Audible static in headphones from front audio jack.

[Smeejo1]

Another possibility, check the Playback tab of PulseAudio VC when the game is playing. It may be defaulting to the Digital and you can change it there to Analog.

Ok, the playback tab was defaulting to Digital. I adjusted it both in game and out of game and now have sound back. Still have static though, and now the speaker icon on my taskbar (next to clock) no longer changes my volume at all because it isn't part of pulseaudio which now controls my sound.

[MrEen]

Pulseaudio has always controlled your sound. PluseAudio Volume Control should not have impacted your speaker icon. Go back to alsamixer and watch what happens when there when you try to adjust volume with the icon. You can also do the same with the Output Devices tab of pavucontrol. Does anything move when you adjust it?

P.S. I'm really sorry you're having this much trouble! This is not normal.

Again looking for sources of static, see if cat /proc/interrupts | grep 16: shows more than just the sound card. Here's mine which also uses IRQ 16:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/interrupts | grep 16:
 16:        821          0   12809236          0  IR-IO-APIC  16-fasteoi   snd_hda_intel:card2

If yours only has snd_hda_intel:card0 at the end with no comma separating something else from the sound card then that idea is not the cause.

If in alsamixer you drop to around 90 for Master, Headphones and PCM is the static still audible?

[Smeejo1]

When I use the speaker icon near clock it doesn't adjust volume at all. I have to open either alsamixer or pavucontrol via the terminal in order to adjust sound. When I adjust the volume via speaker icon nothing changes in alsamixer however in pavucontrol built-in digital stereo (iec985) adjusts (the one that isn't my audio)

The output of cat /proc/interrupts | grep 16: is

16: 20682174 0 0 0 IO-APIC 16-fasteoi ohci_hcd:usb3, ohci_hcd:usb4, snd_hda_intel:card0

The 16: at the beginning of that output is in red if that makes a difference to anything. Lowering master, headphones, and pcm in alsamixer doesn't change static.

[MrEen]

When I use the speaker icon near clock it doesn't adjust volume at all. I have to open either alsamixer or pavucontrol via the terminal in order to adjust sound. When I adjust the volume via speaker icon nothing changes in alsamixer however in pavucontrol built-in digital stereo (iec985) adjusts (the one that isn't my audio)

I've never seen that before. I'll try to figure out what is causing that.

The output of cat /proc/interrupts | grep 16: is

16: 20682174 0 0 0 IO-APIC 16-fasteoi ohci_hcd:usb3, ohci_hcd:usb4, snd_hda_intel:card0

The 16: at the beginning of that output is in red if that makes a difference to anything. Lowering master, headphones, and pcm in alsamixer doesn't change static.

The red is normal. That's due to the grep command.

We may have discovered the true cause of the static, as rene pointed out earlier. Your sound card is sharing IRQ 16 with 2 USB ports. I've read somewhere about how to change that but it might take a bit to find it again. If anyone else has any suggestions here, please speak up.

[MrEen]

This isn't the site I had read before, but has some suggestions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingIRQProblems

This is not an area I'm skilled in whatsoever. I hope someone else can jump in and offer some help.

Still looking for the original site I read about this issue. The conflict may also be causing the volume issue.

[rene]

IRQ sharing is not in fact what I suggested earlier; just a purely electrical sharing of frontpanel audio-ground with (frontpanel-) USB ground. That possibility was done away with the issue not being present on Windows though. Moreover, IRQ sharing itself as a problem is (still) done away with by having to account for the difference between back- and frontpanel audio, and I would not suggest pursuing that route. With older computers it was common to be able to set up an IRQ manually or at least have your BIOS reset IRQ assignments until it happened upon one you considered better, but as far as I've seen there's generally no such possibility in newer BIOSen. Doing this Linux-sides is possible in the context of IOAPIC but requires (or required...) full manual setup of IRQ routing which I again would not bother with given that the front/back difference would seem to deny this possibility already anyway.

I suggested earlier OP may have a frontpanel automute setting available in alsamixer which wasn't explicitly responded to, but if not, really the only thing that would seem to make sense is a fundamental (such as shared ground) or interference (such as the frontpanel audio cable resting against a fan) hardware issues -- or simply the volume of frontpanel audio on Linux being much louder in hardware (Windows setups tend to feature software equalizers which may make the difference not immediately obvious). Would, I will admit, as such not immediately take for given that indeed Windows would not currently have the same issue.

