[4286CTO, Creative CA0110-IBG, White Headphone Out, Front] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound

[Alex Boardman]

Sound is distorted and choppy until I run ubuntu-bug. This fixes the problem until the next reboot when I must do it again.

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 x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: alex 1797 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: alex 1797 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xf2520000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:14f1506e,17aa21da,00100000 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 20
   Simple ctrls : 8
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'Creative'/'HDA Creative at 0xf1c00000 irq 19'
   Mixer name : 'Creative CA0110-IBG'
   Components : 'HDA:1102000a,11021001,00100000'
   Controls : 15
   Simple ctrls : 8
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw unknown'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC (unknown)'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 1
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Date: Tue Oct 18 11:09:47 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:Creative successful
Symptom_Card: [SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio] CA0110-IBG - HDA Creative
Symptom_Jack: White Headphone Out, Front
Symptom_PulsePlaybackTest: PulseAudio playback test successful
Symptom_SpeakerTestPulseStderr: W r i t e e r r o r : - 3 2 , B r o k e n p i p e
Symptom_Type: Underruns, dropouts, or "crackling" sound
Title: [4286CTO, Creative CA0110-IBG, White Headphone Out, Front] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 05/13/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 8DET45WW (1.15 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4286CTO
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:bvr8DET45WW(1.15):bd05/13/2011:svnLENOVO:pn4286CTO:pvrThinkPadX220:rvnLENOVO:rn4286CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4286CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X220
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sarkis Varozian (svarozian)]

I have this same problem on a Dell w/ a Creative ca0110-IBG. As the original poster described, running ubuntu-bug fixes it until next reboot, when I have to run it again to get sound working normally.

To be clear, there are dropouts and crackling before running ubuntu-bug to report the issue. The sound skips every other second. When I run ubuntu-bug it takes me through some sound troubleshooting, playing different sounds through the headphones and after it is done, the problems are resolved.

[balteo (balteo)]

I am running into exactly the same problem with a Dell precision T1500 and a creative sound card.
Are there any fixes ready yet?
Regards,

[Gergely Körmendi (kormendigergo)]

I can also confirm the problem on Kubuntu 11.10. Everything worked fine on 11.04.

$ lspci | grep Audio
04:00.0 PCI bridge: Creative Labs [SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio] CA0110-IBG PCI to PCIe Bridge
05:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs [SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio] CA0110-IBG

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Creative [HDA Creative], device 0: CA0110 Analog [CA0110 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Creative [HDA Creative], device 1: CA0110 Digital [CA0110 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Jonathan McHarg (z3-jonathan-ux)]

thanks, ubuntu-bug does at least mean I have some audio for now :)

[David Johnston (backspace)]

Yeah I can confirm that running ubuntu-bug and selecting "no sound" fixes the problem through sleep and suspend but not through restarts. I've the same sound chip running 64-bit 11.10. I pulled my sound card, and the on-board sound works well enough.

[Nikita Nedvetskiy (n-nedvetskiy)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/966073
My bug seems to be a duplicate :|
Just wanted to add that I always watch videos on youtube (chromium+flash) with no problem, but in VLC player (with pulseaudio) I hear that crackling sound with echo almost every time.
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer.

[Nikita Nedvetskiy (n-nedvetskiy)]

I didn't stop.
Decided to use this soundcard only to listen to music in VLC media player.
Set default sound card to built-in Realtek, set settings in the player to those
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9278/screenshotat20120417201.png
(alsa, not pulse)
and rebooted my pc.
For now it's boot #3 with NO sound problems when listening to music in the player, and it's all quite strange.
I'm not sure that I'm right, but is PulseAudio kinda extension for ALSA?
If yes, then it seems to mess up the sound.
Somebody, please help to solve this.
I wish to use the card as a normal user, not as a damn investigator :(

[Gergely Körmendi (kormendigergo)]

Fixed in Kubuntu 12.04 LTS. The microphone still doesn't work, but it never did.

[Nikita Nedvetskiy (n-nedvetskiy)]

Not fixed, but much better now.
Rebooted, started VLC 2.0.1 with Pulseaudio set in the config, opened a video.
First several seconds were ok, then that strange noise with echo for like 3 secs and then ok again.
Before the noise's duration was like random and I never knew how to fix that for sure.
My Precise installation was an update from 11.10 (fresh install didn't work) 64-bit.
Maybe that's why I have some 'effects'.
I didn't test a mic, it doesn't matter if it works or not.
Thanks for your message, Gergely :)

[Nikita Nedvetskiy (n-nedvetskiy)]

Good news!
Now I have a fresh installation of 12.04 LTS. But this isn't the news :)
The news is that I used my Creative XtremeGamer for ~ a week as the main sound card in ubuntu and didn't hear any side effects.
Neither in browser while playing videos on youtube, nor in VLC player.
Now I'm using this card as a secondary one, just for the headphones, so I set my VLC player's settings to:
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2213/screenshotfrom201205101.png
(nothing special, just alsa and creative card chosen)
And didn't get any side effects either.
Kernel Linux 3.2.0-24-generic
Updates: important, recommemded and proposed.
And yes, the mic works fine too!
For me this bug is gone.

[Nikita Nedvetskiy (n-nedvetskiy)]

Very odd bug.
Appeared again for me >_>
So posting the temporary workaround I found here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/751265/comments/23
I guess now I can sleep easy at night :D

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

does the headphone jack sense work !

tryhda-jack-sense or hda-verb

Node 0x0f [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40018d: Stereo Amp-Out
  Control: name="Headphone Playback Switch", index=0, device=0
    ControlAmp: chs=3, dir=Out, idx=0, ofs=0
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00]
  Pincap 0x0000001e: OUT HP Detect Trigger
  Pin Default 0x0221e020: [Jack] HP Out at Ext Front
    Conn = 1/8, Color = White
    DefAssociation = 0x2, Sequence = 0x0
  Pin-ctls: 0xc0: OUT HP
  Unsolicited: tag=00, enabled=0
  Connection: 1
     0x06

[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.]