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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    RetroPie x86 - audio 'pop' when loading games

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    soundpopx86ubuntu
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    • P
      Panja
      last edited by

      Thanks for the reply.
      Unfortunately that doesn't fix it for me.

      Also the problem is on multiple TV's.
      I have 2 TV's and tested on both.

      It's not a show stopper, it's just annoying.
      It's not really a cracking sound it's a (pretty loud) pop sound when the actual game loads.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • P
        Panja
        last edited by

        I don't know if it's related but I'm also seeing an error message when loading games:

        lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - failed to find mixer elements!
        LibationL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • LibationL
          Libation @Panja
          last edited by

          @Panja said in RetroPie x86 - audio 'pop' when loading games:

          failed to find mixer elements!

          Found a link here describing the same error. The user at the bottom of the topic found a solution that worked for them: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11256/failed-to-find-mixer-elements/6

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          • P
            Panja
            last edited by

            Thanks again!
            Already set the Audio Device to PCM.
            Though I did it through Sound Settings in ES menu.
            After checking the file through SSH, it's indeed change to PCM.

            But without luck, problem remains.

            LibationL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • LibationL
              Libation @Panja
              last edited by

              @Panja Is this Stretch or Jessie? My research seems to indicate this issue happened with Jessie, but was fixed with Stretch.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • P
                Panja
                last edited by Panja

                I'm running Ubuntu 18.04.2 (Bionic Beaver), not running Debian or Rasbian.
                (It's running on x86 hardware)

                LibationL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • LibationL
                  Libation @Panja
                  last edited by

                  @Panja Apologies my friend, I've gotta tap out. Beyond my level of knowledge. Hopefully one of the smarter people on this board chime in.

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                  • P
                    Panja
                    last edited by

                    No worries man. Thanks for trying! Appreciated.

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                    • P
                      Panja
                      last edited by Panja

                      I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04.2 and a fresh install of RetroPie.
                      With this new installation I have found the problem (bug?)!

                      When I disable navigation sounds in sounds settings (EmulationStation) the problem returns. When loading a game and the game starts: POP!
                      When I enable navigation sounds in sounds settings (EmulationStation) the problem is gone!

                      To be honest it's a but frustrating because I do not like the navigation sounds in my ES Theme but it's good that I found the problem...

                      [update]
                      Fixed it by creating a silent WAV file and replaced the navigation sound files in:
                      /etc/emulationstation/themes/carbon/art
                      There are 2 WAV files in there which I replaced. Probably only one was the culprit for me but I changed them both.

                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        movisman @Panja
                        last edited by

                        @Panja

                        Had originally replied over on the 18.04.1 thread which you posted on, but will reply here - glad to see you have a workaround for it.

                        I (think) my navigation sounds are turned on, need to check - also the theme I use (Chicuelo) doesn't have any wav files or scrolling sounds though, so I don't think i've ever played around with that setting. I don't get any pop or ALSA errors.

                        Do you still get ALSA related errors with the navigation sounds turned on? Or does that only appear when the option is turned off?

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                        • P
                          Panja
                          last edited by

                          Sorry, been away from the keyboard for a few days.

                          Thanks for your replies!
                          I re-installed and I do not have any errors anymore.
                          Though I still have the POP sound when launching a game.
                          But fixed (workarounded) with a silent WAV file.

                          ParabolaralusP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • ParabolaralusP
                            Parabolaralus @Panja
                            last edited by

                            @Panja said in RetroPie x86 - audio 'pop' when loading games:

                            Sorry, been away from the keyboard for a few days.

                            Thanks for your replies!
                            I re-installed and I do not have any errors anymore.
                            Though I still have the POP sound when launching a game.
                            But fixed (workarounded) with a silent WAV file.

                            Well i switched to Kubuntu 19.04 at work this morning and came across your issue and since i remembered this post thought it would be nice to list my fix.

                            So the issue seems to be that after a few seconds of silence it would put the audio chip in sleep mode causing a pop whenever any audio file was being played afterwords...drove me nuts for the first few minutes setting up this thing and hearing a pop with every ding noise!

                            I came across this when googling it: Pop noise

                            If it goes down do the following:
                            sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

                            and at the very bottom add the following line:
                            options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

                            Then probably reboot.

                            I hadn't been able to reproduce this before because my main machine is AMD and this problem is Intel specific.

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                            • P
                              Panja
                              last edited by

                              Thanks for helping out mate, appreciated!
                              Will have a go with this in a few days and let you know.
                              Cheers.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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