It's possible. I've ordered a Soundblaster in case this can't be solved.
I did find this thread here:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11225&forum=53
Posters in that thread share the symptom that the onboard speaker only works when something is plugged in, and use
Code:
setenv save applei2s.audio "INVHPMUTEGPIO INVHPDETECTGPIO"
To fix it.
On my machine these don't do anything at all. But I'm wondering if something similar might.
