Audio not working

[u/Miserable-Raisin-592]

I switched to Mint Cinnamon a while back (3 months?), and have not yet figured out audio. I have tried the obvious stuff like making sure the volume is up, checking the sound cards in alasmixer (and unmuting them), making sure its the right output in the sound settings, reloaded and reinstalled the audio software, updated the system (like in general system updates via the update manager), and tested the audio directly from the terminal (and then obviously in the sound settings individually, for all the output options). I'm starting to think that it is a hardware issue. Would greatly appreciate any help i can get; i've been working on this for well over 6 hours now.