Comment 18 for bug 532586

I don't know if this will help at all but this is what cat /var/log/syslog | grep pulseaudio outputs (special lines marked with => and explained below):

=> May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay() devolvió un valor que es excepcionalmente grande: 384788 bytes (2181 ms).
=> May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Lo más probable es que sea un error del controlador ALSA «snd_cmipci». Por favor, informe esto a los desarrolladores de ALSA.
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Hooks PCM
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 16384
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 8192
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 185759
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 15503
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 1073741824
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 1073741824
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'C-Media CMI8738' device 2 subdevice 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 16384
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 8192
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 185759
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 15503
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 1073741824
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 1073741824
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 4457581
May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 4361384

=> May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay() devolvió un valor que es excepcionalmente grande: 384788 bytes (2181 ms).

This one means that snd_pcm_delay() returned an exceptionally big value: 384788 bytes (2181 ms).

=> May 7 17:50:15 deepblue pulseaudio[9676]: alsa-util.c: Lo más probable es que sea un error del controlador ALSA «snd_cmipci». Por favor, informe esto a los desarrolladores de ALSA.

And this one means that probably this is an ALSA «snd_cmipci» driver error. Last sentence is "report ALSA developers".