Weird, Inconsistent , Audio Cracking Problem

[Eric00]

My computer audio will sometimes randomly make a faint cracking/popping/peaking sound while it is on. It is very inconsistent and I am sure others would barely notice it if they got on my computer but to me it is very prominent and annoying. While I am watching youtube, playing games, in a discord, or whatever, a very faint cracking sound in the audio will happen then it will go back to normal. I also noticed while changing the volume on different websites such as twitch and youtube there will be a consistent crack when the volume is changed and the volume knob is slid up and down. It is most prominent with the windows volume overall. I am unsure if this is a part of the problem or just something that has happened and I have never noticed it. 

 

It began when I first plugged in a new headset on the back audio jacks (mic in/line in). I was testing the quality of said headset and went back to compare it to my old one. This is when I first noticed the very faint cracking sound inconsistently while my friends in discord were talking. Then, with the old headset on, I played Warzone with them and noticed the cracking sound even more and even noticed that loud sounds (car music, jets flying overhead, a nearby contract beeping) would sound like they were peaking my headset. It got very annoying very fast and went on a hunting spree to try and fix it.

 

Preface:

- 64 Bit Windows

- Did not happen (or did not notice) until new headset was plugged in 3/17

- Original audio drivers when old headset was in use: AMD High Definition Audio, High Definition Audio (Devices)

- It is VERY inconsistent, and annoying. Could not reliably recreate it in games, but could, however; recreate it by replaying certain parts of videos (this may just be part of said videos)

- Mic sounds the same

- Don't remember my exact bit rate and sample rate I used with my old headset

- The crack/pop isn't very loud, could almost be described as a small skip/break in the audio

 

Things I have Done:

- Tried reinstalling audio drivers

- Tried changing audio drivers to Realtek High Definition Audio (Via updating [Realtek] back to High Definition Audio)

- Tried using 5 different headsets to test if the problems still persisted

- Tried using 5 different connectors/splitters to connect the headsets to the computer

- Changed to almost all sample rates and bit rates for all the headset speakers

- Tried most enhancements both Realtek and regular High Definition Audio 

- Disabled and enabled exclusive mode for each headset

- Tried turning down volume 

- Tried turning up volume

- Shutting down computer

- Restarting computer

- Turning on computer with no sound drivers available, then enabled them

- Tested front and back 3.5mm jacks

- Tried using a G432 jack to USB connector (Variety of results from this)

- Tried only having the headphones jack connected while leaving the mic unconnected

- Tried ditching the 1 to 2 jack splitter (splits one jack to have a mic in / line in) and plugged the headset itself into the line/audio in (front and back)

- Tried using my monitor's speakers (They are quiet but the problem doesn't seem to happen there)

- Listened to a long consistent pitch through my headset but couldn't consistently notice if the crack/pop was happening

- Checked the jacks to make sure they didn't look damaged or loose

- Uninstalled Discord to see if it was just a discord problem

 

Things I Haven't Done:

- Using an actual USB headset (I'd have to buy one)

- Fully wiped all my files and apps

- Using a Bluetooth headset

- Fresh Windows Restart

- Attempt to record the crack/pop/skip/break

 

Weird Notes:

- When a headset is plugged into the front or back line in jacks on my computer, and Realtek High Definition Audio is being used, the volume cracking sound is prominent ON BOTH JACKS when sliding the windows volume up and down.

- When a headset is plugged into the line in jacks on my computer, and High Definition Audio Device is being used, the cracking sound is prominent ONLY ON THE BACK JACK when sliding the windows volume up and down.

- With that said, whether High Definition Audio Device or Realtek High Definition Audio is being used, the inconsistent, may or may not be correlated random cracking sound while playing games and at a fixed volume is STILL PRESENT.

- Front Mic In jack has never worked and creates a loud screeching sound in my mic

 

Headsets Used:

- HyperX Cloud Alpha Pro --- HEADSET THAT (POSSIBLY) CAUSED PROBLEM

- TBI Imba Pro V8 --- ORIGINAL HEADSET

- Logitech G432

- TBI Imba Pro V8 --- Used another one I found

- Kotion Each Headset --- Unsure of Model

 

Specs

ASUS Rog Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-FI

Gigabyte AMD 5700XT

AMD Ryzen 3700X

Vengeance Corsair Pro 2x8 16GB RAM

Coolermaster H500 ARGB

Samsung 970 NVME 1TB SSD

EVGA  80+ Gold Certified 850 Watt PSU

 

Conclusions

- I could be crazy and this might all be in my head (I don't think this is)

- Likely an audio driver problem I need help solving

- Very faint cracking sound every once in awhile that is hard to recreate

- Audio does however; crack consistently when volume sliders are moved up and down

- The cracking sound doesn't just happen when loud sounds are being played, my friends could be talking in discord and it would crack/pop

 

[Eric00]

[shoutingsteve]

Try putting your cell phone on the opposite side of the room.

