> since the system was installed. (Six months?? A bit more?) The
> obvious explanations are user error (clicked something without
> realising) or dead hardware.
>
> She is running Debian Wheezy with TDE 3.5.13.2 on an oldish Dell
> laptop. Since I haven't got the laptop here, I haven't got its
> specs. I cannot have the laptop to work on for the moment, since she
> is using it a lot for now.
>
> All suggestions or explanations welcomed,
> Lisi
>

Hi Lisi,

At first, I think that checking that all of the on/off check boxes in Kmix is a good option.
Then, some laptops has a function keys, on the same keys as F1, F..., where you can press FN+ (the mute button) to turn on or off the sound. On some lappies, these keys are driven by the software (in linux), or on older lappies, it is directly controlled by the hardware, which is more multi-platform friendly. Also, does the laptop has a hardware volume control, probably on the side of it?

Then, if none of these works, I'd test the computer with a livecd, which is know to support the sound chip of this computer and play a sound file.

Running ''alsaconf'' form Konsole, as a root user, is also good for reconfiguring the sound card, but I am not sure if this program is still included on linux distros of these years.

Good luck!
-Alexandre