Windows 10: Sound crackling, clicking etc. when playing sounds

Well...that's a simple solution which does not work for me.

 

Please feel free to search the forum using the white box at the top yourself. You already have my collection from posts I've read. You will get many results simply by searching for
stutter
crackle
latency

Good luck!

 

Hi,

This has worked for me.. I started having these problems on my old laptop in March, so in April I bought a brand new Asus Zenbook i7 laptop and it started having the same problems.. Did many searches across the net and found this solution that worked.

I wanted to monitor it before I actually confimed it.. It's been a couple of months now and the issue has not come back since I disabled Block port scans on all my machines.

Cheers dalchina!!!!

*Smile

 

I found this thread on Google and wanted to input what solved my problem. I had the same exact issue, I got crackling and popping on both my Sound Blaster Z and my onboard Realtek. I already had my PC on high performance so that didn't solve the issue. I ended up disabled Intel SpeedStep in the motherboard. Basically from what I understand it makes the processor try to save power and clocks it down. I turned this feature off and so far it has been perfect!

 

Not sure why, but it works. Open the Realtek HD Audio Manager, the orange speaker icon in your icons on the right side of the task bar. Go to whatever output your currently using for sound. Go to the Default Format tab, all i had to do was change the Dafult Format to something other than the highest setting of 24 bit, 192,000 Hz. Simple as that for me. Hope this works for others!

 

Audio popping/crackling has spontaneously started on my PC in the last day or so and is driving me utterly insane.

First off, I have no idea what could have possibly changed to have caused this to start. I believe it was completely nonexistent about 36 hours ago. Around that time, I did install a new 6TB HDD (had to move around cables, disconnect and reconnect some components) and moved around a couple TBs of files. The absolute most likely culprit IMO is a Windows update sent out into the wild on October 27th (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3197954).

Edit: Just uninstalled that update and hid it, still have the popping issues. Next possible culprit is KB3199986 (KB3199986 brings a slew of issues: install fails, audio bugs and more) which currently cannot be uninstalled through the View Installed Updates route I used to uninstall KB3197954.

Now for the fixes I have tried.

1. I exclusively use Bluetooth speakers and first thought that was the source (nope, connected them directly to the computer and the issue is still there).

2. Installed dozens of updated drivers from Gigabyte for my motherboard, updated the motherboard, uninstalled audio-related drivers and restarted my computer, etc.

3. Analyzed latency issues dozens of times through LatencyMon, killed multiple high-latency process, disabled the major offenders if possible, uninstalled programs suggested to cause audio popping (Intel Rapid Storage Tech, compattelrunner.exe, etc.).

4. I have removed or disabled all the programs that demonstrated copious hard pagefaults (that I did not use). Now I have Chrome, Google Play Music Desktop Player, Explorer, and IType as the only programs with more than 10 or so hard pagefaults.

5. I also have ndis.sys, dxjkml.sys (Direct X Graphics Kernel), Wdf010000.sys (Kernel Mode Driver Framework), tcpip.sys (TCP/IP Driver), and nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver) as problem drivers with high ISR and execution times. No clue how to deal with these (and I sadly have no idea how to change the beacon frequency on my router).


I should also note the specifics of the clicking/crackling/popping behavior. Pops of varying loudness will occur whenever the speakers initially register sound (starting any video, song, any period after silence). If I play music with a constant volume (i.e. no quiet or silent points), then I can generally use my computer normally and open videos with no popping. But even then, if there is a quiet point or the song changes, it will pop when sound comes back. I'm also 90% sure that the frequency or likelihood of popping is connected to the volume the speakers are playing at. The lower the volume, the more pops occur.

Any help at all would be immensely appreciated, I am currently losing my mind as I use my PC constantly for work and play.



Update: No issues at all when using wired headphones, for whatever reason.

 

Have you tried windows generic audio driver? Also you can find some realtek audio drivers in microsoft update catalog, take a look at them maybe there is a driver which you haven't tried yet.

 

I'm not entirely sure how to do that. I have tried to download the latest drivers from MS' Update Catalog, but the Update Drivers function just ends up saying that it already has the best driver after searching the folders I direct it to.

When I try to install CAB files with this command DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:"D:\Downloads\20953891_045ba261151c2f4bdc71a86668fa01a0958744aa.cab", I get the error "An error occurred trying to open - D:\Downloads\20953891_045ba261151c2f4bdc71a86668fa01a0958744aa.cab Error: 0x80070002 The system cannot find the file specified."

I also installed the most recent executable file-type driver on the Realtek website and it hasn't affected the problem behavior.

 

To install the cab files extract them to a desired folder and navigate to your sound driver in device manager. Click update and choose browse my computer for driver software then choose let me pick from .... Choose have disc and from there navigate to the folder you have extracted and choose the ini file to install. Also try high definition audio codec before choosing have disc. I recommend you to disconnect every sound device before installing any sound driver. After any installing restart your system and then connect or plug your sound devices

 

do you have a USB 3.0 port you can try?

 

I'm having a similar issue too. It started back in November. I started hearing electric crackles while listening to music. Sometimes they lasted for some seconds, other times they were almost non stop. Sent the laptop, as ASUS laptop, to be repaired. They changed the Wifi card, but as soon as I turned on the laptop the problem was still there. I tried uninstalling the Realtek HD driver and replace it with an older one, it seemed to lower the amount of crackles. Right now I am using Microsoft's High Definition Audio but sometimes I can still hear some weird noises. They almost sound as the sound you hear when you plug or unplug your headphones into the jack. I tried all the solutions suggested in this thread but that still seems to happen. On some headphones it is more noticeable than with others.

 

I'm not going to create a new thread considering I have the exact sound issues Repa24 has. All the links the OP posted on both this forum and the sevenforums (Sound crackling, clicking etc. when playing sounds - Windows 7 Help Forums) I hear the same varying tones of static-like popping sounds that are not random and appear as if a piece of audio was already recorded with them.. which of course they were not. I can go back to a song, a location in a game or any type of media and here the same static pops months later because they just don't go away.

I've had these issues for a good year or two, I had it with Windows 7 and Windows 10. I built a completely new PC with all new parts and even moved once. After my new PC build I installed Windows 7 again and went back to 10 a month or two later, but I had the same issues no matter the OS. I have tried hundreds of things to try and remedy the problem and literally nothing has improved it. I am at a loss. I even a few days ago gutted my PC and cleaned it again. I don't really have any issues with latency, LatencyMon picks up some issues while gaming and I do get the odd stutter. I have also tried the default Windows audio and I get the same results.. saying that, could there be a bad file within Windows causing this?

Any kind of direction or lead for me to look into would be great. Thanks.