USB Audio Snap, Crackle, Pop

[wooleyhd]

The main issue now is that I have bought and returned a HyperX Cloud Flight wireless USB headset because It had issues, but then found out that even my new SteelSeries Arctis Pro's have the same exact issues.

The issue with the two USB headsets is a very frequent stuttering and just general audio glitches, pops, crackles, whatever you would like to call them. Either way these sounds are very annoying and they are not something that anyone could just ignore. I questioned whether or not this was just how usb headsets worked but I couldn't imagine that.

Anyways I have tried everything, I mean everything to try and solve these issues.
I tried plugging into every single USB port that I have, even the external USB ports that are on my monitor, no matter where I plug the USB into I have issues. It's not better one place over the other.
I tried updating drivers - nope
Reinstalling Windows? - nope
Reinstalling drivers? - nope
Disabling audio enhancements/ changing audio quality rates - nope

 

These issues seems to happen mostly with online video (youtube, twitch, etc.) .
BUT I have noticed funny audio cracks while playing games, specifically Fallout 4, some random pop that would happen every once in a while, who knows...

By the way I have also tested my usb headset on my ASUS laptop. It also seems to have an audio popping issue, but not so much a stuttering issue... yet.
I thought It was so strange that both my pc and laptop were having a very similar issue, with
TWO DIFFERENT USB HEADSETS!!! Yes both the hyperx cloud flight wireless, and the steelseries arctis pro wired.

My PC has realtek audio

Laptop has conexant smartaudio

So wireless wasn't the problem after seeing that my steelseries have the same problems as the wireless hyperx. I thought at this point that my pc had some curse that when you plug a usb headset into it, it just destroys it or something.

Anyways, I would appreciate any help with this, obviously you can probably tell this is driving me insane, so thank you in advance for any of the help you provide. Let me know if I can give you any more info to help solve this.

My PC: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/WooleyHD/saved/Rcyrxr
My laptop: Don't know exactly, its an AsusPro i7-7500U I think

[Moonzy]

if the headsets are using 2.4ghz wireless (most consumer things are), then interference might be your issue

 

do you live in a crowded apartment with a lot of wifi signals? or near an access point?

[wooleyhd]

2 hours ago, Moonzy said:

if the headsets are using 2.4ghz wireless (most consumer things are), then interference might be your issue

 

do you live in a crowded apartment with a lot of wifi signals? or near an access point?

That's the thing, the HyperX headset that I had was wireless. So thinking that was the issue, I traded them in for a wired SteelSeries one. And still get same issue.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, wooleyhd said:

That's the thing, the HyperX headset that I had was wireless. So thinking that was the issue, I traded them in for a wired SteelSeries one. And still get same issue.

does the issue present itself if your laptop is on battery power and not connected to your house's wiring ground?

[EsaT]

DPC latency issues could easily cause such audio issues.

Set this program to monitor latency on background, påreferably until you have those audio issues and then check drivers tab:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

[wooleyhd]

14 hours ago, Moonzy said:

does the issue present itself if your laptop is on battery power and not connected to your house's wiring ground?

It happens less often on the laptop. But yes, it still happens on battery power and connected.

[Tyler Moore]

Sounds like potential down-sampling, what's your sample rates set to both with your speaker and microphone?

Having a crazy rate can screw the whole show up.

[wooleyhd]

7 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

Sounds like potential down-sampling, what's your sample rates set to both with your speaker and microphone?

Having a crazy rate can screw the whole show up.

I've tried changing them before but always went back to the default. Which is what it is now. 2 channel 16bit 48000hz

[wooleyhd]

2 hours ago, EsaT said:

DPC latency issues could easily cause such audio issues.

Set this program to monitor latency on background, påreferably until you have those audio issues and then check drivers tab:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

[Tyler Moore]

Ah there's your problem!

Your values are out of whack, 60 - 300 is normal mines in the 100 range.

What shot the latency right up like that? Show us the driver list

[wooleyhd]

Just now, Tyler Moore said:

Ah there's your problem!

Your values are out of whack, 60 - 300 is normal mines in the 100 range.

What shot the latency right up like that?

was watching a stream and boom it shot up as soon as the issue happened

[Tyler Moore]

Take a screen shot of the driver list/processor.

[wooleyhd]

2 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

Take a screen shot of the driver list/processor.

[Tyler Moore]

Do you have video-card drivers installed?

I don't see at all nvlddmkm.sys for nvidia (not sure what AMDs is), the dxgkrnl.sys is top list is not good. it's at least 4 -5th in the list or should be roughly.

[wooleyhd]

1 minute ago, Tyler Moore said:

Do you have video-card drivers installed?

Yes actually I'm trying to get the problem to occur again that screenshot of driver list isn't the correct test I did.

[Tyler Moore]

Ah cause your video-card driver should genuinely be first in list, and the fact I don't see any looks like you need the Intel HD graphics/AMD drivers or nvidia drivers (could be wrong but the list doesn't show it).

