Static noise when playing sound

Question

From time to time I get a lot of static noise when playing sound. It stops when no sound is played (e.g. when music playback is stopped).

Seems to be independent from output device (same symptons with either my speakers or headphones)
When stopping sound, the static noise lingers for just a tiny bit. It doesn’t stop immediately
Unplugging my speakers and then plugging them in again amplifies the symptoms.
Opening the alsamixer GUI in the terminal and making sure that the levels are not in the red area makes things a bit better, but doesn’t solve this issue

Lastly, for what I can tell, this happens at completely random times. And it goes away just like that. I tried rebooting several times, no luck. At some point in the future it will be just fine.

So I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on and how to fix it.

idk but kinda think been using my linux for last 3 years and it gives me tinnitus — buncis, Mar 29 '23 at 10:24

score 47 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 14 '21 at 15:45

47

For what it’s worth, running the following seems to fix the issue:

pulseaudio -k

As to why, I have no idea.

From pulseaudio man page:

-k | --kill: Kill an already running PulseAudio daemon of the calling user (Equivalent to sending a SIGTERM).

Edit: This works reliably for me. Whenever this issue comes up, I run this command to fix it.

edited Mar 14 '21 at 15:45

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Aug 22 '18 at 07:30

kleinfreund

1,232

1

Works for me as well. Now we need an explanation why! – smirnoffs Aug 27 '20 at 18:48
2

Has no effect for me at all. – Parsa Mousavi Oct 16 '20 at 16:07
No works for me using Ubuntu 20.04 – Santiago Jan 26 '21 at 01:05
1

k in this case stands for "kill". The command kills the pulseaudio process, which in turn, will get started again automatically. Basically it restarts pulseaudio. – Levente Jan 26 '21 at 19:15
It also works for me. Ubuntu 20.04 – jplandrain Feb 18 '21 at 13:35
This will stop the audio as well in browser. – Abhijith S May 14 '21 at 11:38
+100. This has been bugging me quiet a bit and the solution was perfect. – rambalachandran Jun 10 '21 at 23:49
Still happening to me in 22.04. Seems to happen when I use BT headphones and then stop. Just FYI, systemctl --user restart pulseaudio also works and I assume is equivalent to pulseaudio -k – sesser May 06 '22 at 17:18
Working as of Ubuntu 22.04 too – ZombieTfk Aug 21 '22 at 10:27
worked great. You have to reload the page playing the music though – gjnave Jan 23 '24 at 19:15

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 20 '19 at 17:38

21

Asked and answered here.

The solution is to add this to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

answered Apr 20 '19 at 17:38

Alex

311

sudo echo -e '\n# Disable snd-hda-intel power saving\noptions snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N\n' >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf – Khalid Ali Apr 21 '19 at 20:23
Worked for me, my computer is a ServalWS with Pop!_OS 19.04 – zeitue Apr 26 '19 at 06:19
Tested this on Ubuntu 18.04, Asus UX501VW-DS71t laptop, and I'm amazed it worked! Been suffering through that noise for so long! – Michael Christoff Sep 23 '20 at 04:20
3

It came back for some reason :( – Michael Christoff Sep 25 '20 at 04:08
Alienware 17R3 (HDA Intel, Creative CA0132 codec). This solution eliminated speakers crackling completely while many other ways did not help! – Александр Авраменко Mar 05 '21 at 19:28
Ubuntu 20.04 on Dell G15, worked. Thanks! – Organis Oct 20 '22 at 21:38

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 23 '19 at 02:57

8

I am not a specialist in this area and don't know why the following worked, but it appears to have fixed the exact same problem on my computer.

In the file /etc/pulse/default.pa change the line:

load-module module-udev-detect

to read:

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

I found this on another thread where several others also claimed it solved the same audio problem for them.

edited Feb 23 '19 at 02:57

zx485

2,426

answered Feb 23 '19 at 00:45

swegian

81

1

Doesn't work for me. – Parsa Mousavi Oct 16 '20 at 16:09
1

No works for me using Ubuntu 20.04 – Santiago Jan 26 '21 at 01:05
It works for me. – Lei Zhao Aug 24 '22 at 23:19

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '19 at 19:46

5

Not an expert but in my case it was my headphones playing static noise but only when sound was playing.

Turned out it my headphones were over amplified (if that's the correct term). Turning down the headphone output with alsamixer fixed it.

answered Oct 12 '19 at 19:46

Cimm

155

do you need to reboot or something for the changes to take effect using this program? – Bersan Oct 06 '20 at 23:06
@bersan No, I did not need to reboot. – Cimm Oct 08 '20 at 06:03
Simply doesn't work. – Parsa Mousavi Oct 16 '20 at 16:04

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 30 '19 at 15:33

You can create a systemd (system-daemon) service script that will run at boot.

Open a terminal and run:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/powersave.service

authenticate, then add the following to the file:

[Unit]
Description=powersave script

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/powersave.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

CTRL+O to save and CTRL+X to exit.

Then run...

sudo nano /opt/powersave.sh

...and add the following:

#!/bin/bash
echo 0 | sudo tee sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

CTRL+O to save and CTRL+X to exit.

Finally, make the script executable:

sudo chmod+x /opt/powersave.sh

..then, enable the service by typing:

sudo systemctl enable powersave

This script will run on boot as the root user and should result in no more crackling, because it will keep your soundcard ON, instead of allowing it to go into powersaving mode.

This solution worked with my hardware. The output of lspci for my system is:

Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 01 '19 at 12:45

1

I was having the same issue on a dual boot system. Previously pulseaudio -k can temporarily solve the problem once it occurs.

