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.

So ive had a similar issue where id start playing music and the music would sound crackly/ sounded like it was being bitcrushed. I use a focusrite scarlett solo and i also use vb audio cable to run my obs through so i can have the obs filters on my mic in discord games ect. I just went and uninstall vb cable my focusrite software, then i just plugged in my focusrite and didnt install the drivers for it and reinstalled the vb cable and i havnt had any problems with the sounds being bitcrushed or cracklyeven after restarting multiple times I also uninstalled and devices i wasnt using in device manager aswell. This has been a fix for me but others might have a different problem to mine. Hope this helps someone.

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.

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

Yep, same issue with me, you're the first one that I saw had Synaptics Audio as well. Ran all of the tests, did all of the things, no dice.

Sure is a tricky problem. My system has been free of the issue for a