Audio Stutter

[Kaosisis]

Hi! I am fairly new to Linux. I have Mint 17.3. I really like it, except that I have a recurring audio stutter. It doesn't matter if I am playing mp3's, 4's or streaming online, it is ALWAYS there! It's driving me nuts! My pc is my entertainment centre and if I can't get it sorted, I might have to "gulp" go back to windows, and no one wants that! I have tried the various fixes online. Killing Pulseaudio changes it from a stutter to a barely audible crackle, for a few minutes, so I assume it's that. Can some one PLEASE help! Thank you

[Flemur]

"Forum rules
Before you post please read how to get help"
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444?f=17&t=83444

[rene]

Pulseaudio resampling maybe combined with a slow system or hardware issue? You also specifying mp3 makes it not a given but certainly if you were to mostly find this to be a problem with video I'd recommend trying with a default sample rate of 48000.

To still do so, edit as root /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, uncomment the "default-sample-rate" setting (i.e., delete the "; " from the beginning of the line) plus change the value 44100 to 48000, and kill the current instance of Pulseaudio with "pulseaudio -k"; it'll be automatically restarted.

In fact, default sample format could also be an issue but yes, that's what Flemur said: you have provided literally zero system-detail to go on. The output of "inxi -A" will provide some at least...

[Kaosisis]

Here you go
Audio: Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.19.0-32-generic
I didn't really know what info you need, which is why I hadn't put any. But I do realise that's probably frustrating for you!

[Kaosisis]

Also, shouldn't have a slow system. I have a gigabyte brix with a 1248gb ssd and 4 gb ram. sound card= 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller (rev 0e)

[rene]

Let us first of all try setting snd-hda-intel's DMA read pointer handling; run

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sudo sh -c "echo options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1 >/etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf"

and reboot. If it doesn't help, also try the value 2. In days past this used to fix a fair share of snd-hda-intel stutters; we can hope...

[Kaosisis]

Thank you Rene, so far so good!

[Kaosisis]

Nope, back stuttering again! Any other ideas?

[Flemur]

I'd open a terminal and run

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top 

and/or watch a task manager to see if something is using lotsa CPU when you play sounds.

Here's your card: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197020
(from
https://www.google.com/search?q="linux" ... Controller)

Still don't know your "desktop environment", but you might consider either disabling or removing pulseaudio (don't remove if you have Cinnamon DE!) unless you have some need for it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=disable+pulseaudio

[rene]

I would concur with the just above. It took you a bit to re-experience the issue which might mean we aren't looking at something deeply fundamental here but simply at an overtasked CPU. I must say that although your Atom/Celeron is of course explicitly not a powerhouse, it is relatively new and I would doubt it wouldn't be up to any current A/V task, but if if you are playing back heavily compressed MPEG4 in a perhaps non-hardware-accelerated manner when this happens then we are still looking at a different problem level than the one my initial guess focussed on.

In another thread just now poster experienced goodness from disabling Pulseaudio timer based scheduling and this is something you might in fact also want to try if you are NOT overtasking the system (which, you should note, as above said/implied might not be due to the system itself so much but rather non-functional video acceleration). To try that solution please see viewtopic.php?p=1183986#p1183933.