ubuntu starts up with crackly sound/static and sound is also crackly

[Andreas Ligtvoet]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

During startup (when you hear the drums) the sound is preceded with crackly noise/static and also after playing this, I hear a second static. Music playback (whythmbox) also has bad quality (cracks, noise, static, not too much, but enough to spoil your listening experience). In games like Savage2 and HoN audio playback is also bad.

Ubuntu 9.10 - this started to happen since a few kernel upgrades ago - right now on 2.6.31-17
pulseaudio: Installed: 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu4

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: andreas 2556 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: andreas 2556 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'CK8S'/'NVidia CK8S with ALC850 at irq 20'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC850 rev 0'
   Components : 'AC97a:414c4790'
   Controls : 42
   Simple ctrls : 27
CheckboxSubmission: a64f898d71779414f040727f700b79cf
CheckboxSystem: daed2f3d6643b4a84b4520a2427f8c2b
Date: Sun Dec 27 12:23:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686
UserAsoundrc:
 pcm.pulse { type pulse }
 ctl.pulse { type pulse }
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2601): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2733): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2725): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:2635): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window
 (<unknown>:4735): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times