[Heliian]

Could be interference(cell phones, psu, bad grounding and other external or internal sources) . You could have competing audio devices trying to run in the background.  Your onboard audio could just be failing too. 

 

The front mic jack plug is for a regular old mic, the combo plugs will make it short, hence the screeching.

[shoutingsteve]

8 minutes ago, Heliian said:

Could be interference(cell phones, psu, bad grounding and other external or internal sources) . You could have competing audio devices trying to run in the background.  Your onboard audio could just be failing too. 

 

The front mic jack plug is for a regular old mic, the combo plugs will make it short, hence the screeching.

This makes me think.  Front audio jacks automatically mute the rear jack when headphones are plugged in.  It is possible that when inserting a jack into the front port, you wight have damaged something and it is sending a few random signals to mute/unmute the rear jack.  Maybe try unplugging the front port audio at the mobo pins?

[Eric00]

At this point I've completely reset my computer, updated BIOS, and downloaded audio drivers directly from ASUS website. Almost 100% sure the SupremeFX Audio Chip is failing, and will most likely either need to buy a separate PCIe sound card or buy a new motherboard.

[Eric00]

Something weird I just noticed, when I move my mouse around the screen a buzzy sound comes from the motherboard or around it.

[ShadowLittlest]

Hey man, I think we might be having the same issue. I also get crackling/popping particularly when adjusting volume sliders and it only started in the past year. After working on this issue for a couple months I've come to the conclusion that whenever audio suddenly stops or starts for any reason, at certain frequencies it will produce a harsh popping sound. Long, drawn-out tones seem to produce the worst response, here are a few examples:

 

The first 30 or so seconds of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5s-BnOeS4Y

Lower frequency test tones, such as this 50hz one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bslHKEh7oZk

 

Adjusting the volume produces a crackling sound, muting/unmuting the audio produces a popping sound and skipping through the video also produces a popping sound.

 

With the test tones, the higher in frequency you go the less the popping and crackling occurs. At 5000hz the popping/crackling is significantly less noticeable. In regards to the song example posted, if I look up that same song on Spotify and adjust the volume only through Spotify there is no crackle, however if I adjust the Windows volume it is clearly there although not as bad as on Youtube. I've tried 3 different headsets and can replicate the issues over a USB DAC so I'm mostly just out of ideas at this point. I'll be purchasing a sound card to test soon but I doubt it will help the issue if a USB DAC didn't. I've checked the usual suspects like DPC latency, bad RAM or poor grounding. Best of luck.

[Eric00]

When sliding volume up on windows 10 or youtube, or a similar app, a faint buzzy sound can be heard while doing so. When the volume is set a loud pop occurs and it is very noticeable. I have tried using 5 different headsets on each port on my computer, all had the same problem. Tried changing enhancements, bit and sample rate, all to no avail. I tried changing drivers from realtek and the same thing would happen. I tried fully restarting my computer and resetting windows which had no affect. I used an old $40 sound card that used the PCIe slot, circumnavigating all onboard sound because it was disabled, and it did not fix. Does not happen on a different laptop and both devices are up to date on windows.

 

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)

GIGABYTE 5700XT

AMD RYZEN 3700X

ASUS Xonar Sound Card

Vengeance Corsair 2x8 16GB RAM

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVME SSD

EVGA 850WATT 80+ Gold Certified PSU

[German_Musician]

Living in an old apartment I had similar problems related to the electrical outlet my PC was plugged in ... somehow the electrical wire problems messed with the sound. Or is it even when you run your laptop on battery? Then the only thing I could think of is using an external sound card/ audio interface.

[Eric00]

I used a separate sound card and the problem still occurred.

[The Flying Sloth]

Could you please provide recording of this noise??

[Eric00]

Probably not...

