Samsung Notebook 7 Force headphone jack and keyboard lighting issues

wowbagger

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Guys, I’m really in need of some advanced help with my current laptop. I bought this, a Samsung Notebook 7 Force (Style S51 Pro on some countries, model NP760XBE) last october and since then I have been facing a series of really frustrating hardware issues. Back then, I was pressed by a lot of work, deadlines and college stuff, so I didn’t dive deep into trying to diagnose and fix the issues. But now I have the time and I’m invested in doing this because I can’t bear Windows anymore than I did for the last couple of months.

For a TL;DR version: I need ideas to find and document, and hopefully fix, issues with headphone jack sound output and keyboard backlighting.

I’m running Kubuntu 19.10 (a distro change is something that I’d be willing to try, although I’m so used to Ubuntu and its derivatives that I’d like to stick with them. The only demand really is KDE Plasma support as an official falvour because I really don’t like to manually install desktops environments on top of others – had some nasty experiences with this)

So, the issues are, in order of relevance for me (and goes without saying that everything works on Windows 10):
  1. the headphone jack won’t work. If you connect a headphone, the sound is veeeeeery low volume and heavily distorted. I’ve tried different distros, even Manjaro, thinking a rolling distro could provide me with more up to date software and fix this, I also fiddled with Pulse and Alsa and whatnot. The headphone issue is, by far, the most important for me. My workaround is a USB-C adapter, but the thing is way too cumbersome and far from ideal
  2. keyboard backlighting also won’t work, but I’m helpful: it did work on Fedora when I tried! So there is hope on this one!
  3. bluetooth headphones don't play nice with Wi-Fi. They work up until the point you are not using Wi-Fi. Apparently, crappy Intel drivers simply can’t handle the two radios at 2,4 GHz properly, so trying to watch a video online is a clusterfuck of disconnections left and right that ultimately make the bluetooth audio route as a fix to the headphone jack problem something not viable
  4. HDMI output won’t work at all. The system detects the HDMI event, presenting me with the dialog to select double screen and etc, but no matter what I do, in the end nothing gets displayed on the monitor/TV. Tested with different distros and I suspect it has something to do with Nvidia drivers (tryied the HDMI with integrated graphics as well to no avail)
Probably unfixable:
  1. The BIOS is incredibly simple (it is really obtused anda carefully designed to prevent you from taking control of your hardware) and doesn’t let you change that Intel RST to AHCI, something that, as I understand, is necessary in order to Linux see my drive as a NMVe and not as a SATA (sdb) device. That really pisses me off because it is way faster on Windows
  2. The laptop has a fingerprint reader. I have zero hopes of driver support for this nor I care that much about typeing passwords to be honest, but still, I’m open to ideas
The end goal:

I really want to fix, at least, the headphone problem and the keyboard backlighting: they are the most important ones for me.

Or in the worst case scenario, at least document it extensively so I can forward this to developers in the hopes it gets fixed. Also, it would be nice to learn more about the system and understand why those things don’t work.
 


Just for context, here is hwinfo output:

Code:
hwinfo --sound
14: PCI 1f.3: 0403 Audio device                                 
[Created at pci.386]
Unique ID: nS1_.w_8UE1+TGa3
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3
SysFS BusID: 0000:00:1f.3
Hardware Class: sound
Device Name: "Onboard - Sound"
Model: "Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
Device: pci 0x9dc8 "Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
SubVendor: pci 0x144d "Samsung Electronics Co Ltd"
SubDevice: pci 0xc822
Revision: 0x11
Driver: "snd_hda_intel"
Driver Modules: "snd_hda_intel"
Memory Range: 0x6013118000-0x601311bfff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0x6013000000-0x60130fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 139 (809 events)
Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00009DC8sv0000144Dsd0000C822bc04sc03i00"
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: snd_hda_intel is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_hda_intel"
Driver Info #1:
Driver Status: snd_soc_skl is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_soc_skl"
Driver Info #2:
Driver Status: sof_pci_dev is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe sof_pci_dev"
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
 
Guys, I’m really in need of some advanced help with my current laptop. I bought this, a Samsung Notebook 7 Force (Style S51 Pro on some countries, model NP760XBE) last october and since then I have been facing a series of really frustrating hardware issues. Back then, I was pressed by a lot of work, deadlines and college stuff, so I didn’t dive deep into trying to diagnose and fix the issues. But now I have the time and I’m invested in doing this because I can’t bear Windows anymore than I did for the last couple of months.

