Pulseaudio is a nightmare

[calvincani]

Every once in a while when I start my computer I don't have sound. When I try and restart the PC I get a Pulseaudio is not responding error.
Executing pulseaudio -k on the command line does nothing so the program doesn't work. If I click on the restart anyway then my pc does not restart and I have to switch it off and switch it on again.

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System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-121-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: HP product: HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF v: N/A 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: HP model: 8054 v: KBC Version 05.22 serial: <filter> UEFI: HP 
  v: N01 Ver. 02.16 date: 08/08/2016 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-6500 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 25599 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz, 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  Device-2: SN0002 1080P Web Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 1-1:2 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-121-generic 
Network:
  Message: No Device data found. 
  Device-1: TP-Link TL WN823N RTL8192EU type: USB driver: rtl8xxxu 
  bus ID: 1-9:5 
  IF: wlxd037453e58b9 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 689.33 GiB used: 479.65 GiB (69.6%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda model: AFOX SSD SD250-240GN size: 223.57 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST500DM002-1BD142 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 218.57 GiB used: 104.06 GiB (47.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 255 Uptime: 3m Memory: 7.29 GiB used: 1.80 GiB (24.8%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
  inxi: 3.0.38 
  

How do I fix this please?

[demux]

Same issue here; I have never figured out what the reason might be, as my computer is running 24/7, it does not bother me too much. Workaround for me is, I just restart again, then PA is most of time working correctly.

[Dan-cer]

To both of you:

It is recommended to share details about hardware and Linux Mint version before you can get some helpful advice.

[calvincani]

Like I say it's a nightmare. Then it works and then it doesn't. Sometimes restarting doesn't help and you have to restart a few times. Sometimes it works and then suddenly it stops and if you look at sound settings there is no output device. Horrible.

I get this when typing pulseaudio on the command line

E: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

[trytip]

don't know if you tried this: open /etc/modprobe.d/ folder as root. create new text file named snd_hda_intel.conf open it and paste

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options snd_hda_intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

reboot

[demux]

I think, my issue has been resolved by upgrading to Mint 21. Along with the upgrade comes PA version 16.

Also, another issue has been fixed for me; usually after reboot when PA 13 was loading properly, I needed to reselect my Nvidia HDMI output as the default audio device, it was always picking the onboard audio wrongly, this does not happen anymore.

If my PA experience after reboot changes, I'll let know.