Having massive issues with all audio processing and playing devices in my house - driving me crazy (details inside)...

[FurudoErika]

Hello there!

 

As title goes, I am slowly but steadily losing my mind trying to fix or even analyze this. Stressed out, bad sleep, losing weight, this is just insane. I'll try to explain the order in which things happened.

 

Initially, I just had to power off and disassemble my PC to install the new SSD, and I then connected everything back. While proceeding through the installation of all my usual stuff, I also installed RDR2 which I played a lot, and launched it a couple of times. I immediately noticed some slight audio crackling and popping; but that was normal, I thought. That game is plagued with sound issues, and you can find many cases in google. Heck, even I myself had these issues before reinstalling, and they got fixed by turning off the 'exclusive' checkboxes in the audio device properties.

 

Not this time, though. I didn't help at all. I've tried many things. Checking DPC latency, trying different drivers, trying different solutions...

 

But then I thought: could it be that it's my 2.1 system dying? So I launched RDR2 on PS4. And guess what? The crackles were there too! The system is still on warranty, so 'hooray!', I thought. But not for long. Because I realized I should probably check 'just in case' that these issues aren't present with my headphones. Turned out, they WERE present. They were present with all audio output devices I tried, including the USB ones. They were present on both PS4 and PC, and regardless of whether I used the PCI-E card, the MB Realtek sound or even the monitor DP sound.

 

But then it dawned on me: could it be that something just broke with the recent RDR2 patch, so it's like that on both systems? Would be convenient if it was this way, huh? Sadly, it wasn't. I installed GTAV and noticed the same thing happening there, too. Exhausted, I was watching some random Youtube videos and heard those things there, too.

 

I then tried reading up on electricity, ground loops, but didn't understand that much, sadly. I am losing my mind here.

 

This is an example of how it sounds: https://youtu.be/fWy3OpfwaFQ?t=60

 

Starting at 1:00, you can clearly hear those things at ~1:02, ~1:16 and also some other timestamps during the second half of the video.

 

And help would be much appreciated.

[Derkoli]

21 minutes ago, FurudoErika said:

Hello there!

 

As title goes, I am slowly but steadily losing my mind trying to fix or even analyze this. Stressed out, bad sleep, losing weight, this is just insane. I'll try to explain the order in which things happened.

 

Initially, I just had to power off and disassemble my PC to install the new SSD, and I then connected everything back. While proceeding through the installation of all my usual stuff, I also installed RDR2 which I played a lot, and launched it a couple of times. I immediately noticed some slight audio crackling and popping; but that was normal, I thought. That game is plagued with sound issues, and you can find many cases in google. Heck, even I myself had these issues before reinstalling, and they got fixed by turning off the 'exclusive' checkboxes in the audio device properties.

 

Not this time, though. I didn't help at all. I've tried many things. Checking DPC latency, trying different drivers, trying different solutions...

 

But then I thought: could it be that it's my 2.1 system dying? So I launched RDR2 on PS4. And guess what? The crackles were there too! The system is still on warranty, so 'hooray!', I thought. But not for long. Because I realized I should probably check 'just in case' that these issues aren't present with my headphones. Turned out, they WERE present. They were present with all audio output devices I tried, including the USB ones. They were present on both PS4 and PC, and regardless of whether I used the PCI-E card, the MB Realtek sound or even the monitor DP sound.

 

But then it dawned on me: could it be that something just broke with the recent RDR2 patch, so it's like that on both systems? Would be convenient if it was this way, huh? Sadly, it wasn't. I installed GTAV and noticed the same thing happening there, too. Exhausted, I was watching some random Youtube videos and heard those things there, too.

 

I then tried reading up on electricity, ground loops, but didn't understand that much, sadly. I am losing my mind here.

 

This is an example of how it sounds: https://youtu.be/fWy3OpfwaFQ?t=60

 

Starting at 1:00, you can clearly hear those things at ~1:02, ~1:16 and also some other timestamps during the second half of the video.

 

And help would be much appreciated.

Hm, try different sampling rates/bit rates. I can get slight noises similar to that if I use certain bit rates/sampling rates.

 

Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> Playback -> Your audio device (most likely Realtek) -> Properties -> Advanced

 

Try setting it to 44.1khz if you have the option, then start trying other ones. If this doesn't work, then I would DDU your sound drivers and do a clean install of them.

[LloydLynx]

This is gonna sound weird, but take some random wire and twist it around the screw of an outlet, then connect the other end to something the digs into the ground outside like a metal pole you jam into the dirt. If it's a grounding issue that should fix it for that outlet. I fixed my microphone buzzing by sticking a wire into the ground prong in the outlet and attaching it to the cable that goes to the radio antenna outside(the antenna is grounded). How old is your home? Mine doesn't have grounding through out the house.

 

Or a simpler thing to try is unplugging all electronics except for the ones you're testing. Test devices that began having the issue that are unrelated to your computer.

[lakonic]

try removing your pc from the any power and other devices like network router printer etc., just remove it. try gaming again on ps4. if you still hear noise you might have problem with home wiring. I doubt that the case but you have to eliminate all variables. Your pc was it plugged into its own power source or did you have it plugged into a powerbar, multiple power plugs can fail and introduce all kinds of issues to other devices. Keep a list of what you remove from the loop. keep removing things until you dont hear the noise.

Try it on a laptop at home not connected to anything, run on battery and wifi if possible. borrow someones laptop.

make a list and check off everything you tried, come back and repost your findings.

 

Good hunting