Arch Linux

LunoMuno

Member

Registered: 2025-02-05

Posts: 2

Pipewire/Pulseaudio annoying electric popping/clicking sounds

As the title says im having weird electrical clicking sounds while playing audio
these sounds happen both while charging and on battery at random intervals of time and its driving me crazy

However it stops when i run this command "pavucontrol" and keep it running "PulseAudio Volume Control"

i have these packages installed

pipewire 1:1.2.7-1
pipewire-alsa 1:1.2.7-1
pipewire-audio 1:1.2.7-1
pipewire-jack 1:1.2.7-1
pipewire-pulse 1:1.2.7-1
wireplumber 0.5.7-1

UPDATE:
after changing to pulseaudio the clicks are now less frequent

UPDATE 2:
I found out that the problem is hardware related

Last edited by LunoMuno (2025-02-22 15:14:15)

nroth

Member

Registered: 2017-10-06

Posts: 13

Re: Pipewire/Pulseaudio annoying electric popping/clicking sounds

I have noticed issues with this recently on my desktop that runs Arch and my work laptop that runs Debian Testing, after having no issues on either for over a year. Though crackling and popping is common with pipewire, and was common with pulseaudio too in its early days, I wonder if something changed upstream recently.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,175

Re: Pipewire/Pulseaudio annoying electric popping/clicking sounds

During "clicking" playback what outputs do you get from

pactl list sinks
pactl list sink-inputs
pw-top

LunoMuno

Member

Registered: 2025-02-05

Posts: 2

Re: Pipewire/Pulseaudio annoying electric popping/clicking sounds

i installed pulseaudio and the clicking sound is still happening but with less frequency and intensity

$ pactl list sinks   
Sink #0
    State: RUNNING
    Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
    Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
    Driver: module-alsa-card.c
    Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    Channel Map: front-left,front-right
    Owner Module: 6
    Mute: no
    Volume: front-left: 19656 /  30% / -31.38 dB,   front-right: 19656 /  30% / -31.38 dB
            balance 0.00
    Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
    Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor
    Latency: 19968 usec, configured 23220 usec
    Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
    Properties:
        alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
        device.api = "alsa"
        device.class = "sound"
        alsa.class = "generic"
        alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
        alsa.name = "ALC236 Analog"
        alsa.id = "ALC236 Analog"
        alsa.subdevice = "0"
        alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
        alsa.device = "0"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xa4310000 irq 144"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "8086"
        device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
        device.product.id = "a348"
        device.product.name = "Cannon Lake PCH cAVS"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "front:0"
        device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
        device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
        device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
        device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
        device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
        device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    Ports:
        analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, not available)
        analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, available)
    Active Port: analog-output-headphones
    Formats:
        pcm
                     
$ pactl list sink-inputs

Sink Input #42
    Driver: protocol-native.c
    Owner Module: 8
    Client: 49
    Sink: 0
    Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 44100Hz
    Channel Map: front-left,front-right
    Format: pcm, format.sample_format = "\"float32le\""  format.rate = "44100"  format.channels = "2"  format.channel_map = "\"front-left,front-right\""
    Corked: no
    Mute: no
    Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
            balance 0.00
    Buffer Latency: 55510 usec
    Sink Latency: 20176 usec
    Resample method: copy
    Properties:
        application.icon_name = "google-chrome"
        media.name = "Playback"
        application.name = "Google Chrome"
        native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
        native-protocol.version = "35"
        application.process.id = "2675"
        application.process.host = "linux"
        application.process.binary = "chrome"
        application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
        window.x11.display = ":0.0"
        application.process.session_id = "2"
        module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-application-name:Google Chrome"

Last edited by LunoMuno (2025-02-14 14:06:15)