[Help] Internal speakers mute on MSI Bravo 15 (Headphones work fine)

General Help
1

Hi everyone,

I am writing because I have exhausted all the solutions I found in forums and guides, and I still cannot get sound from my laptop's internal speakers. Headphones and Bluetooth audio work perfectly, but the built-in speakers are totally silent.

Here are my specs and the list of everything I have already tried so we don't repeat steps.

My System:

  • Model: MSI Bravo 15 B7EDP (MS-158P)
  • OS: Zorin OS 17.2 (Kernel 6.14.0-37-generic)
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen (Family 25)
  • Audio Codec: Realtek ALC256

The Problem: The system detects the sound card, the volume control moves up and down, and alsamixer shows everything is active and unmute, but no audio comes out of the speakers.

List of solutions I have ALREADY TRIED (and failed):

  1. Alsamixer & Pipewire:
  • Verified that "Master" and "Speaker" channels are at 100% and unmuted (00).
  • Disabled "Auto-Mute Mode".
  • Completely reinstalled Pipewire, Wireplumber, and PulseAudio, deleting user configs (~/.config/pulse, etc.).
  1. BIOS Configuration:
  • Secure Boot: Disabled.
  • Fast Boot: Disabled.
  1. HDA Jack Retask (hdajackretask):
  • Tried overriding pins 0x14, 0x1b (most common for MSI), and 0x1d as "Internal Speaker".
  • Enabled advanced options like power_down_unused=0 (and power_save_node=0) to prevent power saving.
  • Enabled indep_hp=yes.
  • Applied "Install boot override" and rebooted after each attempt. None worked.
  1. Kernel Parameters (Modprobe):
  • Tried options snd-hda-intel model=auto
  • Tried options snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-multi (read it activates the amp on some MSI laptops).
  • Tried options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0 (to avoid conflicts with AMD digital mic).
  • Tried updating to Kernel 6.18 (Mainline) but encountered Shim Signature issues, so I reverted to stable 6.14.
  1. Low-level attempts (HDA Verb & GPIO):
  • Sent direct commands to the chip using hda-verb to activate EAPD on node 0x1b (SET_EAPD_BTLENABLE 0x02). The terminal returned success (value 0x0), but still no sound.
  • Tried manually activating GPIOs (masks 0x01 and 0x04) to see if the amp was hidden there.
  1. AMD Driver Conflict:
  • Tried blacklisting AMD sound modules (snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x, etc.) to force the system to use only the Realtek Legacy driver.
  1. Hardware Reset:
  • Performed an "EC Reset" (shutdown, unplug charger, hold power button for 30s).

I have currently undone all software changes to leave the system clean. If anyone has this same model or knows the specific "quirk" this MSI/AMD board needs, I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks in advance!

2

Welcome to the Forum!

The new Kernel 6.17 is rolling out in the Moment. Did You tried it with that one?

Dod You tried Pulse Audio Volume Control? It is a Tool for set up Audio Input and Output. You can install it with sudo apt install pavucontrol

3

I do not understand your stated combination of ZorinOS version and linux kernel.
Z17 should have updated to Z17.3, but latest kernel should be 6.8 not 6.14.
So are you actually on Z18 instead of Z17.2?
or have you manually introduced the 6.14 kernel on Z17.2?