Overall audio problems.

[stabberthomas]

Hi Forum.

I have a terrible audio problem (LM 13 maya, cinnamon)
Sometimes it gets stuck for a few seconds like a dirty CD would do in a cd-player, and I can't find the right term for it.
It's very hard to identify the problem, because it does not last very long, but it occurs rather often.
When watching video along the audio, mostly online, the video freezes too, and so seems the whole application around it.
When watching youtube, flash, the audio lags behind.

Is this a common problem?
How do I fix this?

Thanks!
-Thomas

[ataxy]

run the following in a terminal and post the link it will give you here: wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh
also post the result of: aplay -l

i cannot help you but those are some of the thing you might be asked to do in order to help solve your problem.

[stabberthomas]

Thank you for the reply good sir.

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=96dd6 ... bd79a0e813

is the link the script gave me.

Code: Select all

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC889 Digital [ALC889 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

is what I received when I ran aplay -l

Hope this helps anyone.

[stabberthomas]

I'm sorry to bump this thread, but the problem is still occurring. I had the odd fast-forward video bug, which I have resolved by switching to "Built in audio", but the audio skipping is still there. Does anyone have the same problem, or have a solution?

-Thomas

[sserbanro]

Hi, everybody!
I have a weird problem-->
SYSTEM: Dell Inspiron N 5030, dual Core @ 2,30 GHz (T4500)
OS: Linux Mint 13 XFCE/ Build 10 APR 2012.
Facts: After installation, everything seems OK. I have sound, flashvideo works (both in FFox and Chrome!) and then, after about 6 or 8 hours, the sound stops!
However, any attempt to fix it, goes to nothing!
The weirdest thing is that after rebooting, I hear the login sound and even more, after login, I hear also the welcome sound! But after this, nothing is wrong according to controls still, SOUND = 0!!
I tried to change the interface to a Behringer UCA 222. Guess what?
With this generic USB driver, I HAVE SOUND through UCA 222!
The sound hardware module is Intel 82801I, ICH9 HD Audio controller, Rev 03
Can anyone help me with this weird behaviour?
What happens, where comes it from?
Thanks in advance!
Serban Stanescu

[danbarrese]

@sserbanro: please start a new topic with your problem.

@stabberthomas: are you running 64-bit or 32? I am running Linux Mint 11 64-bit with (sounds like) the same problem. The sound is scratchy, fades in and out at regular periods (~2 seconds), and is absolutely intolerable. I've been using Mint 11 32-bit on a different computer for over a year with no audio problems. Also, are you using a proprietary NVidia graphics driver? Or are you using Nouveau? I read something on another forum about the proprietary NVidia graphics driver interfering with the sound. Not sure how that is possible, but I'm considering switching to Nouveau just to see what happens.

[marcomint2]

Same issue as described by stabberthomas here. System: Linux Mint 13 Maya 64-bit. It is only the stutter I am getting, like indeed a dirty cd or the hanging on an old vinyl record.
Issue occurs on youtube video's but also when videos are played by VLC, so local on the pc, regardless fileformat (mp4, mp3 etc)

[AngelusWebDesign]

I'm having the same problem -- it's like a CD is skipping, only there's no CD! Local hard drive media, youtube, etc. all do it.

Just started happening for me on Sept 3rd or so.

I'm using built-in audio for my motherboard, which is about 1 year old. It's an i7 3.4 GHz quad core.

[AngelusWebDesign]

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=46c31 ... c46f7d164c

[marcomint2]

I ran Ubuntu 10.04 before. No issues there. So I do not believe this is hardware related.

[cutmore32]

Just bumping this thread, this is exactly the problem I am also having.

I'm using Linux Mint 13 Maya 64-bit, if I can supply anymore helpful information please ask.

Cheers

[craig100]

I also have this problem since installing Maya in April. The previous version was fine as was Ubuntu before that for the last 3 years. It occurs on any sound source (Skype, system sounds, video and any audio players such as Rhythmnbox and Banshee). What is actually happening is that the sound is taking it's last chunk and repeating it rapidly for half to a full second so it sounds like a short burst of tinny machine gun fire every few minutes or sometimes more frequently. It's my only beef with Mint Maya, apart from gLabels not working but that's another thread;)

As it's occurring on all sound source I'm wondering if it's due to some sound card incompatibility. I just use the onboard sound system on my GigaByte motherboard.

