Choppy sound in 12.10

[Johan]

Distro:- Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal,

What I suspect is that sound is muted and turned on at a fast pace and that gives it the choppy sound. I discovered that If I choose Sound Card ;- Mixer - HDA Intel - the surround sliders show mute/on at a fast rate, with
          - do - Mixer - Play back: Build in Audio Analog Stereo - the master sliders jumps up and down rapidly a short distance.
I find the same happening on U tube. Movie Player with videos not so badly affected.

Following is reports that I thought could help to pin point problem.
If more info needed, I would gladly provide such. Still new at this so please bear with me.
Thanks in advance for help that I know would be forthcoming.

~$ lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device 0dc2
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44
 Memory at f9ffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

sudo aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC662 rev1 Digital [ALC662 rev1 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8500 GT] (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

[Johan (oortjies)]

I found the following link on the net, "http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=44862" tried what was suggested there and it sounds better.
Some value adjustments to daemon.config(etc/pulse) file

default-sample-format = s16le
default-sample-rate = 44100
; alternate-sample-rate = 48000
default-sample-channels = 2
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right

default-fragments = 32
default-fragment-size-msec = 50

I hope that this will help to give a better perspective on the problem.
Failing that, will it be safe to remove PulseAdio completely and run with Alsa only, I am on UbuntuStudio and are scared it will break "Jack". Any suggestions?

[Johan (oortjies)]

I found some of my songs did not improve.
I removed PulseAudio, no improvements. Re-installed it again, no improvement.
All worked well before hand but update broke something for me sometime or other.
Now I am truly out of ideas, will have to wait now for you experts to come up with a solution. Sorry!!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Marcello Nuccio (marcenuc)]

Looks like a duplicate of bug #1067434

[Marcello Nuccio (marcenuc)]

Going to (translated from my language) System properties > Sound > Output, and clicking on a output device, I see that the device "Analog headphones" appears and disappears continuosly at a fast rate.

[Trevor Bradley (ck-trevor)]

Also seeing this appearing and dissapearing "analog headphones" in both the system settings sound app and in alsamixer on the command line.

[Johan (oortjies)]

I have found that if I reduce my volume on my app. to a certain volume setting (Movie player/ Audacious ) than my choppy sound disappear. This should hopefully help with the identification of the bug.

[Jeremy Raines (obororainesfam)]

Just did a clean install; having the choppy sound and "Analog Headphones" switching issue as well.

Ubuntu 12.10 (64-bit)
Realtek ALC 892 (Asus Sabertooth 990fx MB). Stereo output.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

please post the output of alsa-info.sh

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

[Marcello Nuccio (marcenuc)]

Johan, you should post the output of the script, not the script.

Raymond, you can find the output alsa-info.sh on my computer at
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=578ac23a785c41eae14c32f15fb39ccb1da3a663

Thanks for any help.

[Johan (oortjies)]

Sorry, hope this is the correct one:-

upload=true&script=true&cardinfo=
!!################################
!!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.60
!!################################

!!Script ran on: Fri Nov 16 16:26:22 UTC 2012

!!Linux Distribution
!!------------------

Ubuntu 12.10 \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.10" NAME="Ubuntu" ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu quantal (12.10)"

!!DMI Information
!!---------------

Manufacturer: O.E.M
Product Name: O.E.M
Product Version:

!!Kernel Information
!!------------------

Kernel release: 3.5.0-18-lowlatency
Operating System: GNU/Linux
Architecture: x86_64
Processor: x86_64
SMP Enabled: Yes

!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.25
Library version: 1.0.25
Utilities version: 1.0.25

!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------

snd_hda_intel

!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

Pulseaudio:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
      Running - Yes

Jack:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/jackd)
      Running - No

!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------

 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xf9ffc000 irq 44

!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

!!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Subsystem ID's
!!--------------------------------------------------------

00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 01)
 Subsystem: 105b:0dc2

!!Modprobe options (Sound related)
!!--------------------------------

snd-atiixp-modem: index=-2
snd-intel8x0m: index=-2
snd-via82xx-modem: index=-2
snd-usb-audio: index=-2
snd-usb-caiaq: index=-2
snd-usb-ua101: index=-2
snd-usb-us122l: index=-2
snd-usb-usx2y: index=-2
snd-cmipci: mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
snd-pcsp: index=-2
snd-usb-audio: index=-2

!!Loaded sound module options
!!--------------------------

!!Module: snd_hda_intel
 align_buffer_size : -1
 bdl_pos_adj : 1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
 beep_mode : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
 enable : Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y
 enable_msi : -1
 id : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 index : -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
 model : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 patch : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 position_fix : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0...

[Peter Matulis (petermatulis)]

Same happening on my Thinkpad T60.

[gururise (gururise)]

I can confirm this bug on a brand new 12.10 install on an AMD 790GX motherboard with Codec Realtek ALC887. Sound has lots of static and sounds very choppy.

[Juanma (juanmafont)]

lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Packard Bell B.V. Device c017
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
 Memory at ac340000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

  Lubuntu 12.10 32bits

   Not sound, only choppy sound at start up.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/plain/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio.txt

 jack_detect (bool): specify whether the jack detection is available
   at all on this machine; default true
 - trigger_sense (bool): indicates that the jack detection needs the
   explicit call of AC_VERB_SET_PIN_SENSE verb

or

set Misc Bit (bit 8) of pin default of headphone to not enable jack detection

Misc = NO_PRESENCE

Node 0x1b [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40018f: Stereo Amp-In Amp-Out
  Control: name="Headphone Playback Switch", index=0, device=0
    ControlAmp: chs=3, dir=Out, idx=0, ofs=0
  Control: name="Front Headphone Jack", index=0, device=0
  Amp-In caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x03, stepsize=0x27, mute=0
  Amp-In vals: [0x00 0x00]
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00]
  Pincap 0x0000373e: IN OUT HP Detect Trigger
    Vref caps: HIZ 50 GRD 80 100
  Pin Default 0x02214c20: [Jack] HP Out at Ext Front
    Conn = 1/8, Color = Green
    DefAssociation = 0x2, Sequence = 0x0
  Pin-ctls: 0xc0: OUT HP VREF_HIZ
  Unsolicited: tag=01, enabled=1
  Connection: 5
     0x0c 0x0d 0x0e 0x0f 0x26*

[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.]