Popping/Crackling sound when playing audio in Ubuntu 14.04

[Tim Wernicke]

When listening to audio (pandora internet radio, youtube, etc.), I get a repeated popping/crackling sound. When I look at the sound settings while this is happening, I see "Headphone Output" rapidly appearing and then disappearing in the "Play Sound Through" section. The appearance and disappearance of "Headphone Output" coincides with the popping and crackling of the sound.

I am wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that my Nvidia card has a built-in HDMI card that might be interfering with my onboard sound:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7220000 irq 54
 1 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xf7080000 irq 55
cat /proc/asound/modules
 0 snd_hda_intel
 1 snd_hda_intel

Obviously blacklisting "snd_hda_intel" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf won't work, because it then disables all sound (both onboard and nvidia are listed as snd_hda_intel).

Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:4.0-0ubuntu11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: tim 1856 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Aug 5 10:17:34 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-17 (109 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/07/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: BLH6710H.86A.0132.2011.1007.1505
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: DH67CL
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAG10212-205
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrBLH6710H.86A.0132.2011.1007.1505:bd10/07/2011:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDH67CL:rvrAAG10212-205:cvn:ct3:cvr:
modified.conffile..etc.pulse.daemon.conf: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.daemon.conf: 2014-08-04T12:00:53.999120
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: 2014-08-04T12:18:08.532386

[Tim Wernicke (pprspam)]

I created a video of the "Sound Settings" GUI window to show what I'm experiencing. When the audio "pops", my Sound Settings twitches/spasms between headphone and analog output. See here:

http://youtu.be/hw4HYpJKAZQ

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sergio Benjamim (sergio-br2)]

I'm having this issue too in xubuntu 14.04.1. It often happens when I'm using Alsa, and it is random, sometimes audio works well but then all of a sudden it gets this repeated popping/crackling sound.

When in the normal audio, top shows pulseaudio with 3~5% of CPU usage and pavucontrol with 9~10%, and pavucontrol is like the attach picture.

[Sergio Benjamim (sergio-br2)]

But when it goes to the repeated popping/crackling sound, pulseaudio goes to 10% and pavucontrol to 98%, and it flickers between this attach picture...

[Sergio Benjamim (sergio-br2)]

and this picture.

[Andrei Costescu (costescuandrei)]

I have the same thing happening on Ubuntu 14.04. Identical; popping and when that happens volume goes for a few millisecs to another level then back. In the audio settings, analogue output dissapears exactly when the sound pops and reappears immediately.

As the initial poster mentioned on the forum, if I plug the speakers/headphones in the front jack of the PC it works normally - no popping. So popping only happens when only back side jack is used with speakers.
Forum post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2245429

For example if I have speakers conncted to back jack and headphones to front jack sound also works normally in both.
Is this a hardware (front jack malfunction) or software problem? Should I go back to the store and ask for replacements?

[mitchej123 (mitchej)]

I found this issue a while ago and ended up going with the solution of using the front audio jack which caused no issues...until the mini jack got broken off inside and I was forced to use the rear jack again which resurfaced the crackling issue.

The weird part is I completely disconnected the front audio jack cabling, and yet it would still periodically crackle and attempt to switch to the headphone jack. The workaround I found was to force disable the front jack using hdajackretask from alsa-tools-gui: http://askubuntu.com/a/448138

Leaving this here in case anyone else finds it useful.

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

I'm seeing this bug in Linux Mint 19.1 (Ubuntu 18.04 base). The audio devices do not appear and disappear in the "Sounds" GUI. The workaround I've found is to do this in a terminal:

pulseaudio -k && sleep 5 ; pulseaudio -D

Sometimes this works for hours, and sometimes it works for minutes, after killing/restarting the PulseAudio daemon, as above.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Dane,

That sounds like a different bug. Please open a new one using this command:

  ubuntu-bug pulseaudio

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

I'm seeing this bug in Linux Mint 19.1 (Ubuntu 18.04 base). The audio devices do not appear and disappear in the "Sounds" GUI. The workaround I've found is to do this in a terminal:

pulseaudio -k && sleep 5 ; pulseaudio -D

Sometimes this works for hours, and sometimes it works for minutes, after killing/restarting the PulseAudio daemon, as above.