Crackling/scratching/sparking noise on sound init for Intel HDA (82801JI, ICH10) with Realtek ALC889A codec

[Martin Olsson]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I have a completely up to date karmic system (as of 2009-oct-05).

Whenever I start a movie (any movie file or audio file triggers it) in totem I first get a high crackling noise and afterwards the movie audio starts normally. I can then watch the whole movie just fine with no audio problems, it's just that very moment when the audio system initializes start is the problem. The strangest part is that if I re-launch totem right away then it doesn't make that noise on startup, but if I wait for a minute or so and then I try to launch totem, boom the sparkling / crackling noise happens on startup again.

I'm thinking either, it's because the sound system has some power save mode that activates after a while; or maybe there is some sound buffer that get's accidently filled with obscurely high values (that sound aweful when played back).

Same thing happens when I start any WINE application (even if it's not an audio app) and it even happens when I run the alsa-info.sh script (high sharp crackling / sparking noise is heard). On every boot I also get a loud sparking noise when the audio system first initializes. Also every time someone goes online on Skype I get the sharp loud sparkling sound as well. That particular one is the most annoying actually because the crackling noise has a lot high volume than a normal sound and when triggered by Skype you're usually not prepared for it so I tend to get kind of startled by it.

My alsa-info.sh is available here:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=a33637b2046c0c1b5f1bfb81dfe8bfb463f2cf21

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mnemo 2035 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xe1600000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Intel G45 DEVELK'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0885,1458a102,00100101 HDA:80862803,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 42
   Simple ctrls : 22
Date: Mon Oct 5 20:17:00 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.18-0ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic x86_64

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

Also note that there are no sound related errors printed to dmesg when the crackling noise happens (nothing at all is appended to dmesg in fact).

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

If I disable power saving for my Intel HDA by putting "options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N" in my "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" then the crackling / sparking noise goes away. FWIW, this is a stationary computer so I don't even care about power saving that much. Sure it's nice but only if it can be implemented with zero sparks/noise side effects.

[Abdó Roig-Maranges (aroig)]

I experienced the same problem. In my case "options snd-hda-intel power_save=0" (without the power_save_controller option) did the trick.

[Peter Rhone (prhone-gmail)]

Still happens in Ubuntu 10.10, same module (snd_hda_intel)

[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.