Noise from speakers is extremely loud and unpredictable.
Noise from speakers is extremely loud and unpredictable.
Last week I switched to Linux on my desktop computer (I’ve been using it on my laptop and NUC for over a year now). After that, very infrequently—just once this week, though it’s been increasing lately, possibly triggered by audio being idle—I began noticing a really intense static or white noise coming from the speakers. My system specs are: 7800x3d, 3080Ti processor, 32GB RAM, 2TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD, 1050W power supply, ROG STRIX X670E-E motherboard with BIOS v1709. The operating system is EndeavourOS (64-bit), running GNOME 45.1 and PipeWire. The speakers are a 5.1 Sony home theater set connected via S/PDIF optical. Over the past three years with these speakers, this issue hasn’t occurred on Windows before. The noise emerges at full volume, ignoring any default output settings or mute options. It only stops when I power off and back it on. dmesg and journalctl show no useful details. I’ve attached a recording of the sound. [Warning] It’s incredibly loud—damaging to ears and speakers. It starts around about 2 seconds into a ~2s audio file.
You likely have an unstable connection or something failing. Check for issues by moving around the cables and connectors to identify the source. A light tapping on the devices might also reveal if the problem lies with a speaker.
No signal problems, all cables inspected again. A device failing isn't excluded, but I prefer to eliminate every possible software-related issue before purchasing new speakers or anything similar. Sound quality isn't inexpensive. No grounding concerns. And no electrical differences between the three years of using these speakers on Windows versus this week on Linux.
Additional studies suggest the problem might stem from the Realtek ALC4080 chip on my X670E-E motherboard, possibly when using S/PDIF. It seems Windows handled it fine during the first week I had the board before switching to Linux because official drivers were already available. Unfortunately, those drivers don’t work on Linux. Excluding SPDIF isn’t an option since the receiver lacks analog input alternatives. There are no software solutions currently that would avoid purchasing new speakers with analog input or a separate sound card. Audio remains costly.
Hi @Redeven I’m facing the same motherboard issue and also experiencing loud random static sounds. It seems the problem might be related to the motherboard or its drivers. I’m using Windows 10 with analog 7.1 headphones. The only way to silence it temporarily is switching the default audio output device in Windows settings, then back to my preferred one. I’m considering disabling and re-enabling it if that helps. Have you discovered a fix for this yet? 20231216_141606.mp4