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I dual boot Ubuntu 15 and Windows 10, and I have been having audio issues for a couple of weeks now in both OSs and even sometimes during boot before either OS starts. My laptop's subwoofer makes a crackling or popping noise very much like a Geiger counter at unpredictable intervals. Muting the audio or plugging in headphones does not affect the behaviour. Sometimes the noise will swell and then the audio will cut out entirely. The headphones do not make the noise or drop the normal audio - they're unaffected by the problem. The IR jack on my sound card ordinarily emits a red light, but it doesn't when I'm having this problem. I've disassembled the laptop and checked the connections between the sound card and the mother board, between the subwoofer and the mother board, and between the left and right speakers and the mother board.
Any ideas of what is wrong and how I can fix it?
Robert Warren Gilmore
Posted 2016-03-16T04:38:20.513
Reputation: 41
This kind of noise is often related with defective contacts... but it can be even a random discharge from a capacitor. Meanwhile you wait an answer, try to check again the contacts, the cable and try to see if any capacitor is bubbled or burned. – Hastur – 2016-03-16T05:33:17.670
"The IR jack . . .doesn't when I'm having this problem" so you can see it? You did not even mention the method that it (and the headphones) are connected? So it is connected using optical data transfers? or does the light going off indicate that the audio chip itself is having problems? Are the headpones seperate audio device USB type? or connected the exact same way? Do you disable any aspects of the device that are not presentally in use, like the SPDIF if your not using it, that is easily done in windows? – Psycogeek – 2016-03-16T07:24:25.463
These audio chips do not have a lot of work/processing to do, if the view you have of the light turning off is directally related to the function of the audio chip, then the power for the audio chip (and those capacitors) might be the problem. Really high end motherboards have been going (almost) overboard with that section of the boards with long life caps and isolations. I have never really had a problem with the cheaper ways of driving those audio chip, maybe they know something important about the power for that failing sometimes? – Psycogeek – 2016-03-16T07:29:12.127
@Hastur, I will disassemble it again today, inspect, and post photos. – Robert Warren Gilmore – 2016-03-16T13:24:45.247
@Psycogeek, the headphones are connected to a normal headphone jack with a metal plug, not optical. What I'm calling the IR jack is adjacent to the headphone jack and looks identical except that a red light usually shines inside of the hole. I assume that it is an IR jack, but I might have identified it wrong. I have never used it, but I know that the light inside of it never seems to be shining when the noise is happening. – Robert Warren Gilmore – 2016-03-16T13:29:00.343
@Psycogeek, what I'm calling the IR jack is indeed SPDIF, as it has this symbol next to it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/23913730-png.113013/
I do not make a habit of disabling the SPDIF port or anything else on the sound card. Should I do so for diagnostic reasons?
All i was indicating is you could disable that in the OS, then it does not output there, save a bit of power and save work for the audio chip, hope then it works better. Could a problem exist IN the port? not really but a short of the led that generates the optical output could, back where the actual electrical connections exist. Would you mess around in the audio chip section to try and fix this? I couldnt recommend, but if there was ribbon cables or anything easy to check, the state of the caps around there. I dont know how much you have to lose if something goes wrong. – Psycogeek – 2016-03-16T14:30:28.227