Windows 10: Windows 10 - Audio/speakers suffer loud crackling.

Since my PC's last update 'Windows 10 ver 1809 (OS build 17763. 134) - 27th Nov 2018' , my wall speakers connected via amp, have started crackling very loudly. After the latest and biggest update Ive seen in a while, when ever I open images- use the Start button, working in Photoshop (my job) the problem occurs. Another problem I had, maybe a related issue ? When I first started using my PC after this update the audio had lost half its volume. The Realtek software has been partially stopped from working. Audio volume is better now but not as good as before.

Need a fix as I work with images , I have to have my sound switched off. Thats not a fix but a temporary stop gap measure.

:)

 

Audio from laptop speaker crackles

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop that starting making crackling noises in it's built in speakers last week. It makes the noise when playing any kind of sound. I ran the audio troubleshooter and nothing was found. I rolled back a display
driver update I got a few days before hand but it was still making the noise. I then uninstalled the audio driver and restarted my laptop. When it came back on, the driver came back by itself and it stopped making the crackling noises. But tonight it started
doing it again. I ran the troubleshooter again and it suggested turning off audio enhancements but nothing is checkmarked except "immediate mode". I removed the checkmark but the sound is still crackling.

 

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.

 

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.