For a TL;DR version: I need ideas to find and document, and hopefully fix, issues with headphone jack sound output and keyboard backlighting.

I’m running Kubuntu 19.10 (a distro change is something that I’d be willing to try, although I’m so used to Ubuntu and its derivatives that I’d like to stick with them. The only demand really is KDE Plasma support as an official falvour because I really don’t like to manually install desktops environments on top of others – had some nasty experiences with this)

So, the issues are, in order of relevance for me (and goes without saying that everything works on Windows 10):
  1. the headphone jack won’t work. If you connect a headphone, the sound is veeeeeery low volume and heavily distorted. I’ve tried different distros, even Manjaro, thinking a rolling distro could provide me with more up to date software and fix this, I also fiddled with Pulse and Alsa and whatnot. The headphone issue is, by far, the most important for me. My workaround is a USB-C adapter, but the thing is way too cumbersome and far from ideal
  2. keyboard backlighting also won’t work, but I’m helpful: it did work on Fedora when I tried! So there is hope on this one!
  3. bluetooth headphones don't play nice with Wi-Fi. They work up until the point you are not using Wi-Fi. Apparently, crappy Intel drivers simply can’t handle the two radios at 2,4 GHz properly, so trying to watch a video online is a clusterfuck of disconnections left and right that ultimately make the bluetooth audio route as a fix to the headphone jack problem something not viable
  4. HDMI output won’t work at all. The system detects the HDMI event, presenting me with the dialog to select double screen and etc, but no matter what I do, in the end nothing gets displayed on the monitor/TV. Tested with different distros and I suspect it has something to do with Nvidia drivers (tryied the HDMI with integrated graphics as well to no avail)
Probably unfixable:
  1. The BIOS is incredibly simple (it is really obtused anda carefully designed to prevent you from taking control of your hardware) and doesn’t let you change that Intel RST to AHCI, something that, as I understand, is necessary in order to Linux see my drive as a NMVe and not as a SATA (sdb) device. That really pisses me off because it is way faster on Windows
  2. The laptop has a fingerprint reader. I have zero hopes of driver support for this nor I care that much about typeing passwords to be honest, but still, I’m open to ideas
The end goal:

I really want to fix, at least, the headphone problem and the keyboard backlighting: they are the most important ones for me.

Or in the worst case scenario, at least document it extensively so I can forward this to developers in the hopes it gets fixed. Also, it would be nice to learn more about the system and understand why those things don’t work.
I have the same laptop and the same problems... were you able to fix this ?
 
Pain is over!

Bash:
sudo apt install alsa-tools-gui

1. Then, open HDAJACKRETASK
2. Switch to REALTEK ALC256
3. On "Black Mic Right Side" Check "Override" and select "Dock Microphone"
4. Click Apply now (error message pops up)
5. Install boot override
6. Reboot
7. When headset is connected go to sound options and just select proper options to use input/output from it.

Tried on Elementary OS.

Captura de tela de 2020-03-29 01-35-46.png


When headset is connected go to sound options and just select proper options to use input/output from it.
 
Last edited:
Pain is over!

Bash:
sudo apt install alsa-tools-gui

1. Then, open HDAJACKRETASK
2. Switch to REALTEK ALC256
3. On "Black Mic Right Side" Check "Override" and select "Dock Microphone"
4. Click Apply now (error message pops up)
5. Install boot override
6. Reboot

Tried on Elementary OS.

