Sound problems

[ayu]

Had this problem for a while now.
First in Mint and now in Ubuntu, with two different sets of headphones (USB headphones).
I've tried to plug them into 3.5mm jack, USB and optics, but none work.

The problem is that I keep hearing crackling noise in my headphones.
Normal speakers work without issue.

I opened a thread on the Ubuntu forums, but not really getting much response there.
So I thought I'd reference the whole thing here and hopefully someone will have had the same problem and can share some thoughts.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php ... p=13703525" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

I've had the similar problem, but on Windows. So I don't think it's OS specific. I just blew (hot air followed by cold) that socket with the hair dryer for 10-12 minutes and it got fixed. But again this problem came after a week or so.
Then I simply bought USB to 3.5mm convertor, and it's working fine since past 6 years, with absolutely no problem. In your case, you can try with male-to-female USB convertor.

[ayu]

I've had the similar problem, but on Windows. So I don't think it's OS specific. I just blew (hot air followed by cold) that socket with the hair dryer for 10-12 minutes and it got fixed. But again this problem came after a week or so.
Then I simply bought USB to 3.5mm convertor, and it's working fine since past 6 years, with absolutely no problem. In your case, you can try with male-to-female USB convertor.

Interesting, I will take a look at this. Thanks!

[Gogeta70]

Curious issue. I'm currently downloading that WAV file (at 12 kb/s lol) to get a better idea of what's happening, but I'm guessing you hear audio with an overlay of crackling/noise?

Perhaps check your log files? Pulse audio logs to the syslog file by default (at least on debian), but I don't know which audio daemon you are running.

Does this happen regardless of which USB port you plug into?

If all else fails, I'd say the best idea is to get a USB-3.5mm adapter like z3r0 suggested.

[ayu]

Curious issue. I'm currently downloading that WAV file (at 12 kb/s lol) to get a better idea of what's happening, but I'm guessing you hear audio with an overlay of crackling/noise?

Perhaps check your log files? Pulse audio logs to the syslog file by default (at least on debian), but I don't know which audio daemon you are running.

Does this happen regardless of which USB port you plug into?

If all else fails, I'd say the best idea is to get a USB-3.5mm adapter like z3r0 suggested.

Yup, crackling noise over the sound sort of.
Will check log files but did some digging there before and didn't really see much strange, but haven't tailed it while listening so will do that as well.

I just tried every single USB-port with two different headphones, same result.
I have not tried the hairdryer solution yet.
Next thing I will try is a live Ubuntu on both of my computers, because on my gaming PC (windows), I do not have this problem.
If I get it on both then it "should" be something with Linux, if only the same one gets it then I guess I should consider changing hardware (I have an extra motherboard laying around from when I had my hash cracking rig).

[Gogeta70]

Yeah, I was thinking it could either be the Linux ehci/xhci driver or a hardware issue. It's possible that something is introducing noise into the USB traces on the motherboard... O_o

[ayu]

Yeah, I was thinking it could either be the Linux ehci/xhci driver or a hardware issue. It's possible that something is introducing noise into the USB traces on the motherboard... O_o

Right, so an update on this.
I have now tried the headphones on my new work laptop plus a live Ubuntu on my gaming rig.
No problems with the sound so far on either of the machines.
Will test both headphones next on live Ubuntu on the "troubled" machine.

Will report back tomorrow with my findings : )

[Gogeta70]

I eagerly await your findings ^_^

[ayu]

I eagerly await your findings ^_^

Tried with live Ubuntu on the trouble machine now, and still getting sound issues with both headphones.
Will do one last attempt to fix it by updating "everything" (bios, all firmware ... etc).

If that doesn't work I guess I will have to try with going back to my old motherboard.

EDIT: Updated the BIOS firmware (was one version behind, and newest version was from 2010).
No luck however and the problem still persists.
I have ONE last idea that I want to try.
The machine having trouble has a lot of hard drives in it.
I'm going to disconnect all of them, then clean the computer as my final stand against this damn problem.

If that doesn't work then I guess I will have to switch the damn motherboard : /

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

I eagerly await your findings ^_^

Tried with live Ubuntu on the trouble machine now, and still getting sound issues with both headphones.
Will do one last attempt to fix it by updating "everything" (bios, all firmware ... etc).

If that doesn't work I guess I will have to try with going back to my old motherboard.

EDIT: Updated the BIOS firmware (was one version behind, and newest version was from 2010).
No luck however and the problem still persists.
I have ONE last idea that I want to try.
The machine having trouble has a lot of hard drives in it.
I'm going to disconnect all of them, then clean the computer as my final stand against this damn problem.

If that doesn't work then I guess I will have to switch the damn motherboard : /

I don't think disconnecting hard drives is going to work. I think the problem is in the motherboard itself. Still, keep your hopes intact.

[ayu]

I don't think disconnecting hard drives is going to work. I think the problem is in the motherboard itself. Still, keep your hopes intact.

Yeah I know

It's just my last resort since I really don't feel like switching the motherboard right now

[ayu]

Right, so cleaned the machine and took out all HDDs (SSD for system).
Tried all USB-ports for the sound output and still the same very bad audio quality.
Just to make sure I even reset pulseaudio to default settings and restarted, but with the same result.

I will switch to another motherboard tomorrow that I have laying around.
It's an older board, but I don't use this machine for much heavy lifting at the moment anyway, mostly dev.

I'll report back tomorrow night with my results (GMT+1).

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

Right, so cleaned the machine and took out all HDDs (SSD for system).
Tried all USB-ports for the sound output and still the same very bad audio quality.
Just to make sure I even reset pulseaudio to default settings and restarted, but with the same result.

I will switch to another motherboard tomorrow that I have laying around.
It's an older board, but I don't use this machine for much heavy lifting at the moment anyway, mostly dev.

I'll report back tomorrow night with my results (GMT+1).

With your description, I feel as if I've gone back to my old days, when I used to do such stuff. It's intriguing though.

[ayu]

New motherboard installed a little while ago.
Turns out the old one was the issue ....

Listening to sweet high quality music through my headphones now without a single issue.
As an interesting side effect, my graphic issues have now also magically vanished.
So maybe the old board was more broken than I first thought.

I would like to extend my thanks to you guys for helping me coming to this solution .

For future reference:

Old card: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R (released and bought in 2009)
New card: Z77A-GD65 (Released in 2013, bought in 2015 for my hash cracking rig)

I had to "downgrade" to i3 since this card is newer and has a 1155 socket, while the old one has a 1156 socket (1155 is newer).
All in all this i3 is faster however, even though it has fewer cores.

I am a happy panda

[z3r0aCc3Ss]