Windows 10: Consistent audio popping and crackling whenever playing any video or media

I have been having consistent audio crackling issues I thought it was my headphones but I do not think that is the case I've tried uninstalling all of my drivers in the device manager I've tried using different headphones I've tried wired and Wireless Nothing Stops the audio correctly I've tried it on different browsers I've tried browsers and safe mode I've tried browsers and troubleshoot mode I've tried playing video files I've tried many different headsets and I still haven't been able to get any closer to fix itThe issue itself always presents itself the exact same way whenever I'm startin

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Crackle/Popping Sound When Playing Audio + Stuttering Video Games

I just built a PC:

• ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-H GAMING
  
• Intel i7 8700k
  
• EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 FTW 8 GB
  
• Corsair RMx Series, RM750x 750w
  
• Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD
  
• Seagate 2 TB FireCuda Gaming SSHD
  
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200 MHz
  
• Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
  

Not currently OC'd, default specs.

Whenever I play audio (YouTube, foobar, VLC player, video games) I can hear a popping/crackling sound whenever I start or stop it. It's like the small crackle sound you hear when you plug in headphones/speakers. This also happens during playback, although not randomly – it's usually a specific part of the audio/video file that causes the popping. I can even find the particular "pop" spot and replay it.

Additionally, whenever I'm playing a video game I get random frame skips at random intervals. This happens in all my video games – WoW, Subnautica, Fallout 4, Dark Souls 3.

Originally I had the ASUS Prime z370-A which I thought to be the issue. But I replaced it with the ROG Strix and I can still hear the popping/crackling and the frame skips still happen.

Does anyone have experience with this issue? This is my first build over $1k and I'm very distressed that I cannot find the problem. Could it be the hard drives? RAM, maybe?

 

Having issues with crackling/popping audio on W10

Hi. So I've been having a hard time trying to resolve an issue with crackling and popping audio that's been plaguing me for quite some time now. The crackling is only present when sound/music is playing. If nothing is running or playing then there is 0 crackling
or popping. When I move the volume slider up and down in Youtube or Spotify the crackling can be heard clearly. Same goes for playing and pausing a video and audio. All of which where not present until I updated to a newer version of Windows (1903). I have
since updated my Windows to 2004 and the issue is still present.

I've tried all the steps listed here at https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4520288/windows-10-fix-sound-problems. None of
them have worked. I tried using different headphones and even a pair of speakers. All of them produced the same crackling. I tried testing this with a laptop that I keep with me which also happens to run the same version of Windows 10. Same crackling and popping
whenever I listen to music or play games.

I'd like to provide a link to a sound file as another example of this
here via a game's wiki page. Prior to these issues there was no pop. Following a series of updates beginning with Windows version 1903, a crackling/popping sound can consistently be heard at the tail end of this sound file and many, many others across different
games and applications.

I've tried tweaking and reverting settings in the registry regarding settings such as "PerformanceIdleTime" with no sucess. I've also tried disabling/enabling Dynamic Tick and using DISM command prompts such as "dism
/online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" with no luck.

At this point I feel like I've exhausted all possible solutions and I'm out of ideas. I'm hoping that someone who is more knowledgeable than me might know what my problem is and help me find a solution
to this rather frustrating problem. Thanks in advance.

 

Audio Crackle/Popping caused by Windows 10 itself ?

Some videos/audio cause the pop/crackle more frequent

These issues happen also with a completely clean windows install

Aka no software except windows.

The crackle happens when you use a volume slider which is not the system slider

(For example the YouTube or VLC one) while audio is playing.