Sound problems - LM 20.2 - crackling and stuttering.

[grungy_me]

Hello,

I'm wondering if you can help me resolve sounds problems I've been having on this desktop PC. This has been happening since LinuxMint 20.0 and continues on my current version of 20.2 Cinnnamon. Though I will say the problem has improved over time, and with each release, but it still is an issue. Currently the problems that occur is I cannot use VLC to watch videos while Firefox is running or I get crackling in the sound output. Close Firefox and it fixes it. When I pause VLC for more than approximately ten seconds, upon restarting the video, the sound stutters and is off and on for maybe five or ten seconds until it is back to normal. Pausing for less than that and it operates normally. I also notice when I run the test sound to make sure I have the correct sound output chosen, it takes roughly three to five seconds until you hear it.

In the above examples I am using a second monitor, a 1080p large screen TV connected to my Nvidia graphics card via HDMI to watch videos, so my assumption is this has to do with the "NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio". The same sound issues also occur with the primary computer monitor with it's built in speakers that is connected to the graphics card via display port. The integrated audio on the motherboard which uses "Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio" hardware, doesn't seem to be as much of an issue, at least any more. It used to be worse. Right now all I can see is that it has the same brief stuttering audio when starting or restarting a video, though it does not seem as bad as the Nvidia audio.

Lastly, when booting Linuxmint 20.2 when the logon screen appears, I get a single loud audio pop from the internal speakers of the primary monitor connected via displayport.

I've installed "pavucontrol" as the release notes suggest and don't know what I should be adjusting for settings on that.

How can I fix these problems?

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Z170-A v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3802 date: 03/15/2018 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 63999 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 801 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia 
  v: 470.63.01 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:13c2 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: nvidia 
  resolution: 2560x1440~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 
  v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.63.01 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a170 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fbb 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-88-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: f000 bus ID: 00:1f.6 chip ID: 8086:15b8 
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.64 TiB used: 589.80 GiB (15.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Sabrent model: Rocket Q size: 1.82 TiB 
  speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: RKT30Q.1 scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC25 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.79 TiB used: 589.79 GiB (32.2%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 49 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0% 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 254 Uptime: 2m Memory: 15.58 GiB used: 1.37 GiB (8.8%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[MrEen]

Hi grungy_me,

Let's take this in baby steps. First, run this in the terminal then reboot and test your sound:

Code: Select all

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf <<<'options snd-hda-intel power_save=0'

It's easy to undo it if it doesn't help at all.

[grungy_me]

Hello MrEen,

Ok, so that took care of the popping sound from the internal speakers of the primary monitor when the logon screen comes up. The stuttering though, is still happening.

[MrEen]

All right, let's see if this takes care of that one:

If you're experiencing glitches, skips, pops or crackling in your audio playback, it's quite possibly caused by the timer-based scheduling pulseaudio now uses. Disable timer-based scheduling this way:
Users of 18.3 and earlier versions of Mint type this in the terminal: gksudo xed /etc/pulse/default.pa
Users of 19 and later versions of Mint type this in the terminal: xed admin:///etc/pulse/default.pa
Find the line that says load-module module-udev-detect and change it to load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
Save the file, then run pulseaudio -k in the terminal and test your sound

[grungy_me]

Hello again MrEen,

Ok, this next fix resolved the stuttering sound on "Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio", but not on "NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio" which is what I'm usually watching movies through on the HDTV connected to the PC.

[MrEen]

Damn. I'm not as good helping with HDMI audio issues. But we've been making progress each time, so I'm hoping we can get to the finish line.

Open the driver Manager and see if a different driver for your Nvidia card helps at all, unless you know you need this 470 driver.

[grungy_me]

Unfortunately I need the proprietary Nvidia Graphics driver for gaming, such that changing that out is not an option.

[MrEen]

Understood. What I meant was see if the 460(?) version works better for you than the present 470 version. I don't have video drivers in the Driver Manager, so I'm not sure what it might display as available.