View attachment 5855

When headset is connected go to sound options and just select proper options to use input/output from it.

That's awesome, man! I'll surely try it out with the 20.04 ISOs now available.

Did you managed to fix the keyboard backlighting?

Oh, and could you point me in the right direction regarding how to patch the fix? I never did something like this.
 
About headphone just follow steps above.

About backlight there is no easy way. For some reason this is not permanent, some times you will need to run it again:

- login in terminal as root (sudo su)
- cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
- chattr -i KBDBacklit ... {autocomplete here with TAB}
- echo 0700000003 | xxd -p -r > KBDBacklit ...... {autocomplete here with TAB}
- reboot now
- Just test in a dark room.
 
Last edited:
About headphone just follow steps above.

About backlight there is no easy way. For some reason this is not permanent, some times you will need to run it again:

- login in terminal as root (sudo su)
- cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
- chattr -i KBDBacklit ... {autocomplete here with TAB}
- echo 0700000003 | xxd -p -r > KBDBacklit ...... {autocomplete here with TAB}
- reboot now
- Just test in a dark room.
Pain is over!

Bash:
sudo apt install alsa-tools-gui

1. Then, open HDAJACKRETASK
2. Switch to REALTEK ALC256
3. On "Black Mic Right Side" Check "Override" and select "Dock Microphone"
4. Click Apply now (error message pops up)
5. Install boot override
6. Reboot
7. When headset is connected go to sound options and just select proper options to use input/output from it.

Tried on Elementary OS.

View attachment 5855

When headset is connected go to sound options and just select proper options to use input/output from it.

Hello!
Recently, I also bought the same device, Samsung Notebook 7 force, and I have the same problem with the headset which gives very small sound but the sound is distorted when emphasizing volume. I've been looking for a solution for a long time, and now I come here by following replies that you were left.

Unfortunately, my device doesn't even work with the solution you left behind. I have already tried every (literally every) method I can find on the internet and now I don't know what to do. Could you please tell me another way to try?

Here is the result for hwinfo:
Code:
hwinfo --sound             
17: PCI 1f.3: 0403 Audio device                                 
  [Created at pci.386]
  Unique ID: nS1_.w_8UE1+TGa3
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:1f.3
  Hardware Class: sound
  Device Name: "Onboard - Sound"
  Model: "Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x9dc8 "Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x144d "Samsung Electronics Co Ltd"
  SubDevice: pci 0xc822
  Revision: 0x11
  Driver: "snd_hda_intel"
  Driver Modules: "snd_hda_intel"
  Memory Range: 0x6013118000-0x601311bfff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0x6013000000-0x60130fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 159 (815 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00009DC8sv0000144Dsd0000C822bc04sc03i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: snd_hda_intel is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_hda_intel"
  Driver Info #1:
    Driver Status: snd_sof_pci is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_sof_pci"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

23: PCI 100.1: 0403 Audio device
  [Created at pci.386]
  Unique ID: NXNs.FUsikN3XIs2
  Parent ID: z8Q3.n+kq2VbAfW5
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:01:00.1
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.1
  Hardware Class: sound
  Model: "nVidia Audio device"
  Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x10fa
  SubVendor: pci 0x144d "Samsung Electronics Co Ltd"
  SubDevice: pci 0xc822
  Revision: 0xa1
  Driver: "snd_hda_intel"
  Driver Modules: "snd_hda_intel"
  Memory Range: 0x81080000-0x81083fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 17 (463 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd000010FAsv0000144Dsd0000C822bc04sc03i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: snd_hda_intel is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_hda_intel"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #8 (PCI bridge)

Thank you!
 
Well, unfortunately, @robsontenorio method won't work on Ubuntu 20.04.

Can you provide some insight on how did you debug this so that I can try some alternative config?

Oh, and to make matters even worse the Bluetooth doesn't work because there are problems with the Intel driver for the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo card.
 
