intermitten buzzing from speakers using hda-intel alsa on dell mini 9 jaunty netbook remix

[Brian Curtis]

Binary package hint: alsa-base

I don't expect my speakers to buzz at very random times.
I expect a non-random no-buzzing sound system

uname -a
Linux wx 2.6.28-9-generic #31-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 11 15:43:58 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

after running alsa-info.sh
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=9567ba91958f4d28cfeef1a482ea137fc13f69e8

i've toyed around as mentioned in the debugging sound problems wiki. If theres anything more I can do, or need to mention please let me know.

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

I'm hearing something similar to this as well on a Thinkpad T60p with Jaunty installed.

At times it crackles and buzzes, like interference or static. It seems correlated with showing notifications from IMs, when people come online and things like that. Playing the preview sounds in Pigdin preferences has no crackle, and playng music etc. works fine on the computer. Still, disabling sounds in pidgin altogether seems to fix the issue.

$ uname -a
Linux stoffe-t60p 2.6.28-10-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 17 12:27:50 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

$ apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

Now I got it when playing a Youtube video, but not when replaying it. Could it be something with the card going to "sleep", and then waking up abruptly with a high volume?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please reproduce this symptom using the appropriate kernel for your arch at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~dtchen/

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

I still have the problem with that kernel, though I think it is much milder.

It's easy to reproduce for me by using Pidgin preferences, the sound tab, and clicking the preview button for "Buddy logs in" repeatedly. It doesn't happen every time, but a lot of the time. Curiosly, "Message received" does not seem to trigger it at all.

Also see Bug # 345627, which is about the same issue, or at least what I mean with the same issue. :)

Alsa info: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=53c148322e2e243bff274e92894eba0063ed3166

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

Alsa info with new kernel: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=b1a987b21587eb0365d1f16a77331a73a68b3df4

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

Still buzzing from pidgin sound previews. Nothing from the other sounds YET.

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2575acb92bde546be607fa60bf7170564482a39c

[Jeff Ammons (jammons)]

I'm getting the same issue with Pidgin. It crackles every time I get an alert or if I try the test sound. My speakers are muted. I'm running UNR on an Eee PC 1000HE.

jammons@gambit:~$ uname -a
Linux gambit 2.6.27-8-eeepc #1 SMP Sun Nov 16 12:02:12 MST 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
jammons@gambit:~$ apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8
  Candidate: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
jammons@gambit:~$ apt-cache policy pidgin
pidgin:
  Installed: 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8
  Candidate: 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Oybon (oybon)]

Started getting it after return to compiz after fix related to intel G965 cards

Turned off compiz and seems to have disappeared, will check over next few hours.

[Clayton Dillard (claytondillard)]

Same issues for me. I'm running Jaunty 32bit on an HP 8510w with an Intel sound card. Running compiz too.

Linux crush 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

[Chris Gregan (cgregan)]

I'm running metacity and experience this in my Dell M1330.
This definitely is in connection with displaying IM notifications dialogs and the new Jaunty notifications.

[Chris Gregan (cgregan)]

Marking as confirmed do to comments which indicate problem was not related to kernel arch

[h3 (h3)]

I have this problem with two different (but similar) desktop computers running Ubuntu 9.04. The problem was present in at least the two previous major version of Ubuntu, but were much less frequent.

Actually before 9.04 it only seemed to happen a couple of seconds before I receive a phone call or a SMS on my cellphone. I didn't report the bug because, well I thought it was somewhat cool to know when your phone is about to ring.

However since I updated to 9.04 it happens randomly quite often, most of the time when a lot of CPU is being used.

It's bit like a buzzing morse code, always the same tone, the same rhythm and it sound exactly the same on both computers and ends up with a little fade out.

Linux h3-workstation 2.6.28-11-server #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 02:48:10 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8
  Candidate: 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8 0
        500 http://ubuntu.mirror.rafal.ca jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[waspinator (patrickwasp)]

@h3

What you are describing is definitely not a ubuntu bug. ALL speakers generate noise in the presence of cell phones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23rdefO4gBU

[ces (goodmorning-no)]

This also happens on my Aspire One with Jaunty installed (the regular Jaunty, not NBR), and also most commonly with Pidgin notifications. I turned the notifications for Pidgin off, and don't seem to experience this anymore.

[h3 (h3)]

@waspinator

I know cellphones are doing this noise, but it only occur when it's transmitting or receiving data. Otherwise the sound do not occur. However yesterday my cellphone battery was dead, the phone would not even boot and the sound was still occurring frequently .. how's that possible ?

As I said, before it only happened when the cellphone was transmitting or receiving, now it occurs *very* often without any transmission at all or even when there's no cellphone around. At home it's more or less every minutes and at work a bit less frequent.

