[Lenovo ThinkPad T60, Analog Devices AD1981] Sound playback distorted, especially when moving cursor with trackpoint, touchpad, or mouse

[Kolin S. Murray]

Ubuntu 11.10, clean install, Thinkpad t60 [200772U]
Sound worked properly with good output in 11.04.
In 11.10, sound playback is distorted, with noisy clicks and 'burps.' The problem is worse when I move the mouse cursor by any method, including trackpoint or touchpad. I am not using a wireless mouse. I have installed ubuntu-restricted-extras. Sound is distorted using Banshee, VLC, Movie Player to play back .mp3 or .ogg. Audio quality from Youtube is similarly affected.

Will happily post additional troubleshooting info.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.24+dfsg-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: kolin 1499 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xee400000 irq 47'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981'
   Components : 'HDA:11d41981,17aa2025,00100200'
   Controls : 20
   Simple ctrls : 11
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 79HT50WW-1.07'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 79HT50WW-1.07'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 14
   Mono: Playback 6 [43%] [on]
Date: Thu Oct 13 16:06:23 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111011)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:Intel failed
Symptom_Card: Internal Audio - HDA Intel
Symptom_Jack: Green Line Out, Left
Symptom_Type: Digital clip or distortion, or "overdriven" sound
Title: [200772U, Analog Devices AD1981, Green Line Out, Left] Sound is distorted
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/12/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 79ETE3WW (2.23 )
dmi.board.name: 200772U
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr79ETE3WW(2.23):bd09/12/2008:svnLENOVO:pn200772U:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn200772U:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 200772U
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

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

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

Thanks. I just finished a cycle of updates and on a fresh session audio playback sounds as it should. If and when I can make the problem happen again I will post the log files you suggest. Thank you!

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

I have discovered that a clean restart solves the playback issue. In a new session, audio sounds normal, but after using a few applications, letting the sound play in the background causes the problem to reappear. Once it reappears, the sound remains 'staticy' until I restart again.

When I don't move the mouse the quality is somewhat better, but when moving any cursor, the 'burbles' and 'blips' sound much worse.

I only stated logging AFTER the problem appeared in this session. Let me know if I should want me to log from a clean session, when the problem appears.

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

This bug shows itself linked to alsa-driver, but how do I know it is not related to pulseaudio?

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

OK, that was a stupid question now that I look at it. I just don't understand sound in ubuntu well enough to figure much out.

I reinstalled the entire OS tonight to test the problem since it's annoyingly intermittent.

Tonight what caused the problem to appear is raising the dash while in a skype call. Once the 'garbled' sound is triggered, it continues unless I restart. I'm making another pulseaudio log on a clean restart trying to replicate the problem. Unfotunately I don't really know what to look for in the log.

I'm sorry I'm not more helpful so far, hopefully anyone else bound to experience the same problem will post additional information soon.

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

OK, that was a stupid question now that I look at it. I just don't understand sound in ubuntu well enough to figure much out.

I reinstalled the entire OS tonight to test the problem since it's annoyingly intermittent.

Tonight what caused the problem to appear is raising the dash while in a skype call. Once the 'garbled' sound is triggered, it continues unless I restart. I'm making another pulseaudio log on a clean restart trying to replicate the problem. Unfotunately I don't really know what to look for in the log.

More testing shows that even when sound is not completely garbled, scrolling up and down in with a scrollbar makes the sound terrible, clicking on icons, opening files, generally the things one does when running a computer (!) make the sound unusable.

I'm attaching a second logfile now, started in a fresh boot and by the end sound was sufficiently terrible to warrant a restart!

Please let me know if there is something else I can do to helpfully troubleshoot this bug.

[viss (florianvieser)]

Ubuntu 11.10, upgraded 11.04, Thinkpad t60 [2007FUG]

I'm not sure whether I can help or not but I have the same issues.
In my opinion the error could also brought by some video driver problems.
After recognizing this error I have tried to install the fglrx driver.
And of course it didn't work because of the outdated version of the video card.
But I haven't had the bug with "noisy clicks and 'burps" again.

