Windows 10: Untimely audio crackles

Everything was fine until yesterday morning when I booted up my laptop, played some music and heard a ton of tiny cracks, sounding like if I had DPC latency. It seems to happen more or less depending on the sound source and the sound itself. Happens a lot in some soundcloud piano tracks, almost not at all in Overwatch, more or less with a media player, quite a lot with ableton live... quite random actually, but very present and unpleasant.



Here is my setup :

Laptop: PCSpecialist Recoil II (TongFang GK5CN6Z) - i7 8750H + GTX1060

Realtek chipset: ALC269 (not 100% sure)

Dual boot with Windows 10 1809 and Unix system on separate SSD.



No mater what I do, they're still here. Here is what I tried:

• 
  updated Windows through Windows update
  
  
• 
  Disabled all audio enhancement and changed default format into speaker properties
  
  
• 
  Disabled wifi and Windows Defender
  
  
• 
  Changed power plan to maximum perf and raised minimum cpu usage to 100%
  
  
• 
  uninstalled any Realtek audio related software displayed into program list
  
  
• 
  uninstalled every audio device into device manager
  
  
• 
  Tried several Realtek HD audio drivers :
  
  • 
    6.0.1.8573 (last available from Realtek, wont install)
    
    
  • 
    6.0.1.8519 (from Mechrevo drivers)
    
    
  • 
    6.0.1.8428 (from Overpowered drivers - i'm with their 1.05 BIOS - and from Eluktronic Mech15 G2 drivers)
    
    
  • 
    6.0.1.8405 from PCSpecialist drivers (from where I got my computer
    
    
  • 
    R2.82 as stated in several driver websites
    
• 
  Tried generic Microsoft High Def Audio device
  
  
• 
  Checked for any malware or virus
  
  
• 
  Recover to a previous system restore point
  
  
• 
  Tried LatencyMon and as expected it sometimes shows latency pics coming from Wdf01000.sys (up to 6s execution time which was also the case before but without experiencing these crackles)
  
  
• 
  Even with ASIO4ALL drivers it crackles
  

The funny thing is that the sound is perfectly smooth in other OS, so I guess it's purely a matter of Windows drivers.Didn't tried yet with an external soundcard, but I'm quite sure the problem is related to built-in audio.I never had SoundBlaster or any other "sound enhancer" installed.Any idea ?

:)

 

Audio Crackling

Recently, I've noticed that the audio with my speakers and headphones is "crackling". It doesn't seem to matter what the volume is set at, nor what program I'm running. If I'm playing a game, the audio crackles. If I'm listening to music, the audio crackles.
I've tried downloading/updating my audio drivers, but nothing seems to help.

 

Crackling audio. Skyrim + other games

USB headphones have never been kind to me. They always hiss, pop and crackle. The fact that you can hear it when no audio is being played suggests it's a power /connection issue.

Do you have any 3.5mm or RCA based headphones you can try?

 

Crackling audio. Skyrim + other games

No idea what either of those are.