Enabling Sound on RPI4

[PaulJB67]

Hi,
I'm using a RPI4 B Rev 1.1 for almost 5 months. Since then, i haven't been able to get any quality sound when playing video/radio, neither analog or bluetooth. It starts cracking or just no sound at all.
I tried severall instructions, that i got from this forum and others sites, but untill now, nothing at all. Only in the beginning and just for a few days. All the devices i'm trying to connect work well with the phone or tablet.

Should i get an audio adapter, or can i fix it with some code ?

I'm not a developer and i only use the RPI as desktop.
Would appreciate any help on this subject, as i understand it's a major issue for many people.

[neilgl]

Are you using Raspbian Buster with Desktop and Recommended Software on the Pi4, or something else?’ For me, plugging in a powered speaker to the 3.5 mm socket or using the HDMI sound works perfectly. (Buster with Desktop)

[PaulJB67]

Code: Select all

PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian

My screen has no speakers.
Initially i tried with the 3.5 jack and nothing. After several attempts with bluetooth on a speaker and on headphones, i heard sound but with noise distortion and a renderization msg appears on the video.
I gave up this issue for about 2 months, but now i'm trying again, maybe i get lucky this time !!!

I made some changes using terminal commands, which were useless. I even installed blueman applet and after pairing and trusting, complete silence.
Now i can't even change volume control on the speaker icon.
It doesn't seem as an hardware problem. Everything else works perfectly.

[neilgl]

If you have a spare micrSD card you could put Buster onto it, then see if sound works without installing/changing anything else. As a test, from a fresh install of Buster on a pi4, with a powered speaker connected to the 3.5mm jack, it played an mp3 (Snowblind - Black Sabbath) perfectly using VLC. The HDMI also worked (as monitor has speakers) and I could switch between the two. I did not use bluetooth.

[LTolledo]

Well just the other day I tried powering my spare RPi4B-2G (shown below) so I can have the system updated.

RPi4B-2G-buck rev2.5.jpg (158.98 KiB) Viewed 263 times

default audio output is set to HDMI, and after selecting some youtube video, audio came out properly out of the monitor's powered speakers

OK I've just powered it on now to check analog audio, using my wired headphones,
selecting some youtube video (YT volume set at 50%),
its outputting OK (system volume set at 90%), as I write this post.

I dont use RPi's built in bluetooth for audio (and probably wont).
if I want bluetooth audio, I'll just connect my bluetooth transmitter to the analog jack.

personally I prefer DACs for the RPi (have several of those)
my desktop RPi4B-4B (shown below right) has a DAC Amp outputting about 15Wx15W at 12v to a pair of bookshelf speakers.

RPiDesktopSetups.jpg (195.4 KiB) Viewed 263 times

can you post the entire contents of the /boot/config.txt file?

[PaulJB67]

Well, i don't know exactly what happened, but i got an old cable and tried it, sound came back !!!
Don't ask me what i did. It seems that my rpi doesn't like bluetooth. I would prefer it, but it's better to have wired sound than no sound at all.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[neilgl]

Ah yes I forgot the old adage - any cable that connects anything to anything can go wrong at any time...

[gammadas]

Hello Folks:

Recently, after a system update on the RPi4, I do not get any audio output on through the analog audio output jack. I am very frustrated and would like to know if there is anything I can do before I erase and reinstall the latest raspbian buster. Kindly post with all details as I am a newbie.

[coltrane]

Hello Folks:

Recently, after a system update on the RPi4, I do not get any audio output on through the analog audio output jack. I am very frustrated and would like to know if there is anything I can do before I erase and reinstall the latest raspbian buster. Kindly post with all details as I am a newbie.

Try yhis topic
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=276110

This workaround seems to work, although not very pratical to follow everytime one needs to change from HDMI to headphones:

sudo rm .asoundrc
sudo raspi-config
sudo reboot now

(this should be executed on a terminal window)