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Sometimes, for no apparent reason, my audio suddenly goes crazy and a few seconds later, the wireless network stops working. It'll ask me to enter the password for my wireless network, but it won't connect, and after a while -- a minute maybe, I can no longer see any wireless networks. What happens to my audio is that it starts to skip, as if I'm playing a CD with scratches or something, which I'm obviously not. The system is not under a heavy load when this happens, and there is no spike of any kind. The last time it happened, it was running calmly at 0.20. This happens with all kinds of audio, so there's not just an issue with a single program. The exact same thing happens every time, and I know that when the audio goes bananas, I'll have to reboot.

I purchased a new wireless network PCI-e card, a Dlink DWA-556, I think it's called. I've never had this problem in Ubuntu before, but I also purchased that card before 11.10 was released, so I can't say for certain that the card is to blame. I also don't know why a faulty wlan driver would cause problems with audio.

I've searched everywhere, but I can't find any similar complaints. Since I don't know what causes this, I don't know what to look for either, or what to file bugs against. If anyone has heard of similar issues, I would appreciate links. Any suggestions for things I can check when the problem occurs? Leave a comment so I can try, and I'll appreciate it. Am I forgetting something? Let me know! :)


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I get a similar problem with my Bluetooth dongle and it happens on both Ubuntu (11+) and Fedora (15). The only explanation that I can think of is, if the wifi card is faulty (in my case the Bt dongle) the daemon process gets scheduled more frequently which in turn affects the I/O of media apps. I'd say first try getting newer drivers for the card and if that fails then test the card on some other PC. –  funkymonk Dec 8 '11 at 5:48
Are you still experiencing this issue? –  jrg Feb 6 '12 at 15:39
I am, but not so often. –  Jo-Erlend Schinstad Apr 8 '12 at 9:52
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closed as too localized by hbdgaf, Ringtail, jokerdino, RolandiXor, Jorge Castro Aug 23 '12 at 1:17


1 Answer

If it's bluetooth audio, b/g and some of n wlan use the same radio frequency band as bluetooth. Move further from the access point or try changing the channel of the access point to something further to the outside of the 2.4Ghz spectrum.

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No, not bluetooth. –  Jo-Erlend Schinstad Apr 8 '12 at 9:51
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