OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

Ranguvar · 2009-03-31 02:19:45

Hoping someone has experience. I also posted this here: http://4front-tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3134

This is a rather odd issue. Since I found out about OSS4, I've been using it, mostly for the higher quality mixing as compared to ALSA. I use Arch Linux, and OSS 4.1_1052.

The issue is that whenever I use OSS, I hear background noise that relates to whatever I'm doing at the time. Deleting characters at the vc makes a certain sound, writing to the disk makes a certain sound, moving between different objects in a web page in links makes a sound, typing this makes a sound.... it's very faint, but annoying.

I have what is apparently a High Definition Audio ALC888 sound chip according to ossmix. I've tried muting every option in ossmix that wants me to mute, to no avail. ALSA works perfectly, no background sounds at all. I tried turning up every volume bar in alsamixer to see if I could replicate the issue in ALSA, to no avail. I'm not sure when this problem started. I have kernel 2.6.29, but this problem was occuring with 2.6.28, I don't remember if before that as well.

I am using 2.0 speakers hooked to my on-mobo audio by 3.5mm. The issue can be heard with them or with earphones connected to the speakers. Connecting the earphones directly to the back of my PC does not help, nor does different earphones.

The only thing interesting is that when I run osstest, it also tests rear, and I hear the music very faintly (only when it does the left test, or the stereo test in my left ear). Muting rear gets rid of it, but not the weird sounds.

If anyone could help, I would be most grateful. ALSA is not my first choice, by a wide margin.

ChoK · 2009-03-31 09:30:45

I have an ALC888 with the last oss too, but I don't have the same problems. I have faint stuttering sound when I hit some keyboard keys :

the Left Alt, Pg down, home, ";" , "," , "." , "/" "." , the "n" , "a" , "x" ; I have to use an amplifier to hear them though. The most annoying sound is when I turned on my wifi card, the sound is like everything is hanging for 2 seconds. Probably unrelated but who knows.

Ghost1227 · 2009-03-31 14:43:04

I am using OSS4 as well, and until today I hadn't had any problems like this... Just finished doing a complete rebuild and all of a sudden I'm noticing this background sound...

Ranguvar · 2009-03-31 14:51:44

Same as me, as in you get different sounds depending on what you do, etc.? For example, loading an image in links-g gives squeakish sounds every time more of the image loads.

It's a very good thing if more than one of us has this problem... it means it's a bug that can be fixed, most likely Ghost, what's your sound chip? Does ALSA work fine with you, like me?

Last edited by Ranguvar (2009-03-31 14:53:49)

Ghost1227 · 2009-03-31 15:21:17

Been a long time since I used ALSA, but it always worked back then. As for my sound chip, it's a crappy AC97 (ALC650)

Inxsible · 2009-03-31 15:30:09

I have always used ALSA, but I also hear sounds. I havent noticed it on typing....but when I download something with pacman, I hear a certain sound while the "progress bar" is being updated. Then disk writes give another. I always thought it was because of the fact that my crappy lappy is 9 yrs old.

lman · 2009-03-31 19:09:57

i've been using alsa until it once hung with flash, since then i'm using oss... i heard noises with both, especially when runnig some 3d apps i wrote in opengl , also the jacks on the front panel are way noisier than those on the back.

Last edited by lman (2009-04-06 07:20:56)

Ranguvar · 2009-04-25 21:37:20

Now I can hear the sounds in ALSA, too... just quieter. This is getting really annoyuing. See the 4Front forum thread I linked.

tablestack · 2009-04-26 11:14:07

Onboard audio cards tend to pick up interference and background noise from the motherboard or other components in the computer. If this is what's causing the noises, and I suspect that is the case for most of you, then there's really not much else to do about it besides getting a dedicated audio card. See if you have an old one laying around, or perhaps you can borrow one from a friend for testing purposes.

Ranguvar · 2009-04-27 01:09:21

That doesn't explain why ALSA has quieter noise than OSS4 though (at least by itself) -- and, I didn't use to have this problem before.

I guess the real test will be when I get Windoze 7 installed on another hard drive.

tablestack · 2009-04-27 06:45:44

It could be that ALSA and OSS4 just handle things a bit differently when it comes to audio volume, amplification and whatnot. This is not to say that I'm some kind of expert on the topic, but I've had exactly the same issues myself on several Windows PCs with onboard audio. If you Google around a bit you'll also find numerous accounts of background noise and interference issues with onboard audio cards. I can imagine that different drivers or different sound systems (ALSA or OSS4 for instance), may have some impact on how audible the noises are, but this is ultimately more likely to be a hardware issues than a software one. As for you not having this issue previously, maybe you just didn't start noticing it until recently?

test1000 · 2009-04-27 13:45:48

i find turning down the amp audio and turning up the digital volume largely gets rid of the issue. it could be opposite for you though. i'm using alsa but it shouldn't mattter ^.

brebs · 2009-04-27 15:56:45

Ranguvar wrote:

I hear background noise that relates to whatever I'm doing at the time.

