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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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    • Panja
      Panja last edited by

      Every time when the actual game is loaded you hear a brief 'POP' out of my speakers.
      I have this with every game tested.

      Running Ubuntu 18.0.4.2 with the latest RetroPie, hardware is connected to my TV through HDMI.

      Anyone know how to fix this?

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

        Any one have a clue?

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

          @Panja I used to have my Retropie connected to a monitor with built in speakers, had the same issue. I turned down the Retropie volume a bit, helped a little. Switched to a different monitor, issue went away. Do you have another screen you could test it on? Check out this link, might provide a solution: https://dbader.org/blog/crackle-free-audio-on-the-raspberry-pi-with-mpd-and-pulseaudio Scroll down to read: Update: The problem seems to be fixed
          EDIT - Please back up your system before trying anything from this page, just in case something goes wrong. Not sure if this works for x86 retropie.

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          • Panja
            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.

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            • Panja
              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!
              Libation 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Libation
                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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                • Panja
                  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.

                  Libation 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Libation
                    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.

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                    • Panja
                      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)

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

                          No worries man. Thanks for trying! Appreciated.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Panja
                            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.

                            movisman 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • movisman
                              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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                              • Panja
                                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.

                                Parabolaralus 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Parabolaralus
                                  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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                                  • Panja
                                    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.

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