Audio crackles/pops and strange buzzing when adjusting volume

[voluxius]

Hi all,

 

Been having some issues with a build for a couple of months now and I'm seriously at my limit trying to figure out what is going on. 

 

The Build:

Ryzen 7 3800x 

Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600mhz c16 (currently underclocked to 3200, to better match the processor)

Asus ROG STRIX B550-F gaming

EVGA Supernova Platinum 750w

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB ssd

Samsung 970 EVO plus 500gb nvme

GTX 1060 6gb

(Currently using a razer wireless headset)

 

The Issue:

I've been having some audio issues, as you might expect by the title. Basically, when audio starts or stops, or audio is at a specific tone (I think that's the word) there is a noticeable crackling/popping. In addition, audio cracks are noticeable when repeatedly clicking on the Windows system audio volume bar. Audio also buzzes when scrubbing volume on websites like YouTube, and additionally pops when the volume is manually set at another spot (ie. 50% volume to 75% without scrubbing). 

 

Pops are also noticeable when gaming, but only sometimes. Example, it does not happen at all in Final Fantasy XIV but DOES happen in a game like Skyrim when voice lines suddenly end (through ending dialogue or clicking through dialogue). 

 

Things I've tried to fix the issue:

Replaced motherboard. 

Updated bios. 

Tried a different gpu. 

Tried different ram. 

Tried different headphones.

Updated power settings and everything to do with power (USB selective suspend, power plan to Ryzen high performance)

Swapped PSU. 

Adjusted vddp voltages, etc. 

Under/overclocked the processor.

Uninstalled and clean installed gpu drivers using DDU.

Unplugged my USB wireless network adapter. 

Disabled realtek audio drivers in device manager. 

Sideloaded Linux to see if that would help (it didn't)

Reseated everything in case to make sure there was no grounding issue

 

All told, I'm exhausted, tired, and ready to give up and sell all my stuff off to buy a prebuilt. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

 

[Boomwebsearch]

26 minutes ago, voluxius said:

Hi all,

 

Been having some issues with a build for a couple of months now and I'm seriously at my limit trying to figure out what is going on. 

 

The Build:

Ryzen 7 3800x 

Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600mhz c16 (currently underclocked to 3200, to better match the processor)

Asus ROG STRIX B550-F gaming

EVGA Supernova Platinum 750w

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB ssd

Samsung 970 EVO plus 500gb nvme

GTX 1060 6gb

(Currently using a razer wireless headset)

 

The Issue:

I've been having some audio issues, as you might expect by the title. Basically, when audio starts or stops, or audio is at a specific tone (I think that's the word) there is a noticeable crackling/popping. In addition, audio cracks are noticeable when repeatedly clicking on the Windows system audio volume bar. Audio also buzzes when scrubbing volume on websites like YouTube, and additionally pops when the volume is manually set at another spot (ie. 50% volume to 75% without scrubbing). 

 

Pops are also noticeable when gaming, but only sometimes. Example, it does not happen at all in Final Fantasy XIV but DOES happen in a game like Skyrim when voice lines suddenly end (through ending dialogue or clicking through dialogue). 

 

Things I've tried to fix the issue:

Replaced motherboard. 

Updated bios. 

Tried a different gpu. 

Tried different ram. 

Tried different headphones.

Updated power settings and everything to do with power (USB selective suspend, power plan to Ryzen high performance)

Swapped PSU. 

Adjusted vddp voltages, etc. 

Under/overclocked the processor.

Uninstalled and clean installed gpu drivers using DDU.

Unplugged my USB wireless network adapter. 

Disabled realtek audio drivers in device manager. 

Sideloaded Linux to see if that would help (it didn't)

Reseated everything in case to make sure there was no grounding issue

 

All told, I'm exhausted, tired, and ready to give up and sell all my stuff off to buy a prebuilt. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Seems that this could be caused due to a DPC latency issue, I would suggest trying to use a DPC latency checking software to verify the situation (let it run for some time and then add screenshots to this thread). 

[voluxius]

5 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

 

Seems that this could be caused due to a DPC latency issue, I would suggest trying to use a DPC latency checking software to verify the situation (let it run for some time and then add screenshots to this thread). 

