RHEL 5.6 Sound Card Issue after install nvidia video card driver

I'm using intel DH67CL motherboard. Its intel HD audio works fine after installation of system. However, it is messed up after installation of nvidia video card driver. (with HDMI)

I tried a few things as below but get no clue. Please help a desperate guy with linux.


1. sound is normal after installation of OS. (RHEL 5.6, i386)

2. Lose sound after installation of (zotac) nvidia video card driver. default sound card becomes nvidia device.

3. tried to install realtek linux driver from there:
**broken link removed** Definition Audio Codecs

4. Pop up with a lot error messages and the "volume control" in front panel starts to fail.

5. Getting really mad and tried to re-install alsa driver from their official site.

Getting more error message and fail to install during "make install".

Now the sound card system is really messed. When click "volumn control", it gives me "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found".



Now I almost stuck here. Need help to restore system configuration of sound cards and volume control.

Thanks a lot.

Sounds to me like your Nvidia software is redefining your Realtek audio as Nvidia. This seems to be a common problem doing a quick search on the web.
I believe part of this is due to the Nvidia motherboards that are available with both Nvidia video and audio.

I'd recommend goggling for "Installing your Nvidia video drivers the hard way."
From what I could glean by doing it the hard way you only install the video drivers and prevent the audio drivers from loading which appears to be your issue.

Thanks for your reply.

The Nvidia is not redefining the Intel HD Audio. It adds one additional sound card with Nvidia name. And used as default in the system.

I have trouble re-installing the Intel HD audio (which I believe is Realtek audio chip) driver in linux and reset it back to the default sound card.

skydiverc said:

Sounds to me like your Nvidia software is redefining your Realtek audio as Nvidia. This seems to be a common problem doing a quick search on the web.
I believe part of this is due to the Nvidia motherboards that are available with both Nvidia video and audio.

I'd recommend goggling for "Installing your Nvidia video drivers the hard way."
From what I could glean by doing it the hard way you only install the video drivers and prevent the audio drivers from loading which appears to be your issue.

Click to expand...

---------- Post added at 22:27 ---------- Previous post was at 22:25 ----------

skydiverc said:

I'd recommend goggling for "Installing your Nvidia video drivers the hard way."
From what I could glean by doing it the hard way you only install the video drivers and prevent the audio drivers from loading which appears to be your issue.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a good idea. But for this case, it is too late. The default sound card settings seem to be messed up. I need a way to restore it.

It seems that realtek driver will mess up the driver for all sound cards. Now I don't know how to restore it.

Don't know if Linux works the same way as Windows...

There have been times when I could get nowhere and so I decided the only option was to command it to delete the device. It believe it does the same thing as removing the drivers.

Then I shut down and remove power for 30 seconds.

When I start up, Windows either (a) recognizes the device as 'new' and installed it with its driver, or (b) asks me to locate the driver. A navigation window opens, often showing the name of the desired file in gray. After some searching I usually find it somewhere in the i386 folder.

I suggest Googling, or hit Red Hat's documentation on how audio is configured, and how to set a default device. Then set it back to what you used before.

That is: if you want. Are you sure that audio output over a HDMI link isn't what you want? (TV with built in speakers for example)

GStreamer is an audio 'routing' system that's used / supported by the Gnome desktop, and applications (especially media player applications like Mplayer). On my Debian system, there's a commandline program called "gstreamer-properties" (launch from a terminal) that you can use to set audio output devices etc. Maybe RHEL has this utility too?

No need to uninstall or mess with drivers, just find documentation that says how to change the relevant settings, and set them correctly.