Have you ever experienced the static sound on Ubuntu when you should have been hearing something (perhaps the start up sound or something) from your speakers? Well, you might think that your sound card has stopped working or something, but as it turns out.. there's a quick way to get your audio back to normal.
It's not that your sound isn't working... it's just "muted" (although I wonder why it makes the static sound instead of being completely quiet...).
To get your sound back here's what you need to do:
- Double click on the speaker icon in the menubar
- Alternatively, you can press Alt+F2 and type in: gnome-volume-control and click 'Run'
Then on the volume control window, choose the appropriate device where it says "Device:" and just turn your "PCM" volume all the way up... if this slider is all the way at the bottom you'll just get static from the speakers instead of sound.
Hope this helps others out there who experience the same audio "stuttering" problem.
Got a question, tip or comment? Send them to beyondteck+question@gmail.com and we'll try to answer it in a blog post!
How weird is that? Thanks! I was going insane...
ReplyDeleteHaha! yeah me too. It took me an hour to figure out why it would just make some stuttering static noises... At first I thought that I might have deleted some kind of sound configuration file or something (because I once deleted network manager.. which was supposed to keep me connected to my wireless internet). But then I realized that right after I switched to KDE from Ubuntu, the same buzzing noise thing happened whenever I would log in. And I rememberd that in order to bring sound back.. i had to tweak the sound configuration. Then I when I switched back to Ubuntu.. at first I thought it was thing same thing... but then it didn't strike me to peek in the sound settings area...
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to see how little things make us go insane.. I can only wonder how Ubuntu programmers feel after they write hours of code only to find that something isn't working because of one little bug somewhere.
Thank You! Though I find it weird why static would come out when it should have no volume at all...
ReplyDeleteSeems to me like the static probably comes out because instead of switching the volume off it switches to some other drivers or something? But alas, it's probably just a bug in the code somewhere.
ReplyDeletefer crap sake... yer right!!! *sighs* bloody computers!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Wonder what caused it..
ReplyDeleteSo glad I found this. I've had it happen before but it's usually the last thing I think to check. This time I googled and found this and remembered right away. As far as why there is static I believe that it is caused by having a very low input(the PCM) on a very "hot" master volume. Not 100% sure but seems like this used to happen when I used to volunteer to run pro audio equipment.
ReplyDeletelol wow, I almost freaked out... had enough issues getting audio to work with 90% awesomeness through Crossover / Wine... I'm glad this is a quick fix that is a known issue!! Now, if only Ubuntu would fix this and make the audio drivers more user friendly (not that I can't handle it, just sayin!!)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was getting ready to start having to reinstall stuff, but decided to google around first. I almost didn't think this would work at first, but I'm glad it did.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
I actually thought about re-installing Ubuntu. How silly would I feel if I did that and THEN found this post! THANKS!!!
ReplyDeletethank you! dunno how my PCM slider got all the way down since sound was working before a reboot and then got the static after, but this did the trick.
ReplyDeleteI had the same symptoms, but my problem was not the PCM level; that was fine.
ReplyDeleteI turned off the front mic, which brought the hissing down a small amount.
Then, while poking around the preferences for the volume control, I saw that something called "Mic Boost" was available but currently not displayed; I enabled that and muted it. That made the hissing totally go away.
I have no idea what made that suddenly act up.
very nice
ReplyDeleteThat's really wierd but thank you so much
ReplyDeleteThis was exactly the advice I needed. Don't know why the PCM slider got set to minimum in the first place, but moving it up solved the problem. Thanks!
ReplyDeletelol Not sure why my PCM slide was down to begin with, but that fixed the problem. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteSame here. Thanks.
ReplyDeletethat is it.thx man..u r the guy..can't sum up your generiousity
ReplyDeleteExact same problem here. I had checked to see if sound was muted - it wasn't - and I hadn't checked the volume controls. Weird. Very helpful page. It was only when I realised there was a static crackle each time there should have been sound that I googled on that and found this page.Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThis didn't work for me with my nVidia onboard sound, but it did make me experiment. I found that if the slider on the sound preferences was anywhere but full, I got static. At 100% it is clear. I just have to control volume from the source or directly on the speakers. This has been driving me nuts, because one time I would have sound, and next time static. Hope this is a permanent fix.
ReplyDelete