Ah, yeah, I forgot to mention that as something I've already tried. I d used latency Mon and the results at idle usually return storport.sys or the various Nvidia drivers as responsible for high DPC Latency. I don't have those results on hand but I can redo them when I'm home in about an hour. 

[voluxius]

2 hours ago, Boomwebsearch said:

 

Seems that this could be caused due to a DPC latency issue, I would suggest trying to use a DPC latency checking software to verify the situation (let it run for some time and then add screenshots to this thread). 

So interestingly, I ran latencymon again, this time for about 35 minutes, completely idle, nothing wonky happened. Ran some youtube, and DPC latency has ended up being just fine. Atttaching screens from LatencyMon as well as a link to a pastebin file for the full dump, here.

[ShadowLittlest]

I've been having the same issue for months and have researched it as much as I can, there doesn't seem to be a solution at the moment nor does anyone I've seen even have a reasonable idea of what is causing it besides some Windows shenanigans (despite it also occurring on other OSes).

 

Here's another thread on the same topic I've posted in: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1316605-weird-inconsistent-audio-cracking-problem/

 

Since then I went and bought a dedicated sound card and the issue is the same even with that, so I just gave up and accepted the popping/crackling for now. I know this isn't much help but trying to fix this will legit drive you crazy. It's not an outlet issue either, I've had this happen on a laptop running off battery as well.

[voluxius]

8 hours ago, ShadowLittlest said:

I've been having the same issue for months and have researched it as much as I can, there doesn't seem to be a solution at the moment nor does anyone I've seen even have a reasonable idea of what is causing it besides some Windows shenanigans (despite it also occurring on other OSes).

 

Here's another thread on the same topic I've posted in: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1316605-weird-inconsistent-audio-cracking-problem/

 

Since then I went and bought a dedicated sound card and the issue is the same even with that, so I just gave up and accepted the popping/crackling for now. I know this isn't much help but trying to fix this will legit drive you crazy. It's not an outlet issue either, I've had this happen on a laptop running off battery as well.

Well, that's... Reassuring, at least, to know that it's not just an isolated incident with my machine. I notice that the other thread has a build that features a 3700x; I wonder if it's a problem with the architecture of this series of processors, or if we just happened to lose silicon lottery? The only thing I haven't tried to replace in my rig yet are the processor and storage devices, as I was sure those wouldn't be the culprit. It's very annoying and since I've noticed it I've basically become hyper-aware of the sounds and it's driving me absolutely freaking nuts! 

I was going to try a sound card next, so this at least saves me a few dollars in the interim. I'm going to try upgrading to a 5600x here relatively soon so if that works, I'll report back. 

I also wondered if using the same SSD that I've been using for a few years could potentially be it, as I cloned an old HDD to it years ago when I made the switch and had to enable CSM support in the new bios to get a boot into Windows, but as this other post has an NVME which I would assume is NOT cloned, I don't think that's an issue. 

At this point, based on the thread, I have to assume it's a processor issue, perhaps an incompatibility with something in Windows. That's all I can think of, which... If that's the case, I'm going to be extremely annoyed at AMD/Windows for not having a fix. This is absolute insanity, tbh. 

Guess I'll put a 5600x on order and hope that fixes the issue, lol. Thanks for the input though, it's good to know I'm not going absolutely insane and this isn't an isolated issue. I wonder if putting a support ticket in with AMD would do anything. Probably not - these processors are old news now and they likely want to focus on the new series. 

[ShadowLittlest]

20 minutes ago, voluxius said:

 

One thing I haven't tried is replacing my SSD, which I know is having some issues because it benchmarks below what it should compared to others despite seemingly running fine. I'm going to try that when I have the expendable income and I'll let you know if it makes a difference, but I'm not hopeful since the issue doesn't seem isolated solely to my PC.

 

The only other common thread I've noticed is many of the reports come from people with Z390 motherboards, although it certainly isn't exclusive to them. Tried all the weird registry fixes, tried underclocking things, adjusting voltages, updating BIOS, complete SSD format and fresh Windows reinstall, none of it made a shred of difference. If you do somehow manage to get your problem solved I'd love to hear about it, best of luck my man.