maybe this helps or gives a hint: here is a solution that (partially) solved the sound problems on my dell inspiron mini 1010 xubuntu 14.04: i installed VLC and made it the standard player for video & audio. in the audio settings of VLC i had to chose manually ALSA as my output module! AND (very important in my case): as device i chose HDA Intel MID, ALC269 analog front speakers!!!
BUT: when i start my dell i FIRST have to PLAY ONCE AN AUDIO OR VIDEO FILE WITH VLC to have normal functioning sound from then on everywhere: in parole, gmusicbrowser, firefox/youtube... IF i play any kind of file right after start up with parole or gmusic, i get the describes glitches, crackles and underruns. this shows me that ALSA is not or at least not correctly loaded into the system at start up, only after VLC has been run once...! -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1251399 Title: [Inspiron 1010, Realtek ALC269, Speaker, Internal] Sound is distorted Status in “alsa-driver” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: Went to ubuntu-bug last night, everything worked great after (audio). Today the sound became choppy and distorted again. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-33.48~precise1-generic 3.8.13.11 Uname: Linux 3.8.0-33-generic i686 NonfreeKernelModules: wl AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k3.8.0-33-generic. ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6 Architecture: i386 ArecordDevices: **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: adam 1582 F.... pulseaudio Card0.Amixer.info: Card hw:0 'MID'/'HDA Intel MID at 0xd83a0000 irq 22' Mixer name : 'Silicon Image SiI1392 HDMI' Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,102802c6,00100004 HDA:10951392,ffffffff,00100000' Controls : 27 Simple ctrls : 10 Date: Thu Nov 14 13:48:33 2013 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20130820.1) MarkForUpload: True PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: alsa-driver Symptom: audio Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:MID successful Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel MID Symptom_Jack: Speaker, Internal Symptom_PulsePlaybackTest: PulseAudio playback test successful Symptom_Type: Digital clip or distortion, or "overdriven" sound Title: [Inspiron 1010, Realtek ALC269, Speaker, Internal] Sound is distorted UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) dmi.bios.date: 02/27/2009 dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.bios.version: A03 dmi.board.name: 0R990K dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.board.version: A03 dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ********** dmi.chassis.type: 8 dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.chassis.version: A03 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA03:bd02/27/2009:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1010:pvrA03:rvnDellInc.:rn0R990K:rvrA03:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA03: dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1010 dmi.product.version: A03 dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1251399/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp

