T42 music problem

[olddog]

I play music from my Thinkpad through a DAC into the HiFi system. Recently I swapped the T61 for a T42, and until yesterday, everything worked fine.

Now, silence reigns.

There is nothing wrong with the external system because if I plug the DAC back into the T61 it works fine.

The USB port in the T42 is working, and indeed ALSA recognises the DAC, and claims to be sending sounds (in the form of data, obviously) to it. However, not a cheap emerges. I have absolutely no idea what to try next.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Probably a stupid question but did you turn up the volume in ALSA?

[olddog]

Probably a stupid question but did you turn up the volume in ALSA?

Thank you for that suggestion.

I had never turned the volume down in ALSA, but I thought I would give it a try. So I unplugged the T61 and plugged in the T42. The first thing I did then was to press the "test sound" button, and was rewarded by a noise like the Hound of the Baskervilles in full cry. Only louder, because I had turned up the volume control.

Having picked myself up off the floor I decided that what I have is that wonderful thing - an intermittent fault.

Ah well. The T42 is 15 years old, and I have another one (or two).

[olddog]

In case you are wondering why the noise sounded like a hound, it's because I am using Puppy Linux, and the test sound is a so-called Woof.

[Thinkpad4by3]

In case you are wondering why the noise sounded like a hound, it's because I am using Puppy Linux, and the test sound is a so-called Woof.

Does that have any relationship to your username "olddog"?

[olddog]

In case you are wondering why the noise sounded like a hound, it's because I am using Puppy Linux, and the test sound is a so-called Woof.

Does that have any relationship to your username "olddog"?

Indeed it does! Well spotted.

I am a huge fan of Puppy Linux. Unfortunately I have a couple of essential progs that only work in Windows, otherwise i would never use it at all.