Dell monitor audio devices periodically turn off and on

[Olli]

there are a lot of possible issues. this could be one of them. another one that is worth to check and exclude from the list is your bios. it’s from 2021. is a newer one avaiable? check the manufacturer if a newer one exists.

UEFI: INSYDE v: 03.07 date: 12/14/2021

one thing you could check is the following. use an editor and edit the
/etc/default/grub
in the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="

add the following to the existing entries

intel_iommu=off

you need sudo rights for editing. kate is a good editor that will ask for sudo-password if you wanna store the file back.
after editing run

sudo mkinitcpio -P
sudo update-grub

reboot and check if there is a change in behaviour. keep in mind this is just a test. to undo the setting reverse it by deleting the added entry and run the

sudo mkinitcpio -P
sudo update-grub

again

[n2o]

@Olli

there are a lot of possible issues. this could be one of them. another one that is worth to check and exclude from the list is your bios. it’s from 2021. is a newer one avaiable? check the manufacturer if a newer one exists.

UEFI: INSYDE v: 03.07 date: 12/14/2021

Unfortunately no. I checked with fwupd. To be honest, I’m overall not too impressed by the laptop. The display was faulty on delivery and the wifi signal is terrible. I bought it because Cory Doctorow has it and said it’s cool :o)

one thing you could check…

Consider me impressed! With this the issue is actually gone :-o

you need sudo rights for editing. kate is a good editor that will ask for sudo-password if you wanna store the file back.

Thank you for that tip too. I usually use nano for these sudo edits but as a matter of fact I just ditched sublime edit as my last proprietary software for kate when I switched to KDE a while ago. I really love it so far - just like the rest of Plasma. Lots of attention to detail.

So leaving iommu off is probably not a good option, hm? I think I should replace the laptop with a desktop machine. It constantly boots to the internal screen anyway and I have it stowed under my desk so that’s a pain every time.

[Olli]

@n2o

Consider me impressed! With this the issue is actually gone :-o

well let’s try something else. you edit the grub file as before, replace the

intel_iommu=off

with

intel_iommu=on,igfx_off

run the

sudo mkinitcpio -P
sudo update-grub

and check this setting. if this setting works also then stay on this otherwise return to the

intel_iommu=off

always remember to run

sudo mkinitcpio -P
sudo update-grub

after editing the grub file.
please report

[n2o]

Happy to report that this also works! Also, the monitor now gained another higher resolution setting with 75Hz refresh rate

Would it be ok for you to give me a small summary of what just happened and how you got the idea?

But anyway: thank you very much!

[Olli]

it’s always good to give a summary for others that might read this topic in future because they suffer the same or similar problem.
keep in mind that this problem seems to be related to the implementation of the linux-firmware and the intel-cpu. this might change in future. therefore it’s good to test if newer kernels and firmware will solve it in future. undo the changes after upgrades to newer kernels and test if it runs without problems otherwise use this method to override the problem.