Audio crackling/popping when I interact with Windows10

Anonymous
2022-07-11T23:53:44+00:00

I recently started having an audio issue a few days ago, where when I have music playing (either on Spotify or Youtube) and I open the Windows Explorer to view files, open an application, hover over buttons or folders in the Explorer, or do anything on my computer, the audio sometimes pops and crackles, reacting to my mouse movements/actions. It also happens when I'm only listening to music and not moving my mouse. It will crackle maybe once every 2-3 minutes. I've gone through several websites and conducted steps to diagnose my problem, such as:

  • updating my audio drivers (no new updates found)
  • removing any sound effects on my playback device
  • changing the default format on my playback device (tried most options)
  • turning/replugging/cleaning/fiddling with the output jacks (I have a front and a rear 3.5mm jack and both of them crackle through my speakers and headphones)
  • reviewing DPC latency/audio processing latency checks via LatencyMon (no issue, got the green light)
  • reviewing overall CPU/memory/GPU usage (CPU and GPU are single digits and memory is around 30% because of browsers and other caches)
  • moving any possible interfering tech out of the way (closest objects are my monitor and keyboard + mouse)
  • "power drained" my computer (shut down, turn off PSU, unplugged everything, hold down power button for 20 seconds)

The only thing I can think of that changed with my computer is that I swapped out my graphics card (from a GTX 980 TI to RTX 2080) about a month before the crackling started. I didn't touch anything around the audio jack pin connectors and the PSU supports the increase in graphics processing power.

I'm out of ideas to try, so I'm hoping someone can give me some further advice.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-08T16:08:05+00:00

    I wanted to reply to this too just in case it's solved...

    I've been dealing with the same issue for maybe two months now, but it's not just the audio crackling. It began when my internal mic stopped working so I was playing around with the drivers and uninstalling some of them to try to get the mic to work again. What ended up happening was that I fixed the mic problem but the AMD Audio Driver (or one of them) got messed up and now every time I restart my laptop it installs the incorrect driver that not only makes the audio pop but it makes it so the audio volume cannot be changed even if it is visually a different volume. It's constantly at 100% volume until I reinstall the driver, but even then the crackling still persists. I'm not a computer expert, but I can usually fix these problems on my own and I've tried everything I can think of, even doing a fresh windows install but it didn't change anything (which baffles me, but I *did* choose to keep my files and stuff so it's probably within those).

    The crackling only happens when I'm using the main speaker, too; it doesn't affect my headphone usage. I'll let the thread know if I ever come across something that helps it, because I try messing around with the files every couple of days since it's so annoying.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-25T03:26:43+00:00

    Just stumbled across this post. Having the same issue. Started on my old PC, about 7 years old still on windows 10.
    Just build a completely new PC, all new hardware and fresh windows 11.....same issue. Tried all the drivers, basically every "fix" I can find.

    So far BT head phones seem to be the only thing that work with no issues. normal headphone, usb, and usb-c all have the crackling issue.

    I'm at a loss at this point.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-25T07:25:40+00:00

    Move your pc to another part of the house, check its not grounding issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-25T07:48:02+00:00

    I spoke too soon. The issue raised it's head again after I installed a new audio tool that has its own drivers. Having a look at what might have got re-enabled that was disabled previously. It's not as bad as before, but happens here and there.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-08-13T09:39:54+00:00

    I went to control panel -> hardware and sound -> sound -> speakers (select your speakers) -> properties -> advanced and then I disabled:

    • Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device
    • Allow hardware acceleration of audio with this device
    • Enable audio enhancements

    It seems to be working fine for now. I don't experience any popping or buzzing anymore and I hope it will stay that way.

    I hope it works for you as well.

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