Speakers/Headset make crackling sound every so often.

BriT · 17 Jan 2022 at 18:27

Hi

I have a random problem where occasinally my speakers or headset make a crackling sound when I play games. It's a bit like static noise but only lasts a second or two but is annoying. Never had this problem with my old i5 8600k set up.

I thought I fixed the problem by installing new drivers and was fine for a few days but has come back today and I'm not sure why?

Could be realtek sound driver issue? or GPU?

Also seems to be any game.

EsaT · 17 Jan 2022 at 19:04

Start by running LatencyMon on background until getting that.
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

DPC latency is good for showing if there's some driver bugging out.
Though that big.little could also be complication.
Have you tried with E-cores disabled?

And unless you disable it, Wintoys can force "update" driver to any buggy version it wants.

BriT · 17 Jan 2022 at 21:51

Thanks will run that tomorow and see. No I haven't tried no E-cores. It's very random, go days fine then its every 15 min or so while playing BF2042.

McBadgers & Mash · 20 Jan 2022 at 12:28

This is going to sound like a daft question but, do you have any 3rd party software controlling audio. I had a similar issue where my Corsair headphones were exhibiting the same problem. It turned out Asus Sonic Studio was causing the issue and audio was occasionally clipping. Few tweaks sorted that beef out

Paul_RD · 20 Jan 2022 at 13:07

Are your speakers/headset connected using analogue 3.5mm connectors or digitally with USB ?

BriT · 20 Jan 2022 at 19:19

McBadgers & Mash said:
This is going to sound like a daft question but, do you have any 3rd party software controlling audio. I had a similar issue where my Corsair headphones were exhibiting the same problem. It turned out Asus Sonic Studio was causing the issue and audio was occasionally clipping. Few tweaks sorted that beef out

Nah I don't use any third party software, although it hasn't done this in a few days.

Paul_RD said:
Are your speakers/headset connected using analogue 3.5mm connectors or digitally with USB ?

Speakers are analogue but headset is USB.

Syore · 20 Jan 2022 at 20:23

Do you also hear the static noise randomly when your not playing games?

BriT · 20 Jan 2022 at 20:41

Syore said:
Do you also hear the static noise randomly when your not playing games?

No I don't.

Paul_RD · 21 Jan 2022 at 20:14

BriT said:
Speakers are analogue but headset is USB.

The USB headset will have an external sound card using different drivers when compared to the motherboard on-board audio so I don't think it's a driver issue.
It happens on both the headset and the speakers so it can't be a bad headset or speaker connection.

The fault must be higher up the food-chain before the audio gets to the sound cards as the crackling is common to both outputs.
Can anyone think of something that is common to audio output irrespective of which sound card is being driven ?
I was thinking perhaps some coding within the game or maybe a DirectX issue.

Does it happen on all games, or just some games ?
Do the games that it happens on have anything in common ? - such as same game engine / same publisher / same anything else ?

Syore · 22 Jan 2022 at 00:01

Paul_RD said:
Can anyone think of something that is common to audio output irrespective of which sound card is being driven ?

The only other software thing i could think it could be is there is some sort of EQ (which could add noise but not noticeable unless you add too much gain) happening along the chain to audio output.

Paul_RD · 22 Jan 2022 at 15:03

Syore said:
The only other software thing i could think it could be is there is some sort of EQ (which could add noise but not noticeable unless you add too much gain) happening along the chain to audio output.

Good point - I've previously had Realtek drivers drivers install an EQ application in the past - perhaps BriT's Realtek drivers are installing something extra that affects all audio outputs.

Paul_RD · 22 Jan 2022 at 15:13

BriT said:
Could be realtek sound driver issue?

In case it is something that is installed alongside the Realtek driver, try this and see if it makes any difference:

In Control Panel / Programs and Features - uninstall the Realtek audio driver (and ALL associated components)
Let Windows use the generic Microsoft supplied driver - Device Manager will now show High Definition Audio Device (instead of Realtek High Definition Audio)

Let it run using the generic Microsoft driver for a while and report back later.
Hopefully this may stop/reduce the crackling without degrading the rest of the audio experience.

BriT · 22 Jan 2022 at 20:56

Seems to only happen on BF2042 sometimes but not all the time. Is an annoying little problem. Also I noticed in sound options theres Realtek digital output and stereo mix Realtek audio. Both are disabled.