Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

Budgie · 2021-10-16 02:11:13

Today my friends started to hear a repetitive beeping sound coming from my microphone. I unplugged my mic and left just my adapter in that converts the combo jack into mic and speakers and then tried recording the audio it produced, and I could hear a faint annoying beeping sound.

I tried to fiddle around with my audio settings and audio ports on my PC but nothing really worked out. Also tried to downgrade my kernel, because that was one thing that I had just updated recently. I tried PopOS to test if my soundcard is broken, but sound didn't work for some reason in PopOS live iso. Also since windows doesn't work too well nowadays, I can't test my headset on my laptop to confirm that it is not broken.

Should I return my PC to warranty, or could this be a software issue?

seth · 2021-10-16 06:51:25

adapter in that converts the combo jack into mic and speakers

That's an analogthing?
Do you also have a headset that you could try?

I tried to fiddle around with my audio settings

Mute all analog sources except for pcm, but I assume a feedback inside the adapter thingy.

V1del · 2021-10-16 10:25:02

Some chipset can lead to this with the power_save mode that's enabled by default try in e.g. a /etc/modprobe.d/disablePower.conf setting

options snd_hda_intel power_save=0

Budgie · 2021-10-16 11:49:00

seth wrote:

adapter in that converts the combo jack into mic and speakers
That's an analogthing?
Do you also have a headset that you could try?
I tried to fiddle around with my audio settings
Mute all analog sources except for pcm, but I assume a feedback inside the adapter thingy.

I don't have other headsets to try with unfortunately. I also don't quite understand what you mean by 'other sources'. I have only one audio source that reads my mic.

V1del wrote:

Some chipset can lead to this with the power_save mode that's enabled by default try in e.g. a /etc/modprobe.d/disablePower.conf setting

I have the following audio devices show up (excluding the nvidia one, I have it disabled)

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 1637
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) HD Audio Controller

Also the problem started out of nowhere so I don't really think that it would be a default setting wrong somewhere. I have used this PC with Arch Linux for some weeks already, if not a month even and have had no issues with audio.

Also on another note the classic "microphone volume increasing by itself" bug also appeared on top of this beeping sound after a while. I had this same problem on my laptop as well with Arch Linux at some point where pulseaudio would just start increasing my mic volume by itself rapidly destroying everyones ears when I start to talk

I managed to record the sound and boost the volume a bit to make it more noticeable. I posted the file to discord and here's the link to it, don't really know other simple ways to host audio files: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … eeping.mp3

seth · 2021-10-16 12:00:13

I also don't quite understand what you mean by 'other sources'. I have only one audio source that reads my mic.

Analog in, line in, … this kind of stuff.

How did you record the sample? Holding your phone against the speakers?
Is this w/ an external microphone attached? Does the signal get louder w/ a microphone attached?
Can you record the signal from the mic directly? Can you use the speakers w/o the adapter?

The signal seems to be a steady 2Hz heartbeat…

Budgie · 2021-10-16 13:00:29

seth wrote:

How did you record the sample?

I unplugged my headset from the cord that splits the cable into mic and speaker, so my actual microphone isn't plugged in but since the mic and speaker cables are still in, Arch thinks that the device is still there. Then I opened Audacity and recorded the device output directly. I have confirmed that the beeping sound is there also without the splitting cable and directly plugged with the combo jack though, so the cable itself isn't problematic

Edit: To clarify, I can't hear the sound myself, but when I join a jitsi call for example, everyone in the call can hear the sound

Last edited by Budgie (2021-10-16 13:01:52)

seth · 2021-10-17 07:31:46

If you can record this w/o anything attached to the jack, there's either an issue w/ the jack itself or the internal wiring picks this up from somewhere else (inside the system)
The constant(?) pulse seems suspicous - if you boot into the multi-user.target only (not your regular GUI session, 2nd link below), can you still record the artifact?

Budgie · 2021-10-22 19:57:29

seth wrote:

If you can record this w/o anything attached to the jack, there's either an issue w/ the jack itself or the internal wiring picks this up from somewhere else (inside the system)
The constant(?) pulse seems suspicous - if you boot into the multi-user.target only (not your regular GUI session, 2nd link below), can you still record the artifact?

Sorry for the late response, but do you mean TTY? Also how can I record audio with terminal? I have only experience with Audacity and ffmpeg is a big mystery in this area

seth · 2021-10-22 20:08:39

Yes, but it's important to not even reach your graphical session (see the mentioned link, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sys … _boot_into )
You can use eg. arecord (from alsa-utils)

Budgie · 2021-10-24 12:06:24

Alrighty, I managed to figure out how to use ffmpeg + alsa and recorded an audio clip in the tty after switching the systemd symlink thingie to multiuser from graphical.target (I assume that's what you meant)

After boosting the audio volume by a lot, the beeping can still be heard and its also clearly visible in the audio histogram

Arch Linux

#1 2021-10-16 02:11:13

Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#2 2021-10-16 06:51:25

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#3 2021-10-16 10:25:02

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#4 2021-10-16 11:49:00

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#5 2021-10-16 12:00:13

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#6 2021-10-16 13:00:29

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#7 2021-10-17 07:31:46

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#8 2021-10-22 19:57:29

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#9 2021-10-22 20:08:39

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

#10 2021-10-24 12:06:24

Re: Repeating beeping sound from the microphone, even if its not plugged i

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