You also mentioned it occured when using graphics intensive tasks, are you sure you have the driver installed not just the one from windows?

(either way, food time for me run some tests take pictures when it spikes and let us see at that time which driver went bonkers!@

[wooleyhd]

10 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

Ah cause your video-card driver should genuinely be first in list, and the fact I don't see any looks like you need the Intel HD graphics/AMD drivers or nvidia drivers (could be wrong but the list doesn't show it).

You also mentioned it occured when using graphics intensive tasks, are you sure you have the driver installed not just the one from windows?

(either way, food time for me run some tests take pictures when it spikes and let us see at that time which driver went bonkers!@

So I have all my drivers. My main monitor is running through my graphics card (amd) and then my second monitor is running through the intel hd graphics.

This time I didn't even notice a huge audio stutter but it spiked either way. Still hearing the audio cracks though.

Processes

Drivers

CPUs

[Tyler Moore]

Download Driver Booster; install and update the PCs drivers. Would appear that critical drivers are taking far too long with a high execution time.

Enable High Performance as well in power options and increase the virtual memory (or buy more ram). The VR/RAM is to fix your page-faulting.

[wooleyhd]

20 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

Download Driver Booster; install and update the PCs drivers. Would appear that critical drivers are taking far too long with a high execution time.

Enable High Performance as well in power options and increase the virtual memory (or buy more ram). The VR/RAM is to fix your page-faulting.

So I have 24GB of RAM how much should I put for virtual memory

[Tyler Moore]

It's inevitable that page faults will happen. In fact it can shoot as high as yours did especially when the app steam runs. The thing is we don't want this constantly firing off as it delays us.

The fix typically is ensuring you have a virtual memory system managed or set to atleast 2 - 4GB+.

As for the other stuff, do the driver update and it should maybe fix those up and the power-option definitely try it if it's not already set.

[wooleyhd]

15 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

It's inevitable that page faults will happen. In fact it can shoot as high as yours did especially when the app steam runs. The thing is we don't want this constantly firing off as it delays us.

The fix typically is ensuring you have a virtual memory system managed or set to atleast 2 - 4GB+.

As for the other stuff, do the driver update and it should maybe fix those up and the power-option definitely try it if it's not already set.

Ok so I updated 5 drivers, my power options have always been at high performance, and my virtual memory is set to system managed.

Still getting problem.

[Tyler Moore]

Not sure where to take it from here, this is odd. Could think it's FSB related but I don't know. This is a tough one.

You can maybe try closing some applications and seeing if they themselves caused the issue. If you didn't grab the video graphics drivers from manufacturer site, go do that. Perhaps disabling on-board audio through bios (temp) to test if it was conflicting. 

Other than that, don't th ink I can help this is a stubborn issue; nearly took me 3 months on a monitor problem a while back so hoping you find the GURU to your problem.

[wooleyhd]

1 minute ago, Tyler Moore said:

Not sure where to take it from here, this is odd. Could think it's FSB related but I don't know. This is a tough one.

You can maybe try closing some applications and seeing if they themselves caused the issue. If you didn't grab the video graphics drivers from manufacturer site, go do that. Perhaps disabling on-board audio through bios (temp) to test if it was conflicting. 

Other than that, don't th ink I can help this is a stubborn issue; nearly took me 3 months on a monitor problem a while back so hoping you find the GURU to your problem.

FSB related? And no thank you for all your help. I feel like you've helped me at least narrow down what the issue could be.

[Tyler Moore]

Sometimes if clock speeds are not right you can experience this problem. I couldn't say that's your problem, can't say for sure what is but definitely keep searching and post if you find a fix. I'll see what I can track/locate but being this happens on two computers, I'd try another PC (be it a friends or library or w/e).

This issue may even be that you bought defective gear. Could be you setup the system wrong or forgot some things. 

And in case I haven't said it and it ends up being a fix, have you tried downloading the driver for the headset from the website itself? How does that compare to Windows selected driver?

Definitely hope we can get light on this, audio problems are not fun with computers.

[wooleyhd]

39 minutes ago, Tyler Moore said:

Sometimes if clock speeds are not right you can experience this problem. I couldn't say that's your problem, can't say for sure what is but definitely keep searching and post if you find a fix. I'll see what I can track/locate but being this happens on two computers, I'd try another PC (be it a friends or library or w/e).

This issue may even be that you bought defective gear. Could be you setup the system wrong or forgot some things. 

And in case I haven't said it and it ends up being a fix, have you tried downloading the driver for the headset from the website itself? How does that compare to Windows selected driver?

Definitely hope we can get light on this, audio problems are not fun with computers.

So Idk if this is a permanent solution, but I have decided to switch to google chrome instead of firefox. I get much much less of the audio issues using chrome it seems. But this is obviously not the main issue because I still get weird audio issues other places (outside of browsers).