Hi, novice linux user - hoping to find more information about something i ran into 
For the longest time, I've been trying to deal with choppy, crackling audio issues via HDMI from my laptop, as I plug it into my TV. Checked alsamixer, soundcard is recognized as HDA Intel HDMI. pavucontrol recognized the output as well.
Tried random fixes throughout the web, i.e. editing pipewire.conf files, moving it to '/etc/pipewire'. Other 5-10 year old forum posts involved fixes for pulseaudio, to my understanding Zorin uses pipewire instead. All to no avail, and, in retrospect, I should've slowed down before I broke something.
Briefly read that issue might be with NVIDIA. Out of sake of tinkering, went on PRIME Profiles, switched to an performance mode NVIDIA GPU through Nvidia X Server settings, previously being on NVIDIA on-demand mode. (Intel graphics card is greyed out and inaccessible however (?) ). HDMI audio works miles better and just hitches every 10-ish minutes. OK, fine, good enough for me.
But:
I'm concerned if running off of a dedicated GPU is safe long-term... that can't be good. My battery is weak as it is LOL.
My question is - does anyone else have any idea as to what caused this issue to begin with, is it driver issue with NVIDIA and I'd have to switch to an older version (as i run an older-gen GTX980M), or is there something else happening? Also why am I not able to run on power-saving mode on Nvidia X Settings?
--
Here's 'inxi -Fxz' output, if it's any use:
System:
Kernel: 7.0.0-31-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
Desktop: GNOME v: 46.0 Distro: Zorin OS 18.1 base: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Clevo product: P65_P67SG v: N/A
serial:
Mobo: Clevo P65_P67SG model: powered by premamod.com
serial: UEFI: Prema Mod v: 1.03.07PM v2
date: 07/09/2015
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 45.8 Wh (100.0%) condition: 45.8/56.2 Wh (81.5%)
volts: 16.2 min: 14.8 model: Notebook BAT status: full
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-4720HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Haswell rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1925 high: 2590 min/max: 800/3600 cores: 1: 1668 2: 1952
3: 1965 4: 2590 5: 1201 6: 1208 7: 2321 8: 2498 bogomips: 41506
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics
vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GM204M [GeForce GTX 980M] vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
driver: nvidia v: 580.173.02 arch: Maxwell bus-ID: 01:00.0
Device-3: Bison BisonCam NB Pro driver: uvcvideo type: USB bus-ID: 1-10:5
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa dri: crocus
gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,nvidia,swrast platforms:
active: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: wayland,device-1
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.173.02
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M/PCIe/SSE2
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib devices: 3
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio
vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio
vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK 8 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
API: ALSA v: k7.0.0-31-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000
bus-ID: 03:00.1
IF: enp3s0f1 state: down mac:
Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac:
IF-ID-1: lxcbr0 state: down mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
bus-ID: 1-4:4
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes
address:
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 53.06 GiB (4.5%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM014-1EJ164 size: 931.51 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: SanDisk model: X400 M.2 2280 256GB size: 238.47 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 233.18 GiB used: 53.05 GiB (22.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 11.67 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 67.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 49 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 24 GiB available: 23.35 GiB used: 4.33 GiB (18.5%)
Processes: 332 Uptime: 29m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
Packages: 2367 Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34