Need help to trouble-shoot intermittent sound problems

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1

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version:
24.04.4 LTS (Noble Numbat)

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
KDE Plasma

Problem Description:
I’ve been using a wireless headset for years without issues on 22.04 LTS. Since after upgrading to 24.04 LTS, I’m having an intermittent but recurring problem: I’m in a Teams calls and audio stops suddenly. If nobody’s talking, I may need several seconds to realise I’m not hearing anything being said. To have audio back, I need to switch to another output device (audio comes back immediately) and when I revert to headset audio works normally. It can work fine for 2 weeks in a row, or fail 3 times on the same day.

I know they advise against upgrading LTS and, instead, recommend doing a new install, but this is a company laptop and I work remotely, I can’t afford messing with the operating system.

How do you even start diagnosing this kind of problem?

Relevant System Information:

  • Lenovo ThinkBook 16p G2 ACH laptop
  • Logitech H600 wireless headstep

(Unsure of what else can be relevant).

Screenshots or Error Messages:

When it happens, I see this in /var/log/syslog:

2026-03-12T15:18:13.559220+01:00 REDACTED-agv-2022 pipewire[4201]: spa.alsa: front:1p: (38 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
2026-03-12T15:18:15.562160+01:00 REDACTED-agv-2022 pipewire[4201]: spa.alsa: front:1p: (62 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
2026-03-12T15:18:17.578237+01:00 REDACTED-agv-2022 pipewire[4201]: spa.alsa: front:1p: (62 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe

2026-03-13T11:11:16.511510+01:00 REDACTED-agv-2022 pipewire[5229]: spa.alsa: front:1p: (62 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
2026-03-13T11:12:19.007815+01:00 REDACTED-agv-2022 pipewire[5229]: message repeated 31 times: [ spa.alsa: front:1p: (62 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe]

What I’ve Tried:
Nothing yet.

2

I’ve also seen this other message, though it looks way less frequent:

pipewire-pulse[4393]: mod.protocol-pulse: client 0x5f2b03e09b90 [Plasma PA]: ERROR command:-1 (invalid) tag:347 error:25 (Input/output error)
3

This might be a USB autosuspend issue. Please paste the output of

for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/; do echo "$d: $(cat ${d}idVendor 2>/dev/null):$(cat ${d}idProduct 2>/dev/null) -> $(cat ${d}power/control 2>/dev/null)" done

To see if autosuspend is enabled for the H600 device.

4 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-0:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/: 05e3:0610 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3/: 0b05:19fc -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3:1.2/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3:1.3/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3:1.4/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4/: 1532:00a3 -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4:1.2/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3/: 8087:0029 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-4/: 04f3:0c4b -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-4:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-0:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-2/: 05e3:0620 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-2:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-0:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1/: 1a40:0101 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1/: 05e3:0610 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1.3/: 1050:0407 -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1.3:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1.3:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.1.3:1.2/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.2/: 25a4:9311 -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-1.2:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2/: 046d:0a29 -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2:1.2/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2:1.3/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-3/: 30c9:0030 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-3:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-3:1.1/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-4/: 048d:c916 -> on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-4:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-0:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-1/: 05e3:0626 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-1:1.0/: : -> 
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb1/: 1d6b:0002 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb2/: 1d6b:0003 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb3/: 1d6b:0002 -> auto
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb4/: 1d6b:0003 -> auto

According to https://devicehunt.com/view/type/usb/vendor/046D/device/0A29 my device is this one:

/sys/bus/usb/devices/3-2/: 046d:0a29 -> on
5

Hm, so it’s not autosuspending. Please share the outputs of,

pipewire --version

pw-metadata -n settings 0

pw-cli list-objects Node

aplay -l
6 
pipewire --version

pipewire
Compiled with libpipewire 1.0.5
Linked with libpipewire 1.0.5

pw-metadata -n settings 0

Found "settings" metadata 31
update: id:0 key:'log.level' value:'2' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.rate' value:'48000' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.allowed-rates' value:'[ 48000 ]' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.quantum' value:'2048' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.min-quantum' value:'1024' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.max-quantum' value:'4096' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.force-quantum' value:'0' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.force-rate' value:'0' type:''

pw-cli list-objects Node

        id 29, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "29"
                factory.id = "10"
                priority.driver = "20000"
                node.name = "Dummy-Driver"
        id 30, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "30"
                factory.id = "10"
                priority.driver = "19000"
                node.name = "Freewheel-Driver"
        id 36, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "59"
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:1:front:1:playback"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "50"
                priority.session = "1009"
                priority.driver = "1009"
                node.description = "H600 [Wireless Headset] Analog Stereo"
                node.name = "alsa_output.usb-Logitech_Logitech_Wireless_Headset_4473D637443E-00.analog-stereo"
                node.nick = "Logitech Wireless Headset"
                media.class = "Audio/Sink"
        id 44, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "44"
                factory.id = "10"
                client.id = "40"
                priority.session = "100"
                priority.driver = "1"
                node.name = "Midi-Bridge"
                media.class = "Midi/Bridge"
        id 52, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "52"
                object.path = "v4l2:/dev/video0"
                factory.id = "10"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "47"
                priority.session = "1000"
                node.description = "Integrated Camera (V4L2)"
                node.name = "v4l2_input.pci-0000_05_00.4-usb-0_3_1.0"
                node.nick = "Integrated Camera"
                media.class = "Video/Source"
                media.role = "Camera"
        id 55, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "61"
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:2:front:2:playback"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "51"
                priority.session = "1009"
                priority.driver = "1009"
                node.description = "Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo"
                node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.6.analog-stereo"
                node.nick = "ALC287 Analog"
                media.class = "Audio/Sink"
        id 56, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "62"
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:2:front:2:capture"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "51"
                priority.session = "2009"
                priority.driver = "2009"
                node.description = "Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo"
                node.name = "alsa_input.pci-0000_05_00.6.analog-stereo"
                node.nick = "ALC287 Analog"
                media.class = "Audio/Source"
        id 57, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "60"
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:1:hw:1:capture"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "50"
                priority.session = "2000"
                priority.driver = "2000"
                node.description = "H600 [Wireless Headset] Mono"
                node.name = "alsa_input.usb-Logitech_Logitech_Wireless_Headset_4473D637443E-00.mono-fallback"
                node.nick = "Logitech Wireless Headset"
                media.class = "Audio/Source"
        id 58, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3
                object.serial = "58"
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:hdmi:0:playback"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "40"
                device.id = "49"
                priority.session = "696"
                priority.driver = "696"
                node.description = "GA106 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)"
                node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo"
                node.nick = "BenQ PD2700U"
                media.class = "Audio/Sink"

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [BenQ PD2700U]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Headset [Logitech Wireless Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC287 Analog [ALC287 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Also, earlier today I found https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=292316 with similar error messages and I made these changes since they looked harmless enough (at least to my inexperienced opinion):

mkdir ~/.config/pipewire
cp /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire.conf ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf

Then increase some defaults:

context.properties = {
    default.clock.quantum       = 2048
    default.clock.min-quantum   = 1024
    default.clock.max-quantum   = 4096

And finally:

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

I haven’t had the chance to figure out whether they make any difference.