Troubleshooting

This page will cover some common problems found and the relative solution/workaround.

Hissing noise when using headphones

If you hear some annoying hissing sounds when using headphones, try opening a terminal and typing alsamixer. You should see something like this: Use the arrow buttons for selecting "Headphone Mic" (the third column) and set it to 1 or 2dB, making sure it's not muted (when something is muted in alsamixer there are two MM in the box below the colored column). If it's muted, simply press M.

If it doesn't work, you could try disabling audio power saving simply by editing (as root) /etc/default/tlp and changing this line:

SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT=1

to

SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT=0

Graphic stuttering

If you notice some graphic stuttering and it really bothers you, try first disabling panel self refresh. To do that edit as root /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf, and delete enable_psr=2. The line should be something like:

options i915 enable_fbc=1 enable_guc=-1 disable_power_well=0 fastboot=1

After editing the file, update the kernel boot image by using sudo update-initramfs -u. If the stuttering is still present, disable also the framebuffer compression option, by deleting enable_fbc=1. If neither this fixes the stuttering, simply delete the file (sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf && sudo update-initramfs -u).

Problems with suspend/resume

If you are having troubles with suspend/resume, check your BIOS for the "Force S3" option in the power management section (valid till BIOS 1.2.x), or try updating the kernel using some utilities like UKUU. Check for the mem_sleep_default=deep option in your GRUB config file. Unfortunately, after resuming from suspend, it's common to see higher power consumption, however there's a workaround, though it's rather bothersome. Check here for more details.

Audio cracking/glitches during for example youtube watching

Source: arch linux wiki
To turn timer-based scheduling off add tsched=0 in /etc/pulse/default.pa:

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

Then restart the PulseAudio server:

pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start #(if not started automatically)

Disable Bluetooth at startup

Check here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1035009/how-to-have-bluetooth-disabled-per-default

Enabling AHCI mode for Windows dual booting

In order to install Ubuntu or any Linux distro, you need to set the storage drive to AHCI mode.

Click the start menu, search and run Command Prompt as an admin. Run: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal Reboot. Tap F2 when you see the Dell logo, until it loads the BIOS/UEFI setup. Under Settings, select System Configuration then SATA Operation and enable AHCI mode. Press "Apply", "Save as Custom User Settings?" and then "Exit". Windows will boot into Safemode and will require you to login. Open the Command Prompt as an admin again (Windows + R, type in cmd and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter) Run: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot Reboot.

Brightness control not working

Try adding acpi_backlight=native and thinkpad-acpi.brightness_enable=1 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub. Then run sudo update-grub and reboot. For more details, see here