Can cellphone towers do this too ? I'm not aware of any towers nearby, but I can't see what else it could be..

[Oybon (oybon)]

@h3

I would suggest then that previously (pre 9.04) it was mobile phone based interference, but what you have now is a repeat of the bug the rest of us are reporting.

If the interference is like this

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=41003

with or without a following continuous interference tone, it suggests phone based interference. It does not have to be obviously transiting data to do this, there are lots of passive actions a phone could be doing that communicate with a base station.

[Phasmus (phasmus)]

I also get this annoying loud buzzing noise with Pidgin alerts. I haven't heard it from anything else so far and sometimes it doesn't do it when pidgin alert noises go off, but it usually does. I'm using a stock, up to date Jaunty. I'm pretty sure this didn't happen with Intrepid.

[Jeff Ammons (jammons)]

I also got noticed this occuring while trying to play a youtube video while my machine was muted. I noticed it initially with Pidgin as well.

See my above post for more info on machine and versions.

[Kevin Sumner (kevinsumner)]

I can confirm this is present on my Thinkpad Z61t and my roommate is also getting this behavior on his R61. Both the machines have hda-intel cards and both are running standard Ubuntu 9.04 i386 build (not netbook remix, kubuntu, etc). pidgin notifications are generally the worst offenders, but I have occasionally heard it with other applications.

uname -a from the z61t:
Linux tubular 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

We both didn't see this behavior in Intrepid.

[Adam Michael Roach (adammichaelroach)]

I can confirm this bug on Toshiba Qosmio X305. I notice it specifically with Pidgin notifications.

[Clayton Dillard (claytondillard)]

This is definitely not caused by cell phone interference. Any news from Ubuntu on when this will be fixed? It is very annoying and not professional at all.

[supercompman (supercompman)]

I also have problems with Pidgin's notifications causing buzzing sounds on both my Eee PC 900HA and on my desktop machine (I'm just using the on-board sound of the MSI K9A2 CF-F motherboard). A quick workaround I've used for both machines is to install alsaplayer with the text interface and set the sound method in Pidgin to "Command" and use this command to play the sound:

alsaplayer -i text %s

Using that, everything sounds fine... no more buzzing sounds. It's just disappointing that this doesn't work correctly right out of the box.

[dadederakh (the-q123)]

I'm getting a similar problem in Intrepid x86_64 using pulseaudio and compiz-fusion together. It is most noticeable while watching any kind of video in totem-xine, but occurs in other programs. It does not occur when compiz is inactive. It is not related to cellular interference. It is not due to lack of resources, as I get the same problem when compiz runs with no features enabled. I've tried giving compiz a nice level of 19, but either the schedule doesn't care or it isn't a scheduling problem as I suspected.
Are there any matching bugs for this? I've been googling, but it's hard to piece together all the various big reports of buzzy audio. I think any reports of this should be inspected for involvement with compiz.

Other possibly contributing factors (top suspects on my system):
amd64 architecture
fglrx
pulseaudio configuration
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 & USB audio (simultaneous output)

Also, I would say the buzzing is not entirely random, although it is without pattern. Buzzes happen at nearly the same time as the last when I replay audio or video files. Games are less predictable, but it seems to me that a certain range of frequencies may buzz more often than others (can't tell you what they are though as it seems to be several different kinds of sounds) or the buzzing occurs at certain bitrates of audio more than others). A buffering problem perhaps?

[jebblue (jebblue)]

Thanks supercompman I was about to try that then tried ESD instead and that works for me too. This clicking has bothered me for some time. Thanks again.

[Ben (ben2talk)]

This is a new bug for me - though I am not sure if it happened before I installed Karmic.

Previously, I ran a cable to connect my computer chassis to the chassis of my HiFi - and this killed the buzzing to a level barely audible above noise (at full volume - though normally volume never goes past 25%).

Now the connection makes absolutely no impact.... and buzzing tends to come and go. The best way to silence it is to load up VLC, set volume to a minimum and play a track - then it's silent.

It's the quiescent state that's noisy!

[Jean-Charles Callu (jc-callu)]

I get similar problems as Ben, but I'm not sure this is related to this bug. Can you confirm that there are 2 different symptoms descripted in this thread?

1 > some application produce a screeching noise that reminds of audio saturation even if the output level is very low. This happens only for some applications. I personnally remember problems with pidgin notification, Totem (but not VLC for the same files). This buzzing seems to be the problem described here (dadederakh, Kristoffer Lundén, etc ).

2 > Ben: A continuous buzzing happens when in quiescent mode, 10-20s after the sound output is stopped. If you increase, decrease or mute the output the buzzing doesn't vary intensity. This bug arrived with 9.10 and I also got it. It is very annoying indeed. Ben, do you think this is related to the following bug?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/228024

[Oybon (oybon)]

Seems to have been fixed for me

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.