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
    2024-04-03T01:09:52+00:00

    This is what works for me.

    Problem: loud pop when a sound is played for the first time or a loud pop if there is a gap of time between sound playing.

    In my case it's a Realtek driver. Yours might be different.

    1. Open device manager.
    2. In the list expand 'sound video and game controllers'
    3. Right click 'Realtek high definition audio device' - choose disable - ignore warning and continue
    4. Right-click same file choose 'update driver software' then 'browse computer for device software'
    5. Choose 'let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'
    6. Select Microsoft then Highlight 'high definition audio' (2020) click 'next' again ignore warning and click 'yes'
    7. Restart the computer

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-10T03:17:00+00:00

    I'm not sure if anyone is on this thread but what ended up being my issue was that I had like 4 or 5 different audio devices installed that were all trying to get through at the same time.

    When I went into my device manager -> sound, video and game controllers I disabled (didn't uninstall) every sound device except one (I ended up keeping the NVIDIA one because leaving the Realtek one was still crackling). I also restarted my PC after disabling them to make sure it still worked when I restarted it. Works great! Hope this helps someone maybe.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-12T14:42:15+00:00

    I have had the buzzing sound issue for many years on my work laptops.

    And I suspected it was a power saving 'feature'.

    Finally a third line support person was able to disable the power saving and now the buzzing noise is gone.

    She did it through the registry.

    Funny that everybody is always thinking about updating driviers. This could never be about drivers.

    Everybody needs to shut up about updating drivers. Updating drivers has literally never fixed anything for me ever.

    My advice is to set everything to maximum perfomance and turn off any power saving 'features'

    Go to settings

    then system

    then power & sleep

    then additional power settings

    Select a 'maximum perfomance' power plan or if you cannot do that, good luck with getting a third line support person to do sowmthing similar.

    But now I have the loud pop after 170 seconds of no audio

    Then when I play audio I get the loud pop again.

    I really think this is also a power saving feature somewhere. I never had this issue on any of my home computers that are always on 'maximum perfomance'.

    Here we go again!!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-23T23:44:27+00:00

    Thank you so much! This was messing my spotify up and the first video really helped me. Props to your expertise and humbleness to help those in need.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-10-28T11:20:43+00:00

    I got to this thread as I was having issues with popping suddenly on my Edifier MR4 Speakers/Monitors.

    I use an M-Audio M-Track Solo connected via USB to my PC, and the speakers are connected through this device.

    I was having some popping that I thought was coming from my browser, as activity in Chrome seemed to cause the most constant popping even when no sound was being played. I messed with everything - drivers, cables, Fast Start... Nothing helped.

    ...and then, quite by accident, I just turned the Output volume down on the M-Track, from ~9 to ~5, and increased the volume out from the PC - so essentially had the same volume coming from the speakers, and the popping vanished 😂

    I mention this as others here also mentioned an M-Audio device.

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