ALSA issue: stuttering audio on pause (mplayer, audacious, et al.)

Question

Hi
I have the following problem with ALSA on my laptop: When I try to pause a video or an audio file in mplayer or audacious, both mplayer and audacious begin to stutter and repeat the last bit (probably the last sample) over and over again. The same happens in firefox, when I try to close a tab (or window) which plays some audio (both html5 and flash).
Firefox and mplayer do not give me any information on the command line, but audacious reports:
alsa.c:356 [alsa_open_audio]: Opening PCM device default for S16_LE, 2 channels, 44100 Hz.
alsa.c:391 [alsa_open_audio]: Buffer: hardware 255 ms, software 250 ms, period 21 ms.
alsa.c:244 [pump_start]: Starting pump.
output.c:177 [set_gain]: Replay Gain info:
output.c:178 [set_gain]: album gain: 0,000000 dB
output.c:179 [set_gain]: album peak: 0,000000
output.c:180 [set_gain]: track gain: 0,000000 dB
output.c:181 [set_gain]: track peak: 0,000000
mpg123.c:372 [mpg123_playback_worker]: starting decode
alsa.c:263 [start_playback]: Starting playback.
ALSA lib pcm.c:7339:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
ALSA lib pcm.c:7339:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
ALSA lib pcm.c:7339:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
alsa.c:606 [alsa_pause]: Pause.
alsa: snd_pcm_pause failed: Eingabe-/Ausgabefehler.
alsa.c:627 [alsa_pause]: Trying to work around broken pause.
I'm only using ALSA for audio playback, not pulseaudio or any other soundserver, so I guess that the problem is probably due to some misconfiguration in ALSA. 
aplay -l gives me:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
I have the following audio-related modules loaded:
snd_hda_codec_realtek 92495 1
snd_hda_codec_si3054 2898 1
snd_hda_intel 20112 1
snd_hda_codec 79405 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_pcm 60499 3 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_si3054
snd_page_alloc 5901 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 4970 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 15158 1 snd_pcm
snd 45013 9 snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_realtek
soundcore 4986 1 snd
Any ideas of how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

For some strange reason the problem has begun recurring after about 20 minutes. I did not upgrade or change any files. This is truly strange.
Any other recommendations?
/proc/asound/cards
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xdb320000 irq 49
/etc/asound.conf
# Use PulseAudio by default
pcm.!default {
type pulse
fallback "sysdefault"
hint {
show on
description "Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)"
ctl.!default {
type pulse
fallback "sysdefault"
# vim:set ft=alsaconf:
aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
PulseAudio Sound Server
default
Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
Last edited by ArchMed (2012-02-26 18:20:11)