Updated : New to retropie - no audio on Retropie using new Rasberry Pi 400

mitu · 22 Dec 2020, 20:55

What image did you use to install RetroPie ?
When you're saying you don't have any sound, are you referring to navigational sounds in EmulationStation (the front-end where games are displayed) or when you play games ? Did you check the sound volume ?

Peldiego7111 · 23 Dec 2020, 19:16

@mitu thank you for your reply, I used a link that the raspberry pi hut support team gave me https://retropie.org.uk/download/ then clicked on the button marked raspberry pi 4/400, using balenaetcher on to a micro sd card. There is no audio /sound on the emulation navigation screens and no sound while playing games. I checked the sound volume, turned it fully up but still to sound.

mitu · 23 Dec 2020, 19:45

Can you connect a keyboard, exit EmulationStation (by press F4) then type at the command prompt

amixer scontents

and post the output of the command ?

Peldiego7111 · 23 Dec 2020, 22:16

@mitu after that now says...
Simple mixer control 'HDMI' ,0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback - 10239 - 400
Mono: Playback - 771 (89%) (-7.71dB) (on)

mitu · 24 Dec 2020, 07:02

I see the audio is not muted and it's set to HDMI. Can you try to connect the TV on the 1st micro HDMI port (the one next to the USB-C power port), then reboot your PI and check for sound ?

You can test the sound using the speaker-test command, that you can run outside of EmulationStation (similar to the amixer command).

Peldiego7111 · 24 Dec 2020, 10:14

@mitu I moved the micro HDMI cable from the port next to sd card slot on the raspberry pi 400 to the next slot - one next to the power cable slot and then fist USB slot (the raspberry pi beginners book says to use the one closest to the micro sd card slot ) but still no sound on retropie. I ran the speaker test.
Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 512 to 65536
Period size range from 512 to65536
Using max buffer size 65536
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 16384
was set buffer_size = 65536
0-Front left
Time per period = 1.3814354
0-Front left
Time per period = 16.341250
0-Front left
Time per period = 2.729797
0-Front left
Time per period = 2.279922

Then this continues with time period being around 2.72932.

Peldiego7111 · 24 Dec 2020, 21:31

@mitu hi any update to my last reply, just tried again and still no sound on retropie, any thing else I can try?

Peldiego7111 · 25 Dec 2020, 13:02

@mitu merry Xmas, I have managed to add more games on to retropie using the pi 400 and usb stick but still can't get any audio sound on retropie either on the options screens or while on games. If you have any other ideas I can try that will be great. Sorry to bother you again.

mitu · 27 Dec 2020, 06:31

@peldiego7111 Can you use the Audio menu in the RetroPie system and make sure you've set the audio output to HDMI ?

Peldiego7111 · 27 Dec 2020, 18:58

@mitu hi just tried that I pressed on HDMI 1 (was only HDMI option) others were headphones, mixer - adjust output volume and reset to default. No sound on menus or games, I then restarted Retropie but still no audio sound.

Peldiego7111 · 27 Dec 2020, 19:20

@mitu..as well as going in to audio as in my last message I also went on sound settings, they are set as - sound 100%
Audio card - default
Audio device - HDMI
Enable navigation. - on
Enable video audio - on
Omx player audio device - Alsa
Do these seem Ok?

mitu · 27 Dec 2020, 20:16

The settings look fine - you should get some audio/sound. Stupid question, but the TV is not muted or set with a very low audio volume ?

Peldiego7111 · 27 Dec 2020, 20:44

@mitu hi there is sound while TV is on, normally have it up loud and sound while on the raspberry pi 400 os such as you on you tube.
As I said earlier I did have problems originally getting audio sound on pi 400. This was what I had to do on Rasberry Pi 400 terminal to get sound (advice from raspberry pi hut).

It could be an issue that we see where some TVs report themselves in the wrong mode. You can try to fix this by doing the following:
Open a terminal window
Type in sudo nano /boot/config.txt
Press enter
Look for these lines:

uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in

DMT (computer monitor) modes

hdmi_drive=2

Remove the # before hdmi_drive=2
Press Ctrl and O then hit enter to save the changes
Press Ctrl and X to exit
Reboot and try playing sound through your TV

I did this and then got sound on the Rasberry Pi 400 os, such as on you tube where I didn't have before . Could it be something similar on Retropie?

mitu · 27 Dec 2020, 21:34

@peldiego7111 RetroPie is using the same OS underneath - Raspberry PI OS, without the desktop (the Lite version).
If you had to add hdmi_drive=2 to get sound, you should do the same for the RetroPie installation - there is a similar /boot/config.txt that you can modify.

Peldiego7111 · 28 Dec 2020, 17:10

@mitu hi sorry again I'm really slow with these things, so I press f4 while on retropie and then in the terminal retropie screen type
sudo nano/boot/confiq.txt which brings up the GNU nano 3. 2 screen ?
This screen is then blank, has options at bottom.. so what do I have to do then, before on Rasberry Pi terminal there was text and I had to remove part of it , as above (the #).

mitu · 28 Dec 2020, 17:12

@peldiego7111 said in Updated : New to retropie - no audio on Retropie using new Rasberry Pi 400:

sudo nano/boot/confiq.txt which brings up the GNU nano 3. 2 screen ?

You mis-typed the filename:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

not

sudo nano /boot/confiq.txt

Peldiego7111 · 28 Dec 2020, 17:28

@mitu it worked! Thank you so much.. My little boy is so happy he now has sound on paper boy 2 on the super nes! Thank you much appreciated and sorry for being so slow, your patience and knowledge is to be admired, thank you.

mitu · 1 Jan 2021, 15:31

Have fun !

Oli · 1 Jan 2021, 15:31

@mitu Happy new year! I'm from Germany and I apologize for my English. I had the same problem after updating 4 days ago. I have a PI4. The background music is only playing in the main menu. In the games, there is no more sound. I checked the settings described above and couldn't find any errors. Under sudo nano /boot/config.txt I could correctly find hdmi_drive = 2. The following entries are under sound options: Sound 0%
Audio card - default-
Audio Device - HDMI Omx Player Audio Device - Alsa

The sound can be changed from 0% to 100%, but is not saved when you exit the menu. Is that the mistake?

If you need more information please write me.

I hope you can help me in this case.

BR Oli

mitu · 2 Jan 2021, 05:03

@oli said in Updated : New to retropie - no audio on Retropie using new Rasberry Pi 400:

The background music is only playing in the main menu.

RetroPie doesn't include any background music - are you using a RetroPie standard install image ? Please open a new topic and add your info, as requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.