[MrEen]

Thanks rene! Knew I was in over my head on this one.

@Smeejo1; Have you fully shut down the computer for several minutes since the volume issue sprang up? A reboot might be enough, but a full shutdown helps make sure things reset fully.

Also, have you tested if the static issue occurs with the mic turned off? If that seems to solve it, maybe turning down the mic gain in alsamixer might help. Also check the auto mute setting as rene suggests.

[Smeejo1]

I suggested earlier OP may have a frontpanel automute setting available in alsamixer which wasn't explicitly responded to,

My apologies, must have missed that one. There is an automute setting in alsamixer that is set to disabled. Not sure weather it's for front panel or not though as it just says auto mute mode.

Also, have you tested if the static issue occurs with the mic turned off? If that seems to solve it, maybe turning down the mic gain in alsamixer might help. Also check the auto mute setting as rene suggests.

The mic in alsamixer has been set to mute the entire time with volume turned all the way down. I'm not sure how to flat out disable it. I have had the computer off for hours at a time since this started and it hasn't changed anything.

[MrEen]

I suggested earlier OP may have a frontpanel automute setting available in alsamixer which wasn't explicitly responded to,

My apologies, must have missed that one. There is an automute setting in alsamixer that is set to disabled. Not sure weather it's for front panel or not though as it just says auto mute mode.

Also, have you tested if the static issue occurs with the mic turned off? If that seems to solve it, maybe turning down the mic gain in alsamixer might help. Also check the auto mute setting as rene suggests.

The mic in alsamixer has been set to mute the entire time with volume turned all the way down. I'm not sure how to flat out disable it. I have had the computer off for hours at a time since this started and it hasn't changed anything.

The automute being disabled is what allows you switch between speakers and headphones without having to plug/unplug anything. You could try enabling it and see if there's any change. To enable, when the column is selected, hit the up arrow once or more (there'll be at least 2 options usually.)

Outside of that, I just don't know what's going wrong. My suggestion at this point would be to reinstall the sound base with the following, one line at a time:

Code: Select all

apt remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio
apt install alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

Again, I'm sorry this is such a hassle!

[Smeejo1]

auto mute didn't fix it neither did reinstalling the sound base.

Starting to think It might not be sound related. I'm noticing the static is fairly quiet when I'm browsing the web but get's a lot louder when I load a game up. Guess it's just something I'm going to have to learn to ignore in the long run.

Thanks for all your help guys.

[MrEen]

I hate giving up, soo...

@rene's mention of Windows and software equalizers makes me wonder if the issue could be lessened or masked with an equalizer here. I don't run one myself, but you might want to look into it.

PulseEffects is one possibility. Again, I don't run one, so I'm just giving you a name here. No recommendation.

Good luck.

[rene]

Personally you couldn't get me out of there before I'd wrapped the frontpanel audio cable in first aluminium foil, second plastic foil -- and/or just rerouted it away from the graphics card but that part's much less fun.

[Smeejo1]

Just thought I'd post a little update.

Frustrated with the issues I've had so far with Mint I decided to test out another distro. Didn't like it and booted back into Mint and the built-in digital stereo (iec985) option is no longer there conflicting with my audio and my speaker icon near the clock now controls my sound again. So apparently one of the many things MrEen had me do actually did restore my sound it just needed me to reboot my computer. Still have the annoying static though but it's progress at least lol

[MrEen]

Hi Smeejo1.

I'm glad you're at least back to where you started. This may not work, but see if plugging the headphones into the line out port gets rid of the static. If there is still static, it's most likely the headphones that are the issue. It's possible the sound will be too quiet to tell.

[Smeejo1]

There was no static at all with headphones plugged into the back line out jack. Guess that means it's something with my front audio jack then. Curious as to why it didn't happen with windows but it does now with linux.

[MrEen]

There's no telling what eq and filters Windows might have been applying. If that were my machine, I would play around with equalizers and trying steps like what is listed here: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/reduce- ... 60817.html

Cleaning the input would be the first thing I'd try.

[qbit]

On my pc I have 2 audio ports.

Well, but what about two sound devices?

Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 00:14.2
Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus ID: 01:00.1
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-46-generic

I have read a bit (really not very much in this thread!) about interference and so on, ok, but could it be that windows does the sound job with merely one device? it is a very cautious thought, and maybe i am totally wrong about it.