Sound problem Ubuntu 16.04 Dell Latitude E5540

[Ward Van Driessche]

I upgraded my laptop from 14.04 to 16.04 a couple of weeks ago. From the start I noticed that when my computer starts it makes this crackling sound, like a white noise, only for a second just before the starting tune is played. Also, when I suspend my computer the sound is always set to no volume, even though it's set to non-zero in the OS. I need to turn the volume down completely and when I turn the volume up again everything works fine. It seems like the calibration isn't working. But I need to do this every time I start up/unsuspend.

Applications with phone calls give me this crackling noise for a couple of minutes too, then it disappears.

I've already tried to follow every step here: SoundTroubleshootingProcedure

Output from

    bash alsa-info.sh --stdout

Gives me (some of the output):

 upload=true&script=true&cardinfo=
!!################################
!!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.64
!!################################

!!Script ran on: Sun Feb 5 07:44:03 UTC 2017

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

Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS" NAME="Ubuntu" ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS" HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/" SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/" UBUNTU_CODENAME=xenial

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

Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Product Name: Latitude E5540
Product Version: 01
Firmware Version: A06
Board Vendor: Dell Inc.
Board Name: 01389M

!!ACPI Device Status Information
!!---------------

/sys/bus/acpi/devices/ACPI0003:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/DELLABCE:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/DLLK05E0:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT3F0D:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/LNXPOWER:00/status 1
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/LNXVIDEO:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0103:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0401:00/status 13
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C09:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0A:00/status 31
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0A:01/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:00/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:01/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:02/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:03/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:04/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:05/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:06/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:07/status 9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C31:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/SMO8810:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:00/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:06/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:0a/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:2f/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:30/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:31/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:32/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:33/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:34/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:35/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:36/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:3b/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:3c/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:3d/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:44/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:45/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:46/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:47/status 15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:5b/status 15

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

Kernel release: 4.4.8-040408-lowlatency
Operating System: GNU/Linux
Architecture: x86_64
Processor: x86_64
SMP Enabled: Yes

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

Driver version: k4.4.8-040408-lowlatency
Library version: 1.1.0
Utilities version: 1.1.0

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

snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_intel

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

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

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

 0 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf7434000 irq 50
 1 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7430000 irq 49

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

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 0b)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller (rev 04)

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

00:03.0 0403: 8086:0a0c (rev 0b)
    Subsystem: 1028:05e0
--
00:1b.0 0403: 8086:9c20 (rev 04)
    Subsystem: 1028:05e0

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: eog 3.18.2-1ubuntu2.1
Uname: Linux 4.4.8-040408-lowlatency x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Feb 7 14:12:38 2017
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/eog
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-19 (871 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
SourcePackage: eog
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2017-01-24 (13 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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