Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

akshay2000 · 2012-05-17 12:48:59

Hello. I'm on Dell XPS L401x laptop with JBL speakers. Earlier I had Arch Linux installed. I am setting it up again after hard drive crash. I have Gnome 3 installed and sound is being managed by PulseAudio - Alas setup.

Problem is that, whenever I boot up the laptop, there is sharp loud sound as if speakers were just powered on. Same sound pulse is heard just before the machine shuts down. Similar behaviour when I suspend it. Apparently, its a power issue. Speakers are being powered up and down, giving out the sound. But the sound is so sharp, that I'm afraid that it will break my speakers. Any solution to this? I am not using any power extra utilities yet.

Last edited by akshay2000 (2012-05-18 06:35:41)

karol · 2012-05-17 23:05:30

Try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Al … g_Playback

Last edited by karol (2012-05-17 23:05:52)

brebs · 2012-05-18 06:02:15

For the "before shutdown" pop - you may have to hack your initscripts so that the ALSA modules *don't* get unloaded.

As a bit of reassurance, I've never heard of these annoying pops being the cause of physical damage.

akshay2000 · 2012-05-18 06:43:18

karol wrote:

Try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Al … g_Playback

I was so frustrated yesterday that I didn't even put enough information in OP - my bad. So, I'll put here whatever I've done.

First thing, I added a line to disable power save to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
After this, my startup pop vanished. However, suspend pop, resume pop and shutdown pop were still there.
Then I went ahead and edited file /etc/conf.d/alsa and set value of 'power off on shutdown' to "yes". This setting apparently mutes the speakers before powering the machine down. After this, my shutdown pops are gone. However, my machine by defult starts muted, which is annoying.
Anyway, I removed the powersave option from modeprobe.conf and start up pop is still gone.
So, current state is: No startup problem. Loud pops while suspend, resume and shutdown. Shutdown pop is removed by editing /etc/conf.d/alsa:

# Whether to mute the master volume when stopped ("yes" or "no").
# Useful for bad audio cards which make a noise on system poweroff.
MUTE_VOLUME="yes"

brebs wrote:

For the "before shutdown" pop - you may have to hack your initscripts so that the ALSA modules *don't* get unloaded.
As a bit of reassurance, I've never heard of these annoying pops being the cause of physical damage.

Its really nice to see you here brebs. I have been reading your posts about this yesterday. When you ask me to hack initscripts, exactly what is to be done. Will this work for suspend-resume. And thanks for the reassurance, but mine is less like a 'pop' and more like a spike!

One more important thing! On my earlier setup, I DO NOT remember using pulseaudio at all. Apparently, Alsa was managing everything directly. Is pulseaudio really needed? My experience wasn't particularly pleasant with it. Firstly, it defaults my sound to HDMI soundcard and I'm unable to hear anything. Secondy, nder input device, it does not list my microphone unless I select 'all input devices' from the dropdown on bottom of pulseaudio volume control. Thirdly, in applications like skype and google video call, I have to manually go to pulseaudio and tell it to choose the internal microphone of my laptop. Otherwise, it loves to take input from HDMI card!

Last edited by akshay2000 (2012-05-18 07:19:04)

skunktrader · 2012-05-18 07:20:46

Try this https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=900760

akshay2000 · 2012-05-18 10:27:32

skunktrader wrote:

Try this https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=900760

Thanks a lot for this suggestion. I was really hopeful that editing file 90alsa would solve the problem - that did make sense. First I tried by commenting out the aplay line - no good. Then I tried to mute and unmute the Front channels as suggested - still no good. Is it as if the code doesn't care about what I say. It just wants to make pops. And the shutdown pops are still there. Muting on power of works, but starts computer in mote mode which is annoying. Moreover, it's like finding workarounds rather than solution.

Meanwhile, I tried removing gdm from rc.conf to check if it was anything related to X. As expected, no good. Removed alsa from the daemons array - apparently, it starts on its own. Sound worked perfectly and I could actually stop it by running /etc/rc.d/alsa stop
Pops still persist. Any other cause of problem?

brebs · 2012-05-18 12:42:00

akshay2000 wrote:

Removed alsa from the daemons array - apparently, it starts on its own.

"Starts"? Udev loads the sound modules. Then /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/90-alsa-restore.rules restores the volume.

At startup, modprobe snd-hda-intel is the specific pop-producing module. Dunno how to stop that pop The answer may lie in the black art of hda-verb.

akshay2000 · 2012-05-18 13:40:27

brebs wrote:

"Starts"? Udev loads the sound modules. Then /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/90-alsa-restore.rules restores the volume.
At startup, modprobe snd-hda-intel is the specific pop-producing module. Dunno how to stop that pop The answer may lie in the black art of hda-verb.

My ignorance - didn't think about Udev. Now, for one, I usually don't suspend laptop. So, I can live with suspend related pops. Startup pops are auto-magically gone. I'll surely read the link you gave me. But, in the mean time, I can use mute-on-power-off setting in /etc/conf.d/alsa to iron out the shutdown pop. Now only thing remains is that laptop will start on mute mode. Is it possible to add a script to startup (script for single user through gnome-session-properties will do) which will un-mute the sound? For the record, when I run alsamixer, there is only one bar - pulseaudio which is muted. Increase the volume level, and everything is fine. So, all I need is a startup script or something which will set the audio level to some predefined value. Is this possible?

brebs · 2012-05-18 14:06:12

Yes

Arch Linux

#1 2012-05-17 12:48:59

Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#2 2012-05-17 23:05:30

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#3 2012-05-18 06:02:15

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#4 2012-05-18 06:43:18

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#5 2012-05-18 07:20:46

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#6 2012-05-18 10:27:32

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#7 2012-05-18 12:42:00

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#8 2012-05-18 13:40:27

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

#9 2012-05-18 14:06:12

Re: Sharp sound after start up and before shut down.

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