Windows 10: Realtek causes a crackle-like sound

Hi. So I've had this problem since I started up my Dell G15 5510 laptop back in December. My laptop has the Realtek Audio driver. Basically, a crackling sound can be heard every so often and can last for as long as 5 seconds at a time before stopping. I know it's the Realtek driver because when I connect my monitor which has built in speakers and is controlled by NVidia audio it sounds perfect. I've searched everywhere and what's even more annoying is that I returned the first laptop I got and received a new one that still has the same problem. I returned the last one because I had two Dell

:)

 

Realtek HD Audio latency leading to crackling sounds from the speakers

I have a problem with the Realtek HD Audio speakers driver. Everytime a sound is about to be play, the speakers of the laptop make a crackling sound, similar to the sound of static electricity.

I am using Windows 10 and have the latest version of the Realtek HD Audio driver.

I ran the Latencymon v 6.50 to check for latencies, and I get the following result:

"Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one problem appears to be network related. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates."

These results appear to be spot-on, however I'm surprised it mentions that at least one problem is network related, since I have the latest network drivers, and even when disabling the network adapters I still get the crackling sound.

I reckon the CPU throttling mentioned is related to the CPU exectution cap which I already set to 100%.

The other thing I need to mention is that this is a new laptop, and from the first day, even with the old drivers I noticed the crackling sound, and I assumed it would go away after I updated the drivers. I have all the newest drivers and I still get this problem.

The funny thing is that when I plug-in the laptop, it somehow does not give the crackling sound, but when I approach my ear to the speakers, I hear that they are on, even when nothing is playing ( I know because they emit some kind of barely distinguishable white noise). When the laptop is not plugged in however the speakers make the crackling noise before playing sound, and when they finish playing the sounds, the speakers go off ( when I approach my ear the white noise isn't heard anymore).

Notice that the crackling sound is heard only once: after I click on some audio to play; then the crackling disappears, only to appear when I got to the next song ( or audio file).

What do you suggest I do about it? In the beginning I thought it was a hardware problem, but given the fact that during playback the speakers do not exhibit any weird behavior, I am led to believe it is a drivers' problem.

 

Realtek crackling sound on Windows 7

It works fine with Vista. Googling "Realtek sound crackling Windows 7" brings up plenty of other people reporting the same issue. Seems that 7/8 have an issue with some Vista-era hardware.

 

New Buzzing Crackling Sound

Hi Holly,

Corrupted system files or outdated drivers may be one of the possible causes why hearing buzzing crackling sound. To efficiently assist you, we'd like to know the build and version of Windows your Windows 10. Have you made any recent changes prior to this
issue?

In the meantime, we suggest that you follow the steps in this article on how to troubleshoot sound problem.

Keep us posted if you need additional help.