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Since upgrading to 12.04, I've been having issues with my speakers:

They seem to be making an odd hissing noise (sort of like static) and they sound really tinny.

Is anyone else having these problems or is it just me and is there any way to fix it?

This is a new problem that I've never had until I upgraded yesterday.

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  • I am still having the problem you describe, and I have played with alsamixer as was suggested below. Any tips? Oct 24, 2012 at 3:54

3 Answers 3

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Turning down the mic boost using alsamixer fixed it for me.

To do that, open a terminal (Alt-Control-T will do this) and enter the alsamixer command. Pressing the Tab button brings up "Capture" screen. Use the left and right arrow keys to select the mic boost slider and reduce it with the down arrow key. Press the Esc key to quit alsamixer.

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  • Yep, I sorted it a while back and that's what I did to fix it. Thanks for the input, though! I'm sure it'll help someone along the way! May 23, 2012 at 22:24
  • that didn't work for me Jul 28, 2014 at 17:39
  • Worked for me. If it didn't worked for you, double check that you have chosen the right device (hdmi or analog) pressing F6 and that you have chosen the right microphone, because "Mic" refers to external microphone jack, not to the internal built-in microphone. Here I have 3 controls for Mic: "Mic", "Mic Boost" and "Internal Mic Boost". I set "Mic" to 100 and both "Mic Boost" and "Internal Mic Boost" to 0. It's working fine now.
    – Iacchus
    Feb 6, 2016 at 0:05
  • Ctrl-Alt-T for terminal.... how did I not know this. Thanks!
    – Loaf
    Dec 6, 2017 at 1:44
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I've only been able to diminish the audio static by doing two things. First, lower the PCM volume level to 80ish. Type "alsamixer" into the terminal and arrow over to PCM then arrow down. Also,this. Hope this helps.

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I had the same issue. After playing around with the cables and such, I came to realize that if I remove the power cord from my laptop the static noise completely diminishes. Now, clearly this sucks because it would mean I have to run on battery the whole time, but I'm currently assuming its the actual AC adapter thats causing the problem, since the AC adapter itself tends to make a static noise when the battery is fully charged.

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    Your answer is specific to a laptop model, but you don't know if this applies to the situation described in the question.
    – gertvdijk
    Oct 12, 2013 at 20:38
  • True, but its worth a try, since the alsamixer didn't work for me.
    – noh84
    Oct 14, 2013 at 2:53

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