Audio suddenly became extremely quiet on Manjaro after a game crashed
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MellowCactus47
My headphone audio worked normally while I was playing a fan-made game, but about ten minutes in, the sound cut out after my character died. The game had no audio afterward, and YouTube playback became extremely quiet even with the volume set to 150%. I later tried various troubleshooting commands suggested by AI, and now no applications produce usable audio—Spotify reports that it cannot play anything.
The game has been deleted, and I have rebooted several times, unplugged and reconnected my headphones, and even powered the computer off completely. The headphones were not disconnected when the problem began. I'm using Manjaro Linux, but I'm not sure which audio system or device details are most useful for diagnosing this. The audio device appears active in the kernel, yet the output remains barely audible. What should I check, and how can I safely reinstall or repair the audio components without making things worse?
Answers
The Windows-specific advice about Device Manager won’t apply here. Linux does not have that same utility, so look in your desktop’s sound settings for the output device, profile, mute state, and volume levels. If the device is active but everything is extremely quiet, also check whether an application-specific mixer has turned the streams down. A reboot and reconnect are reasonable checks, but since you already tried both, the next useful step is collecting the exact hardware and audio-service information rather than reinstalling random drivers.
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Before changing drivers, test whether the problem affects every output device. If your computer has speakers, Bluetooth audio, or another headphone port, try one of those. That can distinguish a system-wide mixer or audio-server issue from a damaged cable, jack, or output profile. Also confirm that the headphones are selected as the active output and that the balance control hasn’t been moved almost entirely to one side.
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Since you’re on Manjaro, check which audio server is running first—usually PipeWire with its PulseAudio compatibility layer, though some systems use PulseAudio directly. Reinstalling or switching between them should not be the first step, because mixing packages or running unfamiliar commands can create more problems. Check the selected output device and its per-application volume in the desktop sound settings, then verify that the headphones are not muted or routed to a different profile. Sharing the output of your audio-device and audio-server status commands would make it easier to give a precise fix.
MellowCactus47: Thanks. I’m definitely using Manjaro, and I’ll try to find the audio-server and device information rather than running more commands blindly. I’m still not sure how to identify whether PipeWire or PulseAudio is active.
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MellowCactus47: I didn’t find Device Manager, and I’ve already rebooted several times and reconnected the headphones. I’ll focus on checking the Linux sound settings and gathering the device details.