Hello SuperUser Community,
I'm new to Linux Ubuntu, long time Windows User, and glad I'm making the switch. When setting up my desktop PC, I am subjected to an annoying and repetitive speaker 'pop' about every 2 seconds. This pop occurs regardless of volume level. It does stop if I unplug the audio jack to my speakers, and just use the speaker built into the motherboard. If I play a sound, the popping stops while the sound is playing and for about 5 seconds after, then resumes.
I am running Linux Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. The system information reports two Audio Adapters,
HDA-Intel – HDA ATI SB & HDA-Intel – HDA NVidia
I did eventually find the solution to this problem, but I don't have enough reputation points to post Q&A together.
Best Answer
The operation system's default behavior is to save power by turning off the Audio Adapter after 10 seconds. This power-save feature is causing the popping, and can be disabled.
In Terminal type
sudo nano /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
and change the value from 1 to 0.Then type
sudo nano /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller
and change the value from Y to N.On my system, this solved the audio popping problem immediately. However on reboot, the problem came back and I found these values had been reset. To keep these values persistent, I had to add a line of code to
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
I added this after the last line of code in the file,options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N
Save the file, and you're good to go!
Much of my information came from this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdmy8dMWitg
I had to piece together the "persistence after reboot" part, and my setting did reset even though I do not have TLP installed. Note that the video claims otherwise.
I was quite frustrated with Ubuntu until I figured this out. I hope this helps many people solve their audio issues!