Ticking sound on speakers

Question

There's a really annoying ticking sound coming from my speakers that started yesterday. When you plug headphones in, it comes through the headphones too. Any idea what it could be?

Answer 1

usually a ticking sound is caused by a capacitor going bad or an arcing across circuits in your sound chips. It is highly unlikely to be caused by software. I am a repair technician and I have frankly never seen ticking caused by software. Try checking the speakers plugs and see if they are seated properly in the motherboard jacks. Are they clean? Do you get strange sounds when you touch them? Clean the plugs with a napkin before reinserting them. Try hooking your speakers to another computer to see if they have a bad capacitor making the ticking. Look inside your computer and see if any wires are laying on the motherboard. If you are using a soundcard, unplug it and very gently clean the gold connectors with a soft pink eraser then reseat it.
Is there a lot of static in the area around your computer? Fluffy pile carpet or anything like that? I always recommend to people that they buy a can of anti static spray and use it once in a while all around their computer if they have any carpeting. And very lightly mist the computer housing as well. Static can wreak havoc with soundcards and motherboards.

Answer 2

Just wanted to share this since this thread is the first that appeared when I Googled "Ubuntu ticking"... This is a known issue with Ubuntu and some Intel hardware. I had this issue on my Acer netbook and also on a Toshiba laptop, both exhibited the same symptoms and the problem was not present with Windows installed. Check the post below for a fix, it worked for me on both devices.

https://askubuntu.com/a/195800