This is often due to the CPU switching power-saving modes, believe it or not.

Try disabling the CPU power-saving, and see if the problem disappears. If it does, then you've found the problem, and can experiment further, to try to get CPU power-saving *without* noise.

Doesn't matter whether OSS4 or ALSA is used. It's a hardware problem which will hopefully have a software workaround, i.e. avoiding the power-saving modes which cause the interference.

Last edited by brebs (2009-04-27 15:58:19)

methuselah · 2009-08-23 22:59:27

Ranguvar wrote:

Hoping someone has experience. I also posted this here: http://4front-tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3134

This is a rather odd issue. Since I found out about OSS4, I've been using it, mostly for the higher quality mixing as compared to ALSA. I use Arch Linux, and OSS 4.1_1052.
The issue is that whenever I use OSS, I hear background noise that relates to whatever I'm doing at the time. Deleting characters at the vc makes a certain sound, writing to the disk makes a certain sound, moving between different objects in a web page in links makes a sound, typing this makes a sound.... it's very faint, but annoying.
I have what is apparently a High Definition Audio ALC888 sound chip according to ossmix. I've tried muting every option in ossmix that wants me to mute, to no avail. ALSA works perfectly, no background sounds at all. I tried turning up every volume bar in alsamixer to see if I could replicate the issue in ALSA, to no avail. I'm not sure when this problem started. I have kernel 2.6.29, but this problem was occuring with 2.6.28, I don't remember if before that as well.
I am using 2.0 speakers hooked to my on-mobo audio by 3.5mm. The issue can be heard with them or with earphones connected to the speakers. Connecting the earphones directly to the back of my PC does not help, nor does different earphones.
The only thing interesting is that when I run osstest, it also tests rear, and I hear the music very faintly (only when it does the left test, or the stereo test in my left ear). Muting rear gets rid of it, but not the weird sounds.
If anyone could help, I would be most grateful. ALSA is not my first choice, by a wide margin.

Same exact problem.

The quality of sound from ossv4 is way better than alsa ever was.... but right as I press enter while in MPD + ncmpcpp it makes a computer-ish sound before starting the song..... then the song sounds perfect and usually does for the rest of the playlist.

I can even hear my terminal working when I have my headphones in with no music playing. Like runing "sudo abs" makes all sorts of noise, and even opening programs or clicking on my tasklist to bring a window up makes a slight noise. It's similar to the noises that my computer makes when I boot up with my earphones in my ear and I can hear all of the processes working.

You can even here a noise when you mouse over a link in a web page on firefox..... even scrolling this comment box while writing this comment makes a noise in my ear phones!

It reminds me of the cartoon 'Metalocalypse', in the Dethvengeance episode where the band is complaining about the song that they just recorded, and Toki says (in his heavy Norway accent), "It sounds like microchips." and then Pickles (in his trailer park Wisconsin Yooper accent) agrees with him, "It sounds like microchips. In ones and zeros-".

Most of this noise is only heard when my ear phones are plugged in and my music is not playing (you can hear it just enough to be annoying), but the one that gets me the most is the noise that pressing "enter" makes when playing a song in mpd/ncmpcpp. It ruins the perfection of mpd/ncmpcpp.

I also get a slight static feed back sound sometimes in intervals of 5 seconds? (only really noticeable when their is no music playing)

Last edited by methuselah (2009-08-23 23:04:41)

Raffo · 2011-09-25 10:16:58

Is there a solution for this issue? I'm experiencing it and it's really frustrating... I know the topic is old, but I cannot find a solution that works well. Thx

Last edited by Raffo (2011-09-25 10:17:17)

bernarcher · 2011-09-25 11:34:54

Raffo, this thread is now more than two years old: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … Bumping.27
You should really open a new thread about your problem and link back to this one if necessary.
Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-31 02:19:45

OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#2 2009-03-31 09:30:45

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#3 2009-03-31 14:43:04

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#4 2009-03-31 14:51:44

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#5 2009-03-31 15:21:17

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#6 2009-03-31 15:30:09

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#7 2009-03-31 19:09:57

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#8 2009-04-25 21:37:20

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#9 2009-04-26 11:14:07

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#10 2009-04-27 01:09:21

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#11 2009-04-27 06:45:44

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#12 2009-04-27 13:45:48

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#13 2009-04-27 15:56:45

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#14 2009-08-23 22:59:27

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#15 2011-09-25 10:16:58

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

#16 2011-09-25 11:34:54

Re: OSS issue, background noises corresponding to PC activity

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