[Eric00]

Might have solved it by disabling C-States in BIOS

[Eric00]

I have a Ryzen 7 3700x and an ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Motherboard and experience crackling and popping audio in games and discord. What do I do?

[Skiiwee29]

is it more like an hiss sound?

[Eric00]

No

[rice guru]

are you plugged in directly to your motherboard front banel or some sort of USB asapter?

[Eric00]

Directly to motherboard, external jack-usb has the same crackling problem. So does a sound card that plugs into said motherboard.

[Eric00]

My audio pops when I change my windows volume (only with the ding sound effect) and pops at the same points in videogames. When I ping something in Warzone it makes a crackling/pop after my guy goes quiet and in AMONGUS a small fraction of time after the ship alarm goes off. These sounds are not peaking my headset or audio, as they occur when there is little to no sound.

 

ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)

GIGABYTE 5700XT

AMD RYZEN 3700X

ASUS Xonar Sound Card

Vengeance Corsair 2x8 16GB RAM

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVME SSD

EVGA 850WATT 80+ Gold Certified PSU

[Eric00]

I've noticed a very prominent and annoying cracking and popping sound that happens during games. I cannot pinpoint exactly what is causing it, but it happens on different games, but usually on the same sound in said games. For instance, I could be playing Arma and the sound of an engine starting causes the loud pop but explosions would not cause said pop. The best I can describe the sound is my headset "peaking" and there is a loud pop or crack in the audio that lasts for a quarter of a second. I played many loud sounds through my headset and made sure it wasn't actually my headset peaking. I've also noticed when people are speaking in discord it will randomly happen as well while they are talking.

Some games I can notice the sounds happening all the time, and in others I have yet to notice a single instance of the sound.

- I have tried testing 5 different headsets on the computer that is having the audio crackle and on a laptop which does not have the problem. The headsets only had the audio crackle on this computer.

- I have tried using device manager to uninstall all drivers and let windows reinstall them, did not fix it.

- I have tried blocking all windows files from downloading drivers, restarted the computer and manually installed fresh drivers, did not fix it.

- I have tried downloading the realtek audio drivers off of realtek's website, did not fix it.

- I have tried downloading the audio drivers for my motherboard (ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)), and deleted the old ones, did not fix.

- I have tried using the "update driver" feature, selected the High Definition Audio Device, and swapped it over to Realtek. I have swapped back to High Definition Audio device as well. 

- I have tried using all the jacks on my computer, the audio jack crackle issue persists in each one.

- I have tried using USB connectors on each of my USB ports on my computer, did not fix. One of the Jack-USB converters had a different name, (TX-Hifi Type_C Audio), the audio crackle when sliding volume up and down still persisted.

- I used my Monitor's speakers, I cannot hear the crackle. Maybe because they aren't very loud in general.

- I have tried resetting the entire PC, did not fix.

- I have tried updating BIOS, did not fix.

- I have tried unplugging HD Audio Front Panel Connector and used the back ports only, did not fix.

- Deleted a bunch of recent windows updates, did not fix.

- Tried uninstalling all devices in device manager besides the one I was using, did not fix.

- Changed all enhancements, tested different bit rates and sample rates using advanced sound settings, turned of sonic windows spatial sound, tried changing the setup to stereo, quadrophonic, 5.1, and 7.1, and disabled exclusive control mode, did not fix.

- Purchased a $40 ASUS Soundcard (PCIe) just to have the EXACT same crackling audio sound.

- Tested different outlets to see if there was an outlet issue, did not fix.

- Deleted programs such as Sonic Studio and Realtek Audio Manager that came packaged in when I installed drivers directly for my motherboard.

Audio Drivers Used:

(Realtek(R) Audio) - Crackle extremely prominent with this driver

Realtek High Definition Audio - Crackle noticeable with this one, rear jack has the problem and front jack does as well, but the front one is harder to notice.

High Definition Audio - The original driver I was using, in the past I did not have (or did not notice the crackle)

Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer - Appeared when I installed audio drivers directly from my motherboard's website downloads, uninstalled and tested if this affected it or not, did not fix or change.

(TX-Hifi Type_C Audio) - Used for USB connection, even as a USB and not using the front or back jacks, the audio volume crackle still existed.

Almost 100% sure none of the headsets are faulty. When I tested 5 separate ones on a different laptop the audio-volume sliding crackle was not apparent. The laptop showed (Realtek(R) Audio) when I plugged it in, meaning that driver was working on that laptop, while not on my computer.

