Crackling audio at random times

[Aranath]

I've had an issue with getting random crackling noise from my Deck. It first happened literally when I turned it on for the first time and the initial opening jingle came out all crackly.

It seems to happen randomly but particularly when playing Elden Ring, although I have noticed in other games too. My initial thought was that the speakers were defective but it happens when I have headphones connected to it too.

I've tried searching to see if other people are having a similar issue but I'm not finding much, which makes me wonder if my unit is defective and needs to get RMA'd.

Any thoughts?

[Gerowen]

I was just playing in handheld mode and I'm getting occasional stuttering. It's not a huge issue when handheld because they're sort of micro stutters that only make it cut out for a fraction of a second, and they only go on for a second or two when they happen, but if I had been docked it would have caused the crackling and static from my sound bar. I'm turning the WiFi power management back off.

I've seen mention of this happening after waking from sleep, which I had done. System firmware is latest version available on the stable channel.

[Winnie]

I do still have the crackling on handheld and on the latest preview. It still gets fixed disabling the WiFi Power Management

[SpazShark]

I had crackling in handheld mode as well, even after updating to the latest stable build (3.4.x). Like Winnie and others, disabling WiFi power management seems to have resolved it after testing ~ 4 hours of playing the Witcher 3 (old version).

I do hear the odd single crackle in the system menu, or when the 10% 'low battery' notification pops up. And I think maybe 1 or 2 times I might have heard a single crackle sound in game, but it's basically fixed from what I have seen so far.

[Aloysius]

This is still happening to me me with the most recent update. Very annoying.

[Fauna Doe]

It’s currently happening with our new Steam Deck as well. Crackling happens during all game play, but only while docked. If you play hand held, it’s perfectly alright.

[HouseQuake]

I have experienced crackling audio from a fresh boot (not out of suspend). I went into a game and the audio was crackling, exited the game and the home UI was crackling too. Suspended it, turned it back on - still crackling. Only a full reboot solves it.

To add - when I rebooted it to solve it, the crackling came back about 2hrs later having not suspended it or anything, just through constant use.

[BluePhoenix]

Happening for me as well, to add more specifics.

The audio crackle happens even on the home screen, outside of the game. And this is with the deck connected to the valve deck dock, with audio outputting to HDMI out.

When I use the JSAUX dock, I don't get the crackling. The crackling didn't happen before, and seems to have started (for me) after I updated the firmware on the dock. The dock is connected to Ethernet, but removing that made no difference.

Summary:
- Handheld, no crackle
- Handheld, headphones to audio jack, no crackle
- Docked to JSAUX dock, headphones to audio jack, no crackle
- Docked to JSAUX dock, HDMI out, no crackle
- Docked to the Valve Official dock, headphones to audio jack, no crackle
- Docked to the Valve Official dock, HDMI out, CRACKLE

Also the crackle is a mixture of some popping, but mainly it seems like audio is just skipped and drops off as well.

In a related note, is there anyway to roll back the firmware version of the dock?

Deck OS version 3.4.4 (20221228.1)
Not seeing how to check dock firmware version.

Hope this helps!

[Saint Satan]

Still a bug months later. Seems like Valve has no way to fix it. 😒

[Kad]

still happening.

[francis.cy]

Unfortunately, this is still an issue for me.
Currently on steamOS ver 3.4.4
Playing through Hades and Klonoa and noticing what sounds like audio clipping. However, this doesn't necessarily occur in segments where the audio is particularly busy.
This still occurs on speakers or 3.5mm jack for myself. I'm reluctant to say the issue does not occur with Bluetooth, as I have had prior issues with audio dropout through Bluetooth devices. I've just done another test run and have not noticed anything immediately. but its too early to confirm on that.

[Gerowen]

引用自 francis.cy：

Unfortunately, this is still an issue for me.
Currently on steamOS ver 3.4.4
Playing through Hades and Klonoa and noticing what sounds like audio clipping. However, this doesn't necessarily occur in segments where the audio is particularly busy.
This still occurs on speakers or 3.5mm jack for myself. I'm reluctant to say the issue does not occur with Bluetooth, as I have had prior issues with audio dropout through Bluetooth devices. I've just done another test run and have not noticed anything immediately. but its too early to confirm on that.

The general consensus so far "seems" to be to turn on the developer options, then go into the developer options and disable "WiFi Power Management".

[Saf]

Wifi power management doesn’t seem to work with me but offline mode definitely makes a difference, doesn’t get rid of it completely but seems to be reduced as far as I can tell.

[elfosardo]

still happening for me too, I'm onversion 3.4.4

[Filip]

I experienced a crackling sound in games because I accidentally set a negative latency offset in PulseAudio Volume Control.
How to access the latency offset configuration field in desktop mode: PulseAudio Volume Control / Output Devices / [e.g. ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor Headphones] / Advanced / Latency offset
I accidentally (by scrolling the mouse with the cursor over the field) set the value to -20 for the Headphones device. Having done this, I experienced crackling in games, freezing video on YouTube, and jerky or missing sound in videos in VLC as long as the audio jack was connected. Setting the offset to 0 resolved the issue.

[bigstatik]

Happens randomly to me, usually in games and when docked.