Now that I have adjusted my system and cleaned out the fglrx driver the problem occurs again.

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

Your idea about it being related to video drivers makes some sense to me. I unfortunately can't help troubleshoot this bug further right now because this bug forced me to roll back to 11.04, which is almost perfect for me. However, even in 11.04 if I move to 'expo' mode (super + D) or use the graphic application switcher with previews, I get very similar burps and gurgling audio to what I experienced with 11.10. Luckily once I am not in expo mode or once I have switched applications, the sound returns to normal. I can live with this for now but it will keep me locked in with 11.04 for the time being.

[viss (florianvieser)]

Unfortunately I only have some basics in administrating ubuntu/debian. So I'm not really familiar in debugging such a problems. But maybe I can try to improve my knowledge level a bit and could find a solution to the above problem. I'm not satisfied with the downgrade option.

[BW (audacious-pig)]

Yep this bug affects me too. I have a Lenovo T60 and under 11.04 the sound was great, but after upgrading the sound is all distorted with crackling noises. Right after a reboot the sound is fine and will stay good for the length of a movie if I watch one. Only after using other applications does the sound turn bad.

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

If there is some way I can help troubleshoot, I might reinstall 11.10 in a new partition for troublesooting purposes.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[BW (audacious-pig)]

Just wondring...has anyone tried the old 11.04 alsa drivers with the 11.10 kernel?

[Kolin S. Murray (kolinab)]

I have not tried using the old 11.04 drivers with the 11.10 kernel because I don't know how. When I install 11.10 again, I can try this if there are some instructions somewhere I can follow.

[BW (audacious-pig)]

hmm...not that familiar with the kernel but I found the hda intel (snd-hda-intel) module in:
/lib/modules/<your current kernel version>/kernel/sound/pci/hda/

Don't know if you can just replace it with the latest kernel module from 11.04 version.

[Jan Kouba (kouba-honza)]

I think this is the same bug as: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/879790

[Olivier VILLEGENTE (villegente)]

    Hi,

I have the same problem. Have you find a solution ?

    Regards,

[Neven Klacar (nklacar)]

If its an inherent hardware issue that has no workaround, then how come windows XP doesnt exhibit any problems.
And the sound garbling was only noticable with fulscreen on 11.04 , but on 11.10 its non stop. Even moving the mouse which is not display intensive at all causes garbling....

[Eduardo Elortegui (eelortegui)]

Same problem. Banshee distorted. Alsa player works fine.

Ubuntu 11.10 on Thinkpad E520.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Kolin S. Murray, could you please confirm this issue exists with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . If the issue remains, could you please run the following command in the development release from a terminal, as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p alsa-driver 873370

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 2469 F.... pulseaudio
CasperVersion: 1.340
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
Package: alsa-driver (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=lt_LT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
Tags: trusty
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7IET37WW (1.18 )
dmi.board.name: 8744HDG
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7IET37WW(1.18):bd04/01/2010:svnLENOVO:pn8744HDG:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn8744HDG:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 8744HDG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

apport information

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

apport information

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

apport information

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

apport information

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

I think this Lenovo ThinkPad T60 sound bug is a duplicate of bug #879790 and should be assigned to xserver-xorg-driver-radeon, because there are no audio playing problems in "Unity 2D "on Ubuntu 12.04.3, I have fixed this problem by switching to "Unity 2D", see
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/879790/comments/112

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Mantas Kriaučiūnas, thank you for your comment. If you have a bug in Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Audio Developer team, Ubuntu Kernel team, Ubuntu Bug Control team, and Ubuntu Bug Squad all would like you to please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug sound

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Audio Developer team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems

the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control team and Ubuntu Bug Squad team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report would delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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