Random audio popping noise when sound comes first on

Ask Fedora
1

I had the same 15 years ago when I used Linux the first time around. Different Distro different hardware and its till around.
Problem:
At random when sound comes on, doesn’t matter what sound like notification/You tube/Movie/Audio file..I will get this random pop right at the beginning when the sound starts.
I have got no idea where to even begin looking for the cause.
Laptop is a new Framework 16 Ai9 AMD 370 CPU.
Fedora KDE was installed from day one with Windows Pro in dual boot. Both are on separate SSD’s.
Problem has been there since day 1 using FD43 and a clean install.

2

I suspect, but am not sure about this, that it is caused by the software starting the audio hardware. When you did not use sound for some time the hardware is switched off.
The bad thing about this is that the loudspeakers are no longer connected to the audio system (open connection) and this can result in picking up signals which are audible. I sometimes switch the loudspeakers off because of this.
When a sound has to be produced the audio hardware has to be switched on again and that’s the pop you hear. According to me but, as I wrote already, I am not 100% sure it goes like this.
If it works like that then I would prefer it when the audio system is not switched off, but no idea if this is even possible, either by the user or by the Fedora team.

3

Can you post information about your hardware?
You might have to install something depending on what you want to use

inxi -Azxx

or

fpaste --sysinfo-audio --printonly

or

lspci | grep -i audio | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -L1 lspci -v -s

4

Hardware info:

 lspci | grep -i audio | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -L1 lspci -v -s
c2:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio Controller (prog-if 00 [HDA compatible])
        Subsystem: Framework Computer Inc. Device 000d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177, IOMMU group 20
        Memory at b0bc8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

c2:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Audio Coprocessor (rev 70)
        Subsystem: Framework Computer Inc. Device 000d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 172, IOMMU group 23
        Memory at b0b80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Memory at 5810000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_acp_pci
        Kernel modules: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x, snd_pci_acp5x, snd_pci_acp6x, snd_acp_pci, snd_rpl_pci_acp6x, snd_pci_ps, snd_sof_amd_renoir, snd_sof_amd_rembrandt, snd_sof_amd_vangogh, snd_sof_amd_acp63, snd_sof_amd_acp70

c2:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Ryzen HD Audio Controller (prog-if 00 [HDA compatible])
        Subsystem: Framework Computer Inc. Device 000d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 178, IOMMU group 24
        Memory at b0bc0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
5

Try setting:
echo "0" | sudo tee /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
before playing anything and see if it sorts it out.

If that does work .. (assuming tuned is being used on your machine)

sudo mkdir -p /etc/tuned/profiles/disable_intel_audio_powersave
printf  "[audio]\\ntimeout=0 \\n" | sudo tee /etc/tuned/profiles/disable_intel_audio_powersave/tuned.conf
echo "disable_intel_audio_powersave" | sudo tee -a /etc/tuned/post_loaded_profile

ref:

6

Thanks, I give it a try. Although this isn’t Intel hardware. Its AMD.

7

The sound driver is intel:


  Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
8

Thanks for your help Joe.
It will be a few hours before we know if it worked or not as the Laptop has to be in idle or Lid closed for a while and then it is random. So it will be multiple tries.

9

It appeared to be working while using notification/video, but I had the lid closed for about 10 minutes and on opening, I got the popping noise again.

10

After opening the lid you may want to
cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
and make sure it’s still 0

It might be changing when it suspends.

11

I just opened the box and it popped. Power save is still zero.

12

There were some package updates and I did a install offline and reboot.
Using Joe’s cat command I checked Powersave and it was back to 10
I have set it back to 0
I might still evoke Joe’s permanent setting as I had a couple of pops while laptop was open and active but no sound was used. This didn’t appear to be happening after setting it to 0.

13

Quick update..
I checked and my Laptop has tuned-ppd installed.
Evoking Joe’s permanent settings and performing a reboot, checking power save again and it now is 0 after reboot.
So far so good :grinning_face:

14

I have have marked Joe’s suggestion as the Solution.
Setting power-save permanently to 0 (zero) has resulted to no more popping noises while no loss to audio.