I’ve been having this problem ever since I switched to Pipewire on my computer, and none of the troubleshooting steps I found helped mitigate it (including the crackling troubleshooting guide, if anyone was wondering).
The main problem is that, once every few minutes, for no discernible reason, the audio on my system gets cut off for about half a second, and then continues playing. It doesn’t reset my audio devices or anything of the sort, everything looks fine from my end, there’s just a strange, really short break on the audio I hear.
I have also had crackling, which the troubleshooting guide did fix, but this problem has remained despite my attempts to fix it. I’m using my monitor’s audio jack for this, but it seems to happen regardless of which audio output I use.
For completeness, here’s the inxi output:
inxi -Fza
System:
Kernel: 6.12.25-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64
root=UUID=4b8c4244-710c-44f9-8640-442d9fdd303f rw quiet splash
udev.log_priority=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.13.0
wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: B550M-HDV serial: <superuser required>
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: P1.90
date: 08/09/2021
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 2
level: v3 note: check built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7 (7nm)
family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 0x8701034
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 6 threads: 12 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 384 KiB desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB
desc: 6x512 KiB L3: 32 MiB desc: 2x16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3867 min/max: 550/4208 boost: enabled scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 3867 2: 3867 3: 3867
4: 3867 5: 3867 6: 3867 7: 3867 8: 3867 9: 3867 10: 3867 11: 3867 12: 3867
bogomips: 86269
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP
protection
Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: Safe RET
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; STIBP:
always-on; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
v: 570.144 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 550-570.xx+
status: current (as of 2025-04; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Pascal code: GP10x
process: TSMC 16nm built: 2016-2021 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 05:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:1c82 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Microdia Dual Mode Camera (8006 VGA) driver: hid-generic,usbhid
type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-3:2
chip-ID: 0c45:8006 class-ID: 0301
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch
display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 101 s-size: 483x272mm (19.02x10.71")
s-diag: 554mm (21.82")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: Philips PHL 221V8
serial: <filter> built: 2021 res: N/A dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2
size: 477x268mm (18.78x10.55") diag: 547mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0
drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: nouveau device: 2 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia
surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 570.144
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
memory: 3.91 GiB
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 5 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti driver: nvidia v: 570.144 device-ID: 10de:1c82
surfaces: xcb,xlib
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 05:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fb9 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 07:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: JMTek LLC. USB PnP Audio Device
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-4:3 chip-ID: 0c76:161e class-ID: 0300
API: ALSA v: k6.12.25-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
Server-3: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek 802.11ac NIC driver: rtl8821cu type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-2:2 chip-ID: 0bda:c811
class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
IF: wlp7s0f3u2 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: tailscale0 state: unknown speed: -1 duplex: full mac: N/A
Info: services: NetworkManager, smbd, sshd, systemd-timesyncd
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 838.46 GiB (87.9%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: A-Data model: SX6000LNP
size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: V9002s45 temp: 47.9 C
scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 149.62 GiB size: 146.21 GiB (97.72%)
used: 120.02 GiB (82.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 1 GiB size: 1023 MiB (99.80%)
used: 296 KiB (0.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-3: /home raw-size: 782 GiB size: 768.66 GiB (98.29%)
used: 716.63 GiB (93.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 20 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 21.25 GiB used: 1.81 GiB (8.5%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 62.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 41 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 25%
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.27 GiB used: 8.7 GiB (27.8%)
Processes: 395 Power: uptime: 1h 3m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
suspend, test_resume image: 12.48 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
tool: systemctl
Packages: 1878 pm: pacman pkgs: 1824 libs: 464 tools: pamac,yay
pm: flatpak pkgs: 54 Compilers: clang: 19.1.7 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
default: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.38