Crackling sounds after rebooting, and when playing any audio. Going to sleep and coming back fixes it.

[Pooya Esfandiar]

Hi folks!

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 on a Dell XPS 13 developer edition, and the sound has a problem out of the box. I hear crackling noises whenever I play any sort of music (from the test sound in the settings to Youtube videos).

I've been looking on forums to find a working solution, but none of them has worked yet.

I have Alsa 1.0.25 installed, and I'm pretty sure my system info is sent along with this bug report. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions.

Thanks a lot!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-47.71~precise1-generic 3.5.7.30
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-47-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.25.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3661 Analog [ALC3661 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: pooya 2260 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: pooya 2260 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'HDMI'/'HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf0510000 irq 60'
   Mixer name : 'Intel Haswell HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:80862807,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 6
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card0.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xf0514000 irq 61'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC3661'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0668,1028060a,00100003'
   Controls : 23
   Simple ctrls : 12
Date: Sat Mar 8 18:54:27 2014
DistributionChannelDescriptor:
 # This is a distribution channel descriptor
 # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
 canonical-oem-somerville-precise-amd64-20130203-1
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20130203-13:50
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_Jack: Speaker, Internal
Symptom_Type: Underruns, dropouts, or "crackling" sound
Title: [XPS13 9333, Realtek ALC3661, Speaker, Internal] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/28/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A03
dmi.board.name: 07R63N
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA03:bd01/28/2014:svnDellInc.:pnXPS139333:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn07R63N:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: XPS13 9333
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
mtime.conffile..etc.modprobe.d.alsa.base.conf: 2014-03-08T18:48:58.619467

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

Mar 8 18:45:44 pooya-XPS13-9333 pulseaudio[2245]: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.

do you have another user running pulseaudio server

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

Mar 8 18:53:38 pooya-XPS13-9333 pulseaudio[2260]: ( 54.927| 0.000) [pulseaudio] module-augment-properties.c: Looking for .desktop file for speaker-test
Mar 8 18:53:38 pooya-XPS13-9333 pulseaudio[2260]: ( 54.929| 0.001) [pulseaudio] module-stream-restore.c: Database contains invalid data for key: sink-input-by-application-name:ALSA plug-in [speaker-test] (probably pre-v1.0 data)

[Pooya Esfandiar (pesfandiar)]

My pulse verbose log is attached. I also uploaded my ALSA information at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=d8039a41666d90af8233a53e2edc3aa1276d8009

Thanks,
Pooya

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

are you sure that your laptop need model=dell-headset-multi ?

for those netbook with one and only one Jack, this Jack can be either use as headphone or Mic

it is strange that headset Mic and headphone Mic exist at same laptop

[ 8.348801] sound hdaudioC1D0: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[ 8.348806] sound hdaudioC1D0: speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.348809] sound hdaudioC1D0: hp_outs=1 (0x15/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.348811] sound hdaudioC1D0: mono: mono_out=0x0
[ 8.348813] sound hdaudioC1D0: inputs:
[ 8.348816] sound hdaudioC1D0: Headphone Mic=0x19
[ 8.348819] sound hdaudioC1D0: Headset Mic=0x1b
[ 8.348821] sound hdaudioC1D0: Internal Mic=0x12
y

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

for ultrabook with one Jack which support headset with TRRS connector

this Jack usually does not support conventional mic

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Doug Holton (edtechdev)]

I still see the issue with a brand new dell xps 13 9333 and ubuntu 14.04 just installed fresh.

One temporary workaround (works only a few minutes) is to close the lid and put the system to sleep. When waking back up, sounds play without the crackling/popping/clicking noises for a short while.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]