Windows 10 Unsolvable Audio issue

[Siresword]

Hey guys, long time viewer of the channel, first time forum user.

I've been having an ongoing problem with my computer for a while. When I first built it everything was fine, but after a while (really started to notice it after about a year) I started to notice a crackling/popping sound that would happen in youtube videos. It can happen at random but it seems to happen most when theirs a change in tone/volume within the video. At first it would only happen in certain videos (bad encoding/rendering I guess?), but it started to effect every video to some degree after a while, it even effects games if it gets bad enough. Ive tested if it was just my speakers (cheap walmart ones) by switching to my headphones (sennheiser game zero's) but the problem persists pretty much the same between both. I've tried changing every setting you can imagine, reinstalled drivers, messed around in the bios, and even reinstalled windows and nothing has helped. After all that I thought maybe it was the chipset on my motherboard, so I upgraded my motherboard (and had to upgraded my cpu and ram at the same time as both were incompatible with the new motherboard) but the problem persists. Its maybe a little better right now but seems to be getting worse again and I only changed all those components maybe two weeks ago. Google isnt helping anymore as it all the same stuff I was trying before, so I finally decided to create a thread of my own. The only idea I have left is that it might be a power supply issue but that seems unlikely as im not having any other problems related to power supply, everything else runs just fine with no hiccups. Really hoping you guys can give me some advice, I dont want to just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away.

 

My PC specs as they are now are as follows:

MSI Z 390 A Pro

Intel i5 9600k

16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz DDR4

EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW3

EVGA SuperNOVA g2 650W 80+ Gold

Fractal Design Meshify C case

Dell S2716DG monitor

Samsung 860 Evo 500gb SSd (this is the main boot drive and the one that I reformatted when I reinstalled windows)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM (this is a storage drive)

 

Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[vanished]

Crackling/popping immediately makes me think of a DPC latency spike.  Sometimes a badly behaving driver can freeze the system at a low level for longer than usual (around 1 - 10 ms) - short enough you won't see or feel it, but long enough to cause an audio stutter.  Try the tool here: https://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml

 

Run it in the background for a while and see if it records a big red spike next time you hear one of these glitches.  If so, this is likely the problem.  To troubleshoot it from there, you'll want to go through your devices, disabling each one by one until you find it.  Not a fun or quick process but kind of the only way afaik.  As a hint, it is most often a network driver when this is the problem.

[Master Disaster]

This can also be a symptom of having the Soundcard Sample Rate set too high though I would doubt thats the case since you reinstalled Windows and the problem remains.

[vanished]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

This can also be a symptom of having the Soundcard Sample Rate set too high though I would doubt thats the case since you reinstalled Windows and the problem remains.

True I had forgotten about that.  I'll also add setting the latency/buffer size too low can do this as well, if it's a unit for which that's even an option.

[Master Disaster]

3 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

True I had forgotten about that.  I'll also add setting the latency/buffer size too low can do this as well, if it's a unit for which that's even an option.

It took me a few days of messing with latency settings to get my DJ Controller to work at a point where there wasn't horrible delay between the master output and the cue output. Setting it too low caused the audio to skip and pop. I think I eventually settled on 5ms.

[The Flying Sloth]

10 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

It took me a few days of messing with latency settings to get my DJ Controller to work at a point where there wasn't horrible delay between the master output and the cue output. Setting it too low caused the audio to skip and pop. I think I eventually settled on 5ms.

Welcome to the world of ASIO drivers, sounds like you had a fun experience, remember that audio performance when using ASIO is CPU bound, more better CPU means more better latency.

[Siresword]

On 7/17/2020 at 11:17 PM, Ryan_Vickers said:

Crackling/popping immediately makes me think of a DPC latency spike.  Sometimes a badly behaving driver can freeze the system at a low level for longer than usual (around 1 - 10 ms) - short enough you won't see or feel it, but long enough to cause an audio stutter.  Try the tool here: https://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml

 

Run it in the background for a while and see if it records a big red spike next time you hear one of these glitches.  If so, this is likely the problem.  To troubleshoot it from there, you'll want to go through your devices, disabling each one by one until you find it.  Not a fun or quick process but kind of the only way afaik.  As a hint, it is most often a network driver when this is the problem.

I think we're on the right track, Im not seeing any huge spikes on the latency tool, but I do see very small ones every time there is a crackle/pop. I didn't put it in the original post but I am on Wi-Fi with this PC, going thru a Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I adapter, but I did try disabling the drivers for both Wi-Fi and bluetooth and neither seemed to do anything. Are there any other things I should try?