Which SoundCard is live?

[electricFuzz]

Hi!

I usually never use the main volume control, I tend to alter the in-program-controls. However, when I clicked on the main control today I realized that I have two sound cards installed. [I couldn't change the volume so I clicked in mixer. Then I see another control...]
First only Juniper HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5700 Series] Digital Stereo (HDMI) showed up. The mixer showed Internal Audio Analog Stereo.

I bashed to see what was going on:

01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Juniper HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5700 Series]
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1522
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 55
        Memory at d4120000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1522
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 54
        Memory at d4200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel

Could anyone shed some light on this..? I don't know whether it was snake oil or not, but the soundcard in my machine was supposed to be top of the line. Am I using the 'good' card here or what?

[Djhg2000]

I'd say you're using the built-in Intel sound card, the ATI one is for HDMI since the sound needs to be transmitted from the graphics card.

While I couldn't honestly say that the Intel card is "top of the line" it's far from the worst and my guess would be (since it looks like an HP laptop to me) is that you've got speakers from Beats Audio, which from what I've heard is among the best you can find in a laptop.

I have a DV-7 4032eo myself which has the standard speakers and they... have a high potential for improvement in terms of sound depth

[Roy_Radford]

Try something simpler. Type 'alsamixer' into a terminal and see what the settings for all your cards are.

[electricFuzz]

How do alt the card being used..?

[oz]

How do alt the card being used..?

You should be able to disable an on-board sound device within your system BIOS configuration settings.

[electricFuzz]

BIOS settings... dude, you're talking to a noob here.

I tried to change the priority and also dismounting the onboard card using YaST-->Sound I didn't seem to do the trick. How do I tinker with the BIOS?

[oz]

How do I tinker with the BIOS?

You'll need to press the correct hot-keys during system boot to get into the BIOS settings. Most systems reveal what those keys are when the system is first turned on and begins to boot, but the alert doesn't stay on the screen for long, so you'll have to be watching closely. Your computer manual or motherboard manual should also have the steps for entering into the system BIOS configs.

[unlimitedscolobb]

You should be able to disable an on-board sound device within your system BIOS configuration settings.

How about changing the default ALSA sound device? (This looks useful: FAQ026 - ALSA wiki). This should work independently of whether it is possible to use the BIOS to disable a device on this machine or not. I've never done this switch myself, though.