Audio crackling and fuzzy when CPU/GPU stress test and during gaming

[jhack22]

Troubleshooting Help:

*What is your parts list? *

Parts List

Intel Core i5-6600k 3.5GHz (Overclocked to 4.1)

MSI- Geforce GTX 1070 8Gb Video Card

Corsair H100i v2 liquid cpu cooler

Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1141 Motherboard

Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5 SSD

Wesetern Digital - 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM (pc part picker only had 1tb drive)

Seagate Barracuda - 2tb 3.5" 7200RPM

Hyperx Cloud 2

corsair artics 7

Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio interface

 

Describe your problem. List any error messages and symptoms. Be descriptive.

During gaming sessions, I started to notice my audio became extremely fuzzy, and friends became complaining about my voice “sounding like a microwave”. The audio sounds like a combination of fuzz and dropping out for .1 seconds randomly. Another clue is that the HDMI signal to my second monitor is crystal clear and has never had any issue.

Replace this text with your answer.

 

List anything you've done in attempt to diagnose or fix the problem.

The first thing I did was purchase new headsets. I say headsets because I initially thought it was a faulty corsair arctis 7, after three total I switched to the Hyper X cloud 2, which I have had two, and the issue was on all headsets. I then reinstalled my driver, reformatted my hard drive (deleting all applications and reinstalling them). Then I used an external audio interface Scarlett 2i2 usb, connected to my headset and still the issue persisted. Defeated, I took my computer to a local computer shop and attempted to have them fix it, they told me that everything was fine and my issue was simply that my CPU couldn’t handle the game and the audio at the same time. This does not make sense to me as my CPU never reaches maximum load during gaming sessions, and it is overclocked to 4.1GHz which should be able to handle a game and audio. I used HeavyLoad to test individually my CPU and GPU, and when the CPU is at 100% load, after 45 seconds the audio becomes unplayable, 60 seconds the audio is barely recognizable. The GPU test the audio was still noticeably fuzzy, but still playable. Both CPU and GPU test resulted in a barely recognizable audio after about 45 seconds. Doing some searching online I found the term “internal interference “referenced, although no inclination on how to fix it.

 

Provide any additional details you wish below.

Please help, I am desperate. I also have poor cable management, if that could cause interference I do not know. If this can not be fixed, please let me know what parts to replace or things to buy, I just want my pc audio to work while I play games. 

[Majestic]

What do you use the scarlett for?

[williamcll]

turn down your bitrate.

[jhack22]

Majestic I use the Scarlett to run audio in/out for making music on my mac.

Wiliamcll I have tried that it has not worked.

[jhack22]

32 minutes ago, CUDAcores89 said:

Ive actually had this problem before, and i could never figure out what it was.

 

I solved the issue by buying a USB DAC and it went away.

Wouldn't the Scarlett usb Audio Interface do the same thing as a DAC?

[JabroniBaloney]

18 hours ago, CUDAcores89 said:

Ive actually had this problem before, and i could never figure out what it was.

 

I solved the issue by buying a USB DAC and it went away.

Electromagnetic interference.

[akio123008]

19 hours ago, jhack22 said:

Another clue is that the HDMI signal to my second monitor is crystal clear and has never had any issue.

of course, that's got absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

19 hours ago, jhack22 said:

Doing some searching online I found the term “internal interference “referenced, although no inclination on how to fix it.

How is that possible when you're using that external audio interface?

 

[akio123008]

19 hours ago, jhack22 said:

I used HeavyLoad to test individually my CPU and GPU, and when the CPU is at 100% load, after 45 seconds the audio becomes unplayable, 60 seconds the audio is barely recognizable. 

Be a bit more specific. What does "the audio" mean here? Are you playing music on the computer from a file during the test? Are you playing a game at the same time? To me this looks like a networking problem. Poor network/internet connection performance can lead to the "microwave" sound and the drops that you mentioned.

[akio123008]

9 minutes ago, CUDAcores89 said:

This is what i origionally thought. The problem is the onboard audio on my motherboard was shielded, so EMI would be very unlikely.

 

I later tried with a PCIe sound card and it worked just fine. This PCIe sound card has no shielding.

But the distance between the PCIe audio board and the motherboard is much greater than the distance between the onboard audio chip and the other electronics on the motherboard, which could make a difference. Shielding is good, but often, distance is even better.

[jhack22]

7 hours ago, JabroniBaloney said:

Electromagnetic interference.

How do I solve this issue?

 

5 hours ago, akio123008 said:

Be a bit more specific. What does "the audio" mean here? Are you playing music on the computer from a file during the test? Are you playing a game at the same time? To me this looks like a networking problem. Poor network/internet connection performance can lead to the "microwave" sound and the drops that you mentioned.

The audio means anything that makes a sound, music, chrome, games. They all sound static/fuzzy. I recently moved, but this issue happened in both places I have lived, with 200mbps up/100mbps down and currently 50/25, so it can not be a network issue. 

 

3 hours ago, CUDAcores89 said:

This is what i origionally thought. The problem is the onboard audio on my motherboard was shielded, so EMI would be very unlikely.

 

I later tried with a PCIe sound card and it worked just fine. This PCIe sound card has no shielding.

Would this work if my Scarlett audio interface did not work? What is the difference between an Audio Interface/USB DAC/ sound card, I was going to purchase one but I don't understand how they would work when the USB Audio Interface did not. 

[akio123008]

When the sound card is outside of the computer, which is the case with the scarlett, interference is extremely unlikely to be the problem.

 

Also, a sound card is a card inside a computer that deals with audio, just like a video card renders graphics onto a display, a sound card is a computer component that outputs an audio signal, or accepts an audio signal from a microphone or audio input.

 

DAC = digital to analogue converter, a device that converts digital information into an audio signal. Every sound card always contains a DAC, because the computer provides it with digital information that needs to be converted into an audio signal. an ADC is the opposite, it converts an audio signal into digital information. If a sound card has an audio input, it also has an ACD to convert an incoming signal into digital information.

 

Finally, the term "audio interface" is a very broad term that basically describes nothing more than a box that you can plug audio devices into, but generally people use it to describe a soundcard that is installed outside of the computer. So the term "sound card" is usually used for an internal (PCI) card, and the term "audio interface" is usually used for some sort of external device that is connected through USB. Also, since an audio interface is basically a sound card, it obviously also contains a DAC and ADC.

 

[jhack22]

So if the Scarlett doesn't work, buying a DAC or a sound card will also not work?
I have no idea how to fix this.

[akio123008]

6 hours ago, jhack22 said:

So if the Scarlett doesn't work, buying a DAC or a sound card will also not work?
I have no idea how to fix this.

No probably not. I think the problem could be the computer, not the audio interface. To verify this, test the scarlett and your headphones on another machine, if it works, then something about your computer is the problem.

[jhack22]

FIXED! For anyone searching for this, I used an older version of the Bios, 3301. 

[TristanTheBeepBoop]

On 9/5/2018 at 11:04 AM, jhack22 said:

FIXED! For anyone searching for this, I used an older version of the Bios, 3301. 

Bro. I have been trying to fix this issue for a solid week. 
Same issue here Asus Z170 and a Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen.

Switching to Bios 3301 fixed it for me. I was on 3007. You are a hero. I have been on so many forums with so many people giving the same dog**** advice on every thread. Thank you for an actual solution. big kudos