Hey, I own a Notebook 7 and was having the same problem with the headphone jack (sound very low and distorted). I managed to solve based on the solution at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1898849#p1898849. Basicaly, I created the files at /lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw with the content
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc824 0

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05
and at /etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf with content
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw
Reboot, and you should have sound working even after reboots.

The values may differ in the codec line, but it's all explained at the link I put. You may test before applying the patch with the command sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1a 0x707 0x05 (the sound must be playing and headphones connected, but it will no persist after reboot)
 
PulseAudio Volume Control. Solved every audio problem I've ever had.
 
Hey, I own a Notebook 7 and was having the same problem with the headphone jack (sound very low and distorted). I managed to solve based on the solution at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1898849#p1898849. Basicaly, I created the files at /lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw with the content
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc824 0

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05
and at /etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf with content
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw
Reboot, and you should have sound working even after reboots.

The values may differ in the codec line, but it's all explained at the link I put. You may test before applying the patch with the command sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1a 0x707 0x05 (the sound must be playing and headphones connected, but it will no persist after reboot)

Thanks man, I'll download some ISO and try it later on.

PS.: Brazilian by any chance?
 
Hey, I own a Notebook 7 and was having the same problem with the headphone jack (sound very low and distorted). I managed to solve based on the solution at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1898849#p1898849. Basicaly, I created the files at /lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw with the content
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc824 0

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05
and at /etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf with content
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw
Reboot, and you should have sound working even after reboots.

The values may differ in the codec line, but it's all explained at the link I put. You may test before applying the patch with the command sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1a 0x707 0x05 (the sound must be playing and headphones connected, but it will no persist after reboot)

Hey man, I'm currently trying to apply this fix in my machine but the configuration is not being loaded upon boot. Running popos 20.04, and I'm only able to get audio by using hda-verb on the terminal.
 
Hey, I own a Notebook 7 and was having the same problem with the headphone jack (sound very low and distorted). I managed to solve based on the solution at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1898849#p1898849. Basicaly, I created the files at /lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw with the content
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc824 0

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05
and at /etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf with content
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw
Reboot, and you should have sound working even after reboots.

The values may differ in the codec line, but it's all explained at the link I put. You may test before applying the patch with the command sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1a 0x707 0x05 (the sound must be playing and headphones connected, but it will no persist after reboot)

Thank you so much!! I had the same problem (headphone jack (sound very low and distorted)) in a Samsung Odyssey NP850XBD-XG2BR, the patch solved it for me.
 
Well, it was not persistent after reboots, until I identified the correct Subsystem Id of my device using alsa-info tool.
@caiohsramos instructions plus
and
helped solve my problem.

In my case, for Samsung Odyssey NP850XBD-XG2BR, after running alsa-info, to get the following values under !!HDA-Intel Codec section: Address (0), AFG Function Id (0x1), Vendor Id(0x10ec0256), Subsystem Id(0x144dc186). My patch files are:

`/lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw`:
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc186 0

[model]
auto

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05

`etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf`:
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw

And now headphones works even after reboots :)
 
Well, it was not persistent after reboots, until I identified the correct Subsystem Id of my device using alsa-info tool.
@caiohsramos instructions plus
and
helped solve my problem.

In my case, for Samsung Odyssey NP850XBD-XG2BR, after running alsa-info, to get the following values under !!HDA-Intel Codec section: Address (0), AFG Function Id (0x1), Vendor Id(0x10ec0256), Subsystem Id(0x144dc186). My patch files are:

`/lib/firmware/alc256-sound-patch.fw`:
Code:
[codec]
0x10ec0256 0x144dc186 0

[model]
auto

[verb]
0x1a 0x707 0x05

`etc/modprobe.d/alc256-sound-patch.conf`:
Code:
options snd-hda-intel patch=alc256-sound-patch.fw

And now headphones works even after reboots :)
This is working with Samsung Odyssey NP850XBC, but other Subsystem Id(0x144dc177).
 
Last edited:

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