[Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

eeg · 2011-11-26 14:19:10

Hi,

I have an issue with noticeable pops and crackles coming from my sound card.

They are:

faint and intermittent when not playing anything (no music/videos, etc.)
still noticeable when audio is playing (as if you're listening to a slightly corrupted mp3)
not loud pops or distortions, just little pops that happen randomly.

I'm pretty sure its something to do software-wise (ALSA/Pulseaudio) because:

Booting to Windows7, there are no problems
I tried installing "alsa-driver.hda-intel.hda-codec-realtek-git" from AUR.
- It messed up ALSA (couldn't detect a sound card)
- All audio stopped working
- At this point, no pops and crackles
After removing that package and reinstalling ALSA, the pops and crackles return.

Googling brought me to problems that are similar but with different hardware. I'm hoping someone here can give some clues/ideas on what to do next.

Cheers,
- eeg

Details:

Card: HDA Intel PCH
Chip: Realtek ALC892
----
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation GF104 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
----
Asus P8Z68-V Motherboard
Latest kernel/alsa/pulseaudio etc.

Last edited by eeg (2011-11-28 04:06:35)

eeg · 2011-11-28 04:15:14

Solved by using beta drivers from Realtek. Must be something wrong with the default ALSA drivers packaged with Arch.

No more pops/crackles and smooth music/video playback. I've also noticed that my CPU utilization is lower too. \o/

Main site is http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/. Accept the Terms & Conditions and navigate to the Linux drivers at the bottom of page.

Linux driver (3.0)	5.17Beta	2011/9/21

Direct link is here.

HTH some one else.

Last edited by eeg (2011-11-28 04:16:42)

brebs · 2011-11-28 23:35:13

It would be better to put this info in the ALSA bugzilla, where ALSA devs would actually see it

eeg · 2011-11-29 04:34:59

Yeap, you're right. I probably should.

The main bugsite (I think) at https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org has a bad certificate though... Seems like they're using an unknown issuer? Is it safe?

.:B:. · 2011-11-29 10:36:05

It expired, and it seems they did not renew it. I wouldn't worry too much though. Like SSL certificates and authorities are getting hacked today, it's not like it really represents 100% security...

eeg · 2011-12-05 14:08:45

Just to update (for future googlers).

The pops and crackles happened again after a kernel update. (3.1.2-1 -> 3.1.4-1)
Reapplied the realtek drivers, restarted, and everything is ok again.

I think I read somewhere that ALSA drivers were incorporated into the kernel (I'm probably wrong). If that's the case, it looks like the drivers in there are bad (at least for my setup).

pmoir · 2011-12-16 00:45:10

egg: Thanks for the info you've left here and elsewhere. It's been very helpful to me.

I had a similar problem with my ALC892 (Asus P8P67 w 8G RAM) using Kubuntu, But mine turned out to be being caused by the driver rapidly switching outputs between Analog Output and Analog Headphones for a fraction of a second. Fortunately I was able to fix this behaviour by disabling Auto-Mute in alsa-mixer.

I'm not sure if this is a hardware problem with my system or not.

Styx · 2012-01-01 11:59:29

Same problem with the ALC892 on Asus board and Arch64, driving me crazy for a couple of days.
Disabling auto-mute did the trick, also seriously increased my maximum volume output.
Thanks a lot !

Malstrond · 2012-07-07 00:24:45

I had the same problem with a ALC892 on a Asus P8P67 and also solved it by disabling auto-mute. Seems to be still present as of Kernel 3.4.4.

Ilya87 · 2016-06-26 20:22:25

MSI P67A-C43. Disabling auto mute (in alsamixer) didn't help. See log here http://pastebin.com/Lza7W40a. When I use only alsa crackling sound doesn't appear.

WorMzy · 2016-06-26 20:33:53

Please open a new topic for your problem, this one is ancient and marked as solved.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping.22

Closing,

Arch Linux

#1 2011-11-26 14:19:10

[Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#2 2011-11-28 04:15:14

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#3 2011-11-28 23:35:13

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#4 2011-11-29 04:34:59

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#5 2011-11-29 10:36:05

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#6 2011-12-05 14:08:45

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#7 2011-12-16 00:45:10

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#8 2012-01-01 11:59:29

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#9 2012-07-07 00:24:45

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#10 2016-06-26 20:22:25

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

#11 2016-06-26 20:33:53

Re: [Solved] Pops/Crackles on Realtek ALC892, HDA Intel PCH (ALSA

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