Speakers make tiny crackle noise every second, then trackpad stops working on a Dell Studio XPS 1640

So for the past few days, an issue has arisen that can't be ignored anymore with Ubuntu 12.04 on my Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptop. I've had 12.04 installed on it for months with no problems until recently.

Now, randomly occurring, my internal speakers will sometimes beging a routine of consistent (every 1.2 seconds or so) cracking/popping/clicking (no idea how to describe, it's kind of that sound you hear when your speakers go 'oh, I'm about to play some sound,' like a sound is TRYING to be played, but can't get out), even if the speaker volume is at 0 or muted entirely. Changing the sound volume does not change anything about this click noise.

I've also noticed that about 90% of the time, this sound is a precursor to my trackpad simply stopping working (the computer itself still remains operative though, as about 99% of the time, I can still use the keyboard). If I plug in a USB mouse, it still works fine.

Is there some sort of issue with my trackpad driver? I'm not sure what driver Ubuntu uses by default when detecting all of its hardware upon installation. Synaptic?

Any help would be greatly appreciated; thanks!

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2 Answers

OP's question first:

The ticking is most probably caused by one of three factors:

• PulseAudio/Alsa problem, but muting should usually fix that
• Driver/hardware problem, e.g. with the Realtek codec chip -- not fixable without further troubleshooting, may not even be fixable.
• Electrical/RF interference issue, like the clicking you hear in unshielded speakers when a GSM cell phone is nearby and is transmitting/receiving -- this would be the most likely explanation considering that a touchpad failure always follows. Perhaps something wrong with the touchpad's USB or PS/2 connection, or its driver?

Your (function)'s issue:

Since you're sure this seems to be a Google Chrome issue, you should check by installing the pavucontrol package, starting Pulse Audio Volume Control and Chrome, and checking to see if you see sources like the below in the Playback tab, along with associated VU meter activity:

• If you see any, try with Chromium too and consider filing a bug.
• If not, this may not be a Chrome issue and you may have problems similar to the OP's.

There is a bug report on Launchpad, but nothing has been done! For me, the crackling sound is every 2 seconds, but I don't have touchpad problems...

Edit: By the way, this happened to me after a fresh Ubuntu 12.04 CD install.

Second Edit: This is happening to me again!

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