Laptop CD player, audio CDs, no sound (Fedora 8)

[Don Levey-7]

I've got an Acer TravelMate 4202WLMi with a "DVD-Super Multi" drive.  Up
until recently, everything was working swimmingly, but of course
something unidentified changed and now I can't play audio CDs.

I first noticed the problem when trying to rip a few CDs.  Using Grip I
could see that apparently it wasn't reading any audio data off the CD;
it would spin for a few seconds, give up and move on to the next track.
  I can't play the CD directly, regardless of the application I use
(Grip, Amarok, VLC, etc).

I can read data off of a CD with no problem (for example, opening and
reading a text file on a CD).  I can play audio that is already on the
hard drive of the machine - also no problem.  But there seems to be a
disconnect here and my suspicion is that it's software-based rather than
a hardware problem.  Any suggestions on where to look first?

Thanks,
  -Don

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[Dan Ritter-2]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 01:28:31PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:

> I've got an Acer TravelMate 4202WLMi with a "DVD-Super Multi" drive.  Up
> until recently, everything was working swimmingly, but of course
> something unidentified changed and now I can't play audio CDs.
>
> I first noticed the problem when trying to rip a few CDs.  Using Grip I
> could see that apparently it wasn't reading any audio data off the CD;
> it would spin for a few seconds, give up and move on to the next track.
>  I can't play the CD directly, regardless of the application I use
> (Grip, Amarok, VLC, etc).
>
> I can read data off of a CD with no problem (for example, opening and
> reading a text file on a CD).  I can play audio that is already on the
> hard drive of the machine - also no problem.  But there seems to be a
> disconnect here and my suspicion is that it's software-based rather than
> a hardware problem.  Any suggestions on where to look first?

The two ways an optical drive can send audio off of a disk are:

1. Use the equivalent of cdparanoia to read the data off, do
error-correction and play through the DSP hardware

2. Command a CD DAC on the drive to emit music through an analog
connection to the machine's mixer.

If your usual method was (2), then a broken wire on the analog
connection is the likely cause. OR, perhaps the mixer input is
muted or turned to zero.

Try xmms, turning on digital audio extraction (CD-audio plugin
options).

-dsr-
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[Don Levey-7]

Dan Ritter wrote:

> The two ways an optical drive can send audio off of a disk are:
>
> 1. Use the equivalent of cdparanoia to read the data off, do
> error-correction and play through the DSP hardware
>
> 2. Command a CD DAC on the drive to emit music through an analog
> connection to the machine's mixer.
>
> If your usual method was (2), then a broken wire on the analog
> connection is the likely cause. OR, perhaps the mixer input is
> muted or turned to zero.
>
> Try xmms, turning on digital audio extraction (CD-audio plugin
> options).
>

No joy in Mudville.  I've not used XMMS in quite a few years; I
installed it and tried to play the cda files.  I can find them with no
problem (after I manually created the /media/cdrecorder directory to
which the CD now mounts) but as soon as I click "play" xmms terminates.

I do get the following error, which suggests I've got some sort of
problem with the sound engine (or at least the digital portion of it):

    "*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused

    ** WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default):
    Connection refused

    Segmentation fault

    You've probably found a bug in XMMS, please visit
    http://bugs.xmms.org and fill out a bug report."

What's odd is that this did work - and I can still play sound files
resident on the machine, just not CD audio.  The CD is switched on in
the mixer, as well as any other switch that looks like it might help.
Within Grip, I believe I've got it set up to rip via cdparanoia.

  -Don

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[Don Levey-7]

Don Levey wrote:

> Dan Ritter wrote:
>> The two ways an optical drive can send audio off of a disk are:
>>
>> 1. Use the equivalent of cdparanoia to read the data off, do
>> error-correction and play through the DSP hardware
>>
>> 2. Command a CD DAC on the drive to emit music through an analog
>> connection to the machine's mixer.
>>
>> If your usual method was (2), then a broken wire on the analog
>> connection is the likely cause. OR, perhaps the mixer input is
>> muted or turned to zero.
>>
>> Try xmms, turning on digital audio extraction (CD-audio plugin
>> options).
>
>
> What's odd is that this did work - and I can still play sound files
> resident on the machine, just not CD audio.  The CD is switched on in
> the mixer, as well as any other switch that looks like it might help.
> Within Grip, I believe I've got it set up to rip via cdparanoia.
>

A quick followup - I can get CD audio from gnome-cd, some *something* is
working.

To continue...
Encouraged, I just opened Grip and tried ripping that CD; it worked.  So
I ejected that CD, loaded another one, and tried; no go.  Back to
gnome-cd, which also didn't even recognise the disk.  Loaded the first
(working) CD one more time, and couldn't get gnome-cd or grip to work.
Started typing some more, here, and after a minute or two I got the
normal popup dialog (Audio CD loaded, what do you want to do?).  NOW in
grip I can rip the thing.

