Audio hum when idle

[roobunya]

Hi,

First time post. I’ve tried a number of configurations to get rid of this hum. I can’t do it and need help.

Issue:
When my laptop boots up and there is no audio being played, there is a hum at 160Hz.

Points of interest:

• This only happens when external amplified speakers are plugged into the standard audio 3.5mm jack
• As far as I can tell, the hum kicks in once the audio hardware goes idle.
• If a notification sound happens, the hum stops for 7 seconds and then continues.
• If I’m using an audio application of any sort, the hum is gone.
• If I open the EOS sound settings, the hum is gone.

Initial Help:
Can someone tell me how to monitor what is going into idle? I believe the system is running pipewire-pulse.

Here is the list of packages from pacman:
extra/paprefs 1.2-1
Configuration dialog for PulseAudio
extra/pavucontrol 1:5.0+r61+gee77d86-2 [installed]
PulseAudio Volume Control
extra/pipewire-alsa 1:0.3.64-1 [installed]
Low-latency audio/video router and processor - ALSA configuration
extra/pipewire-pulse 1:0.3.64-1 [installed]
Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement
extra/plasma-pa 5.26.5-1 (plasma)
Plasma applet for audio volume management using PulseAudio
extra/pulseaudio 16.1-3
A featureful, general-purpose sound server

Any help is appreciated.

[Echoa]

You have a ground loop or noise on your laptops audio circuit, its just hidden during other times.

You can disable suspending the audio device by editing wireplumber alsa configuration.

cp -r /usr/share/wireplumber ~/.config/

go into the .config/wireplumber/main.lua.d directory that is now in your home folder and edit the 50-alsa-config.lua file

near the bottom remove the -- from ["node.pause-on-idle"] and have it equal false

you can also set session.suspend-timout-seconds to 0

save and restart, suspending will be disabled for the audio devices

[roobunya]

Hi Echoa and thanks for your reply.

I have tried an audio isolation transformer before and it didn’t fix it.
I copied the lua files as suggested. The alsa config file already had the pause-on-idle set to false. I changed the session.suspend-timeout-seconds to 0 because it was on 5.

After a reboot it continues to hum

Is there a way to read the currently applied values?

Thanks again.

[Echoa]

@roobunya

Is there a way to read the currently applied values?

If you followed the directions suspend is disabled, idk about checking the values but shouldn’t need to as that’s how I set it for my USB DAC.

Something else is causing the hum, have you tried any other powered speakers? If the noise is in your speakers power supply or amp that could cause it.

How high do you have the speakers volume?

Edit: there’s likely a way with pw-cli I just have never needed to know how

https://docs.pipewire.org/page_man_pw_cli_1.html

Or wireplumber

https://pipewire.pages.freedesktop.org/wireplumber/daemon-logging.html

[roobunya]

Interesting Echoa.
I didn’t know about pw-cli.
The “module-unload” feature has not been implemented yet I tried to unload the suspend module.
It does give information about the device:

	id: 78
	permissions: rwxm
	type: PipeWire:Interface:Device/3
*	properties:
*		api.acp.auto-port = "false"
*		api.acp.auto-profile = "false"
*		api.alsa.card = "2"
*		api.alsa.card.longname = "DellInc.-G77700--06YKK0"
*		api.alsa.card.name = "sof-hda-dsp"
*		api.alsa.path = "hw:2"
*		api.alsa.use-acp = "true"
*		api.dbus.ReserveDevice1 = "Audio2"
*		device.api = "alsa"
*		device.bus = "pci"
*		device.bus-path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic"
*		device.description = "Comet Lake PCH cAVS"
*		device.enum.api = "udev"
*		device.icon-name = "audio-card-analog-pci"
*		device.name = "alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic"
*		device.nick = "sof-hda-dsp"
*		device.plugged.usec = "7867814"
*		device.product.id = "0x06c8"
*		device.product.name = "Comet Lake PCH cAVS"
*		device.subsystem = "sound"
*		device.sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card2"
*		device.vendor.id = "0x8086"
*		device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
*		media.class = "Audio/Device"
*		factory.id = "14"
*		client.id = "85"
*		object.id = "78"
*		object.serial = "563"
*		object.path = "alsa:pcm:2"
*		alsa.card = "2"
*		alsa.card_name = "sof-hda-dsp"
*		alsa.long_card_name = "DellInc.-G77700--06YKK0"
*		alsa.driver_name = "snd_soc_skl_hda_dsp"
*		device.string = "2"

I haven’t looked at the daemon-logging yet. Will do.

[Melways]

Some basic things to try that may help:

Try using a powerstrip to plug in the speakers and not the power outlet directly.

Make sure the speakers are not close to other electronics - if the speakers are not shielded this may cause hum. But probably not at 160hz?

Also note: You have an amplifier on the computer and one in the speakers.
Such a setup you may need to keep the volume low in Linux.

’

device.plugged.usec = “7867814”

Seems to fit with about 7 seconds, but I don’t know if you can change it or if it will help. Maybe some wiser people on the forum could shed some light on this.

Welcome to the Endeavour OS forums

[Echoa]

@Melways

Also note: You have an amplifier on the computer and one in the speakers.
Such a setup you may need to keep the volume low in Linux.

This is what I’m thinking it is, the question is whether its the speakers amp or the PCs introducing the noise

@Melways

Make sure the speakers are not close to other electronics - if the speakers are not shielded this may cause hum. But probably not at 160hz?

It would be 60hz in the United States and maybe Canada but I’m not positive for other countries but I doubt 160hz. When you have fixed frequency noise its usually hardware related in some way, the question is which hardware? Mine for instance is my speakers amp if I don’t limit their volume.

[roobunya]

Hi Melways and thanks for the welcome and reply.

I’ve used this setup in a few locations around the house and it is the same.
They are Edifier PC Speakers and are therefore designed for how I am using them.
Interesting spotting of the device.plugged.usec value. I’ll check this out thanks.

I don’t have time right now but will come back to this. This has been an issue for years so…

[roobunya]

@Echoa

It would be 60hz in the United States and maybe Canada but I’m not positive for other countries but I doubt 160hz. When you have fixed frequency noise its usually hardware related in some way, the question is which hardware? Mine for instance is my speakers amp if I don’t limit their volume.

It’s absolutely 160Hz. I used a spectrum analyzer on my phone and also just checked by listening to 60Hz and 160Hz on YouTube.

It’s a strange frequency that’s for sure.

What I haven’t put in this post yet is that there is another computer in the house that seems to do the same thing! Also, if the computer has Windows on it, it doesn’t do it.

Don’t worry, I’ll never go back to stupid-looking Windows ever again.

[Echoa]

@roobunya

What I haven’t put in this post yet is that there is another computer in the house that seems to do the same thing! Also, if the computer has Windows on it, it doesn’t do it.

If 2 computers do it this could be something in the environment.

The problem with Linux and audio drivers is very few if not no manufacturers make audio drivers for Linux. Some audio devices have quirks or the ability to eliminate certain small issues when using windows drivers but Linux doesn’t have that luxury.

So to get to the bottom of this

Are the computers the same model?
Do they use the same audio codec?
Do they use the same equipment (speakers,etc)
Are they on the same circuit or different ones?

Any information you can provide about commonality between the 2 systems that do it can help narrow down the suspects.

[joekamprad]

i would also check alsamixer could be muting unused channels can help or it has some setting like automute disabled…

[Echoa]

Good suggestion, i forgot about alsa as i cant use it for my DAC XP
Though still there shouldnt be noise on a muted output