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)

GIGABYTE 5700XT

AMD RYZEN 3700X

ASUS Xonar Sound Card

Vengeance Corsair 2x8 16GB RAM

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVME SSD

EVGA 850WATT 80+ Gold Certified PSU

[Tigerleon]

25 minutes ago, Eric00 said:

I've noticed a very prominent and annoying cracking and popping sound that happens during games. I cannot pinpoint exactly what is causing it, but it happens on different games, but usually on the same sound in said games. For instance, I could be playing Arma and the sound of an engine starting causes the loud pop but explosions would not cause said pop. The best I can describe the sound is my headset "peaking" and there is a loud pop or crack in the audio that lasts for a quarter of a second. I played many loud sounds through my headset and made sure it wasn't actually my headset peaking. I've also noticed when people are speaking in discord it will randomly happen as well while they are talking.

Some games I can notice the sounds happening all the time, and in others I have yet to notice a single instance of the sound.

- I have tried testing 5 different headsets on the computer that is having the audio crackle and on a laptop which does not have the problem. The headsets only had the audio crackle on this computer.

- I have tried using device manager to uninstall all drivers and let windows reinstall them, did not fix it.

- I have tried blocking all windows files from downloading drivers, restarted the computer and manually installed fresh drivers, did not fix it.

- I have tried downloading the realtek audio drivers off of realtek's website, did not fix it.

- I have tried downloading the audio drivers for my motherboard (ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)), and deleted the old ones, did not fix.

- I have tried using the "update driver" feature, selected the High Definition Audio Device, and swapped it over to Realtek. I have swapped back to High Definition Audio device as well. 

- I have tried using all the jacks on my computer, the audio jack crackle issue persists in each one.

- I have tried using USB connectors on each of my USB ports on my computer, did not fix. One of the Jack-USB converters had a different name, (TX-Hifi Type_C Audio), the audio crackle when sliding volume up and down still persisted.

- I used my Monitor's speakers, I cannot hear the crackle. Maybe because they aren't very loud in general.

- I have tried resetting the entire PC, did not fix.

- I have tried updating BIOS, did not fix.

- I have tried unplugging HD Audio Front Panel Connector and used the back ports only, did not fix.

- Deleted a bunch of recent windows updates, did not fix.

- Tried uninstalling all devices in device manager besides the one I was using, did not fix.

- Changed all enhancements, tested different bit rates and sample rates using advanced sound settings, turned of sonic windows spatial sound, tried changing the setup to stereo, quadrophonic, 5.1, and 7.1, and disabled exclusive control mode, did not fix.

- Purchased a $40 ASUS Soundcard (PCIe) just to have the EXACT same crackling audio sound.

- Tested different outlets to see if there was an outlet issue, did not fix.

- Deleted programs such as Sonic Studio and Realtek Audio Manager that came packaged in when I installed drivers directly for my motherboard.

Audio Drivers Used:

(Realtek(R) Audio) - Crackle extremely prominent with this driver

Realtek High Definition Audio - Crackle noticeable with this one, rear jack has the problem and front jack does as well, but the front one is harder to notice.

High Definition Audio - The original driver I was using, in the past I did not have (or did not notice the crackle)

Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer - Appeared when I installed audio drivers directly from my motherboard's website downloads, uninstalled and tested if this affected it or not, did not fix or change.

(TX-Hifi Type_C Audio) - Used for USB connection, even as a USB and not using the front or back jacks, the audio volume crackle still existed.

Almost 100% sure none of the headsets are faulty. When I tested 5 separate ones on a different laptop the audio-volume sliding crackle was not apparent. The laptop showed (Realtek(R) Audio) when I plugged it in, meaning that driver was working on that laptop, while not on my computer.

Specs:

ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (Wi-Fi)

GIGABYTE 5700XT

AMD RYZEN 3700X

ASUS Xonar Sound Card

Vengeance Corsair 2x8 16GB RAM

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVME SSD

EVGA 850WATT 80+ Gold Certified PSU

It definitely has something to do with your PC. Don't exactly know what but some component is definitely giving your audio interference. Since you've tried it on a laptop it definitely confirms that it is your PC. But since you've tried almost everything, I can only think of your mobo, GPU or PSU are doing something wrong that interferes.

[Eric00]

Bump

[Eric00]

bump

[Eric00]

b