alsa burned my laptop speakers :(

[wifixer]

I'm writing that as a very big WARNING for everybody:
Do not test with alsamixer! it will burn your speakers!
Where did it happen: latest dCore + alsa downloaded by sce-import.
How did it happen: to test if sound works, I run alsamixergui, and set all levels to max, it started as a very high note, it kept sounding for few seconds, while I was lowering the levels, then sound died suddenly, and a strong stink of plastic burn came from the laptop.
WARNING: it is not like hours of stress-run or something... it is a miserable less-1-minute: your speakers are gone!
Now my right speaker is fried for good, and the left speaker works at half, I barely can hear something from it.
Who-what to blame for that?
Shouldn't be some kind of safety control, at least against overheat?

edit... I still cant believe it...............
still cant f* believe it............

[nitram]

wifixer wrote:
How did it happen: to test if sound works, I run alsamixergui, and set all levels to max, it started as a very high note, it kept sounding for few seconds, while I was lowering the levels, then sound died suddenly, and a strong stink of plastic burn came from the laptop.

In my experience, using alsamixer to set volumes never results in an actual sound for playtest. It is only after the user plays some music or runs test commands does sound actually play. So you should be very clear on this, you're saying you simply set the sound levels to maximum and a high note was emitted?

This behaviour doesn't occur on TC6, but i don't have experience with dCore.

Edit: shouldn't this be posted on the dCore forum instead?

[Misalf]

It could have just happened randomly. I'd guess internal speakers are often very cheap.
Something like this happened to me only once when the internal beep speaker of an MS-DOS machine burned away. It wasn't busy with beeping or anything - it just fried itself for no apparent reason.
I believe the rest of the machine is still working to this day.

[wifixer]

I cant be more clear than that
dCore-utopic, sce-import alsa-base/alsa-firmware-loaders/alsamixergui/alsa-modules, run alsamixergui, all levels up, a single loud high noise, kinda of iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
maybe 30-45 seconds

[Misalf]

I cant be more clear than that

What's the laptop model?
It may as well be the laptop's fault instead of ALSA or dCore.

[wifixer]

then try it on yours if burns you have your laptop model

[bmarkus]

Who-what to blame for that?

Blame designer/manufacturer of the laptop.

[wifixer]

google it, its not the first time alsa burns some speakers, so if you dont mind ill blame ALSA for poor and unsafe implementation which is known to burn speakers, and if they dont fix that, they should at least show a warning when moving that alsamixer levels up. its not a simple bug like an icon dont show or sound is not sampled correct or whatever.... IT BURNED MY SPEAKERS in 30 SECONDS!
and if you allow me, I blame YOU for not showing a warning about that....... you didn't know? well now you know!

[gerald_clark]

You installed it. You set the volume to max. You let it scream at high volume for 30 seconds.
Blame yourself. 
Your attitude earns you no support points here.

[nitram]

google it, its not the first time alsa burns some speakers, so if you dont mind ill blame ALSA for poor and unsafe implementation which is known to burn speakers, and if they dont fix that, they should at least show a warning when moving that alsamixer levels up. its not a simple bug like an icon dont show or sound is not sampled correct or whatever.... IT BURNED MY SPEAKERS in 30 SECONDS!
and if you allow me, I blame YOU for not showing a warning about that....... you didn't know? well now you know!

You're clearly upset, i would be too if i just lost my speakers.

I've been using alsamixer for years on various hardware with numerous distributions and never encountered the issue or read about it online. Having said that, if it's an alsa issue as you indicated, then it's not the fault of Tiny Core or dCore. File a bug report with alsa, that's what open source is all about. At least it may prevent others from experiencing the same problem.

[nitram]

The first 3 pages returned from googling 'alsa broke speakers' did not return anything obvious, aside from the usual issues with setting up Linux sound. Are you able to provide links to back up your statement? Not trying to enflame, would just appreciate confirmation.

[andrewb]

Assuming your laptop also has a microphone, setting all the alsagui sliders to maximum will have set the gain on your microphone to maximum. What you then heard was feedback from the speakers being picked up by the microphone & amplified due to high gain you set. Doesn't matter what operating system you use you will have the same problem.

As with any audio system, when you get feedback, lowering the volume or shielding the microphone will break the loop. I have experience this on a couple of Asus laptops & simply covering the microphone allowed time to lower the speaker volume or microphone gain with no lasting damage to the system.

[andyj]

Call me crazy, but wouldn't setting the volume to zero initially and turning it up until you get what you want make a whole lot more sense than setting it to max and then turning it down. I don't understand the logic here. If I stomp on the gas in my truck and the tires start spinning and I lose control and hit something it's not the manufacturers fault. Start slow and build up speed. You're not driving on a road near me are you?

[unplugged2]

I would say the manufacturer is to blame. The audio circuitry in the laptop should never feed the speakers more than they can handle. ALSA, as any software, just controls the hardware. So this seems to be caused either by poor design or faulty [cheap] parts.

[xyz-worx]

I can confirm the statements of andrewb and unplugged2. I owned
a professional and very expensive Lenovo W700 portable workstation.
The (acoustic) behaviour under Win XP professional was identical to
that what is described in this thread.
So it is definitely not an issue of ALSA, it is an issue of how the
designer placed microphone and speakers in the housing of the notebook.

regards
xyz-worx