intermittent static during audio playback

[Anton Piatek]

Recently (since yesterday), during audio playback ("Videos" app, Chrome (google music)) the audio will go from perfectly clear to complete static white noise. This usually starts about 5 seconds into playback and can last from about 10 to 40 seconds before returning to normal.

Playing with volume levels in the ubuntu audio mixer it sounds like the audio has been auto-amplified and that is clipping and causing static, but that's just a guess.

I've tried playing with a few pulse options to change things but can't find anything which makes it any better.

I'm using analogue output on a usb speaker (dell soundbar), and have not had problems since buying it or the rest of the pc, this seems to have occurred fairly recently.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:8.0-0ubuntu3.8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-116.140-generic 4.4.98
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Mar 4 15:56:02 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-17 (1933 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/28/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0211
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: M5A78L-M/USB3
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0211:bd04/28/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnM5A78L-M/USB3:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Anton Piatek (anton-piatek)]

Looks like it may have been hardware related - as part of further debugging both the usb speaker was completely unplugged, and the pc and monitor were powered off at the wall - after that playback seems to be fine