Sound issues!

Gray

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
3,418
I hate making new threads on specific topics, especially if there was a topic i made within a small time window, its just not right ;).

Irregardless, this problem seems to be the only remaining issue i have in relations to my new Windows 7 install since everything else has worked out nicely.

Now, for the past couple of weeks (It might well have been when i first installed Windows 7 -But it wasn't as noticable for some reason?) i have been getting a lot of sound crackling coming through my headphones.

It happens rarely, maybe 3-4 times per day but the crackling is sharp so its become immediately noticable to me. The main culprit it happens to is when i play games (Like Warcraft) however i have had it happen to iTunes while playing music and also things like Youtube when a video is playing.

With music/movies etc its uncommon though, but it happens far far more in Warcraft - Especially if theres a lot of stuff happening at the time. As some people know with Warcraft you can have lots of people throwing out spells etc simultaneously, and its at these periods where the crackling intensifies.

I checked on the internet, i checked forums but as of yet i have not found a solution to MY problem. My sound comes from my onboard sound on my Asus P5K motherboard (Realtek ALC883 ?). I have several times removed the drivers from device manager to reinstall the new drivers listed (Vista_Win7_R238.exe) but to no avail.

What confuses me alot though, is when i install the drivers after uninstalling them, the crackling stops/becomes unnoticable. Then after a period of 6-12 hours, the crackling starts to creep in again - Hence i am highly confused??

Over the past few days i have (I think?) slightly narrowed down the potential problem. Especially what makes it tic in Warcraft anyway. The general sounds etc seem to not cause the crackling/distortion in the sound, but as soon as i near something which is causing special-sound effects, this is where the crackling becomes noticable.

Example: I get close to a winged creature, while i am at a distance everything is normal. As soon as i near it, and you hear the noises like, flapping wings - As soon as you hear the "woosh" of the wing - Thats when the crackle occurs.

So anyone have any leads on what potentially maybe causing this? When i was on WinXP i didn't have any crackling to my knowledge, its only somewhat started to turn up now. I suspect drivers, but if this was the case more people would have brought it up about the drivers - And that hasnt been the case.

Windows 7 32bit
Asus P5k Motherboard
Realtek ALC 883 Onboard sound (Drivers R2.39)
GeForce 8800GT (Driver 178.24)
4gb memory


One thing i have potentially overlooked is Codecs - I seen some mention of it somewhere, but would codecs cause THIS much hassle? I was never under the assumption they affected anything but movies and what not. Probably barking up the wrong tree with it but i dont know.
 

Kryten

Old Cow.
Moderator
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
3,351
I can't be a huge amount of help unfortunately with the specific issue but I will concur that you're not the only one with issues on your onboard sound and Windows 7. I too noticed the odd crackle and what not on my P5KE when I used the onboard (as I was going to get rid of the X-Fi) and that itself made me keep using the ol' Creative slugger. It's also something i've heard a fair bit about from other people on other forums; will be worth you taking a look at the motherboard forums over at Asus : ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum-
 

Gray

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
3,418
Oh it sucks. I found that forum a few days ago and was half way through making a post on there when i decided to try reinstalling the drivers one last time.

Of course it worked so i thought i fixed the problem.

I do have a feeling it is something to do with Windows 7 or drivers to some extent, just a shame that i dont have a soundcard to use.
 

Gray

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
3,418
Slight update, but it seems it might not be affecting just my motherboard/system. People with Creative soundcards are also experiencing this crackling.

Someone checked and it might be due to a Windows update (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Compatibility Update.

I guess this means that i have to persist with the crackling until hopefully Microsoft gets around to fixing it, if they're infact aware of the problem or not.

Creative forums
 

Roo Stercogburn

Resident Freddy
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,486
Sometimes you get crackling or other sound artefacts when CPU usage goes too high. Perhaps the soundcard drivers/services are running at too high a priority as default?

This happens to me mainly when using music apps and I get a bit too enthusastic but in theory it could happen when any type of sound-using app is in use.
 

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