driver, and I do not think that OSS support this (not 
>> 100% sure).
>>
>>
>> Can anyone help me and shed light on this?
>>
>>
>> TIA!
>>
>> Zoilo.
>>
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