It all seems tied to getting the drive to spin.  When things work,
trying to rip almost immediately causes the drive to spin up.  When it
won't spin, I know it won't work.

  -Don


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[Dan Ritter-2]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 03:54:59PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:

> No joy in Mudville.  I've not used XMMS in quite a few years; I
> installed it and tried to play the cda files.  I can find them with no
> problem (after I manually created the /media/cdrecorder directory to
> which the CD now mounts) but as soon as I click "play" xmms terminates.
>
> I do get the following error, which suggests I've got some sort of
> problem with the sound engine (or at least the digital portion of it):
>
>    "*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused
>
>    ** WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default):
>    Connection refused
>
>    Segmentation fault
>
>    You've probably found a bug in XMMS, please visit
>    http://bugs.xmms.org and fill out a bug report."
>
> What's odd is that this did work - and I can still play sound files
> resident on the machine, just not CD audio.  The CD is switched on in
> the mixer, as well as any other switch that looks like it might help.
> Within Grip, I believe I've got it set up to rip via cdparanoia.

Problems with Pulse Audio are rife; I don't think it's stable.
What are you running?

I think you have a problem with the optical disk player's own
DAC.

-dsr-


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[Don Levey-7]

Dan Ritter wrote:

> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 03:54:59PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:
>> No joy in Mudville.  I've not used XMMS in quite a few years; I
>> installed it and tried to play the cda files.  I can find them with no
>> problem (after I manually created the /media/cdrecorder directory to
>> which the CD now mounts) but as soon as I click "play" xmms terminates.
>>
>> I do get the following error, which suggests I've got some sort of
>> problem with the sound engine (or at least the digital portion of it):
>>
>>    "*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused
>>
>>    ** WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default):
>>    Connection refused
>>
>>    Segmentation fault
>>
>>    You've probably found a bug in XMMS, please visit
>>    http://bugs.xmms.org and fill out a bug report."
>>
>> What's odd is that this did work - and I can still play sound files
>> resident on the machine, just not CD audio.  The CD is switched on in
>> the mixer, as well as any other switch that looks like it might help.
>> Within Grip, I believe I've got it set up to rip via cdparanoia.
>
> Problems with Pulse Audio are rife; I don't think it's stable.
> What are you running?
>
> I think you have a problem with the optical disk player's own
> DAC.
>

When you say "what are you running" are you referring to distro,
package, or something else?  The laptop is Fedora 8, the main pulse rpm
is v0.9.8-5-fc8.

Are you suggesting this is a driver problem, or that the hardware has
gone flakey?

  -Don

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[Dan Ritter-2]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 04:24:09PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:

> Dan Ritter wrote:
> >Problems with Pulse Audio are rife; I don't think it's stable.
> >What are you running?
> >
> >I think you have a problem with the optical disk player's own
> >DAC.
> >
>
> When you say "what are you running" are you referring to distro,
> package, or something else?  The laptop is Fedora 8, the main pulse rpm
> is v0.9.8-5-fc8.

Distro and package.

> Are you suggesting this is a driver problem, or that the hardware has
> gone flakey?

Judging from your last post, I would say that the hardware is
flaking.

-dsr-

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[Don Levey-7]

Dan Ritter wrote:
> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 04:24:09PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:
>
>> Are you suggesting this is a driver problem, or that the hardware has
>> gone flakey?
>
> Judging from your last post, I would say that the hardware is
> flaking.
>

<sigh>  I was afraid of that.  Is replacing a laptop optical drive as
easy as a desktop?  The last laptop died before the CD drive went.

  -Don

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[Dan Ritter-2]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:40:04AM -0400, Don Levey wrote:
> <sigh>  I was afraid of that.  Is replacing a laptop optical drive as
> easy as a desktop?  The last laptop died before the CD drive went.

No, but the degree of difficulty is dependent on the exact
model. If this is a standard slide-out laptop unit, all the
difficulty will be in figuring how to open the case. Then it's a
matter of disconnecting the drive, replacing it, reconnecting
it, and closing the case.

-dsr-


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[Robert Krawitz-2]

   Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 10:40:04 -0400
   From: Don Levey <lug@...>

   Dan Ritter wrote:
   > On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 04:24:09PM -0400, Don Levey wrote:
   >
   >> Are you suggesting this is a driver problem, or that the hardware has
   >> gone flakey?
   >
   > Judging from your last post, I would say that the hardware is
   > flaking.

   <sigh>  I was afraid of that.  Is replacing a laptop optical drive as
   easy as a desktop?  The last laptop died before the CD drive went.

Depends.  On my Inspiron 8200, it's either much easier or trivial.
It's "much easier" if it's the fixed drive -- loosen one screw, slide
out the old one, insert the new one, and replace the screw.  It's
"trivial" if it's in the removable bay -- slide the removal thing on
the back of the laptop (like it's a battery), remove the old one,
slide the new one in until it clicks.  On other laptops, it may be
much harder.

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