This time it occurs immediately on boot and restarting pulseaudio does not help. Rebooting multiple times into ubuntu does not solve the issue either.

For me, the problem disappear after booting once into windows then boot back to ubuntu...

answered Jan 01 '19 at 12:45

hkchengrex

111

So perhaps a firmware-related problem.Do you use Intel HD audio? – Parsa Mousavi Oct 16 '20 at 16:09
@ParsaMousavi No, it is an AMD one. And the trick only works some of the time (I am struggling with it again now). – hkchengrex Nov 29 '20 at 10:11

mahadevan gss · Answer 7 · 2019-11-27T16:07:50.707

I have same problem in 16.04 and 18.04. At present I am running 18.04.I have tried all suggestions from web like:

Kill Pulse Audio
Kill Pulse Audio and change /etc/pulse/default.pa
Try Following commands:

hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x20 SET_COEF_INDEX 0x67
hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x20 SET_PROC_COEF 0x3000
Removing Speech Dispacher
Set nice level of pulseaudio to -20 and allowing real-time priority of pulseaudio
Try changing power-save options like

echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
echo N > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller

Some of the above options worked for some folks and not worked for most. I tried to some basic level debugging, so started doing strace when audio/video is on. Then the crackling sound was stopped. Here is the sample command I tried:

sudo strace -f -p $(ps -eaf|grep -E "^$USER.*/bin/pulseaudio"|grep -v grep|awk '{print $2}') 2>&1|head -1000

I found 1000 lines of strace output is sufficient to restore the sound. Please keep in mind following:

We have strace the pulseaudio process of the user (not the gdm process). So that is the reason we are grep'ing for $USER variable
When you are issuing above strace command, audio/video stream should be running
most of the 1000 line of strace is sufficient. You may double those lines or rerun the same command
Keep in mind that, if audio/video is changed, then same cracking sound will reappear. Once again run same script, the cracking sound will go.
Also keep in mind that this also might not solve your issue(until it is confirmed by lot others with various other configurations)

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 13 '20 at 09:35

1

I know this question is old but it still seems to be an issue so for those still interested I believe I have a reason for why pulseaudio -k fixes the problem (re @kleinfreund answer and @smirnoffs comment on that answer).

According to the man page for pulseaudio -k is short for --kill and kills the currently running PulseAudio daemon. The system will notice it stopped an start a new instance (hence why the static stops ... until the next time).

I have no idea why the static starts in the first place, maybe a bug or a configuration issue (but that doesn't narrow it down), I'm currently on the hunt for a permanent solution.

answered Oct 13 '20 at 09:35

David

31

1

...can you recreate the condition? Did you find it explained elseware? – Thompson Dawes Oct 13 '20 at 13:33
I've been seeing the issue frequently, I haven't worked out how to reproduce it consistently yet, just creeps up on me, found this while looking for a permanent solution. Other people across the internet have seen the problem (in fact Arch Linux mentions what I assume is the same issue on their wiki). Though the explanation was just based on the man page my own knowledge. – David Oct 14 '20 at 14:16

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 19:09

I tried all of the answers in the thread - none of them worked (I was scared it might be a HW problem). The only thing that surprisingly worked for me was turning the PC off, keeping it off for a minute and then turning it back on. Simple restarting the device did not work. After this, the problem disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered May 25 '21 at 00:15

This appears to still be a problem years later.

Like others, I don't know the original cause. For me, I can trigger this distinctive static by switching repeatedly between multiple audio sources such as HDMI outputs on multiple displays, digital line-out, and multiple bluetooth audio outputs.

The solution (for me, and perhaps others) is much simpler and less problematic than killing pulse audio in terminal or rebooting the whole machine.

Simply navigate to the "Sound" tab under the default settings app, and toggle the "over-amplification" button.

This is the screen you need, it's under the default settings app

I suspect this is an issue with the pulse-audio code being written in some places to set volume 0-99, but in other places 0-199 (100% over-amplification), and then mixing up those settings when trying to add/subtract/reapply them between outputs.

Regardless of the why, toggling the over-amplification setting on/off appears to get things back on track.

Works on following system:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=groovy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.10"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.10 (Groovy Gorilla)"

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 13 '22 at 16:26

This is what I found and it worked perfectly for me. Apparently the push to be "green" and save a penny or two per decade on electricity costs has pushed the kernel devs to implement "power saving" on the audio and since that doesn't work the way it should it causes static in the audio.

Check to see if the power save feature is turned on in your system:

cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

If you get a "1" as the output, it's on. So turn it off (be root when you do this):

cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

Hope this works for everyone...

This works for me. Linux Mint 21.1 Vera Mate with a new Acer Nitro 5 laptop using a Jack audio to a soundbar. However, the problem comes back after a reboot. So I had to sudo crontab -e and add this: @reboot echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save — Zurd, Mar 06 '23 at 03:09

score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Mar 15 '21 at 08:46

0

If you're using VLC Player, just turn its volume under 100%. it worked for me. I hope it works for you.

edited Mar 15 '21 at 08:46

ThunderBird

1,955

answered Mar 14 '21 at 15:21

emad rashidi

1
1

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 19 '22 at 07:17

I've had this problem off and on for years... (Technically in Linux Mint but sameshing.) The pulseaudio -k type stuff never worked for me.

The actual problem was the audio output port in the back of my desktop computer - or at least that's where the problem occurred...

I first suspected this was the problem when literally nothing I tried fixed it, not even temporarily - no commands, no settings configurations, no driver changes, not even volume reductions (anywhere) - yet my left (and only left) speaker would often crackle. I diagnosed this problem by plugging headphones in and switching out cables until I realized it was the jack itself.

Static noise when playing sound

13 Answers13

Linked

Related