I'd really appreciate any hints on trouble shooting this with a view to either fixing it on my machine or raising it's profile to fix the underlying issue for everyone.

Craig

[craig100]

Further to my last post, I have Cinnamon x64 running on two machines, a main desktop bespoke build, Gigabyte motherboard which has skipping sound and a Toshiba Portege laptop which doesn't. Which reinforces my instinct that it's a sound driver/board issue.

[marcomint2]

Reference to Craig: My sytem also has a gigabyte motherboard. This would support your assumption that this is hardware related. But why didn't I have issues with Ubuntu 10.04? I ran that system for two years without any issues.

I also would like to understand if this is the proper way to raise flaws like this or that this should be raised differently. Because other than people reporting the same issue I have no information if this helps to solve the issue.

Thanks,

Marco

[craig100]

Doing a bit of reading leads me to believe it's a DPC issue (Defferred Procedure Call), in that one process is either taking too long to complete or is being interrupted by a higher priority call, causing sound issues. There is also some suspicion it's to do with nVidia drivers as I have an nVidia GeForce 9600 GT/PCIe/SSE2 board.

However, I don't currently have the skills to fault find this. If anyone has, I'd appreciate a steer on it.

Thanks,

Craig

[marcomint2]

I have tried other desktops over the weekend (Cinnamon and XFCE). The stutter is gone...However I had two desktopcrashes in Cinnamon, bring up the login screen and effectively shutting down all open programs. The system itself remains active, so it is not a full reboot.Crash occurs aftre about 2 hours. During the week I cannot continue checking (I need my system) but will try to continue this later. I have abonded XFCE. I liek the simplicity but dislike the menustructure and the way open windows or programs are shown ( or hidden).

[strombrg]

I had this problem too. Gigabyte motherboard, mplayer problems, youtube problems. In google chrome, youtube would produce nothing but clicks, in firefox youtube would have the same problems as mplayer. Mplayer 1 & 2 would repeat like a bad CD, and they would both lurch in volume every 2 seconds or so. Sometimes my system would crash.

I'm a Nadia/Mate user, but I used jockey-kde (jockey-gtk didn't appear to be available - the package would install, but I got no shell-callable jockey-gtk as a result) to switch from nvidia_current to "NVidia Binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library", and at least the chrome+youtube problem is gone. I've also heard no signs of the other problems.

I'd've tried Nouveau if it were in Jockey's list of drivers, but as it happened, all four the drivers listed were marked proprietary. So this time around at least, I went with a proprietary driver.

This was again, all on a gigabyte motherboard, on a system purchased from zareason.

[strombrg]

I have to partially retract my statement saying that my problem on this motherboard with Linux Mint 14 is fixed.

It's improved, but it's not completely fixed. Changing video drivers helped, I don't get the lurching volume anymore, and I haven't had a crash since, but I still get repeated audio (less often), and sometimes when I start two sound-utilizing applications at once, I get the clicks again. Stopping both applications and starting one seems to cure the problem - for a while.

[strombrg]

My old monitor died, which was bad. But, it got me to get a new monitor, and the new one (a Samsung) plays nicely with Nouveau, which is good. My old monitor, an LG, refused to do anything but 1024x768 with Nouveau, making Nouveau impractical while I was using the LG.

However, despite having flipped to the Nouveau driver (using jockey-kde in Mate), I'm still getting bad audio. Especially youtube videos and mp3million sound clips tend to be a series of clicks instead of producing any useful sound.

I'd thought Nouveau would fix the problem, being opensource, but apparently not.

At this point, I suspect a pulseaudio problem, since the video driver doesn't seem to matter that much (at least, not for my hardware - I've tried a handful of the binary-only nVidia drivers and Nouveau), and I've had the same problem with two different audio drivers (I got a cheap Creative sound card to eliminate my on-motherboard sound as a source of the problem). The problem seems to happen mostly when I try to multitask sound (even if one sound-producing app is just paused), and it usually works fine for a brief while after a reboot even when multitasking sound.

I just checked synaptic, and I'm running the latest pulseaudio: 1:2.1-0ubuntu4. I'm running Mint 14 x86 (32 bit - even though my hardware supports 64 bit).

Is anyone at Mint (or Canonical?) working on this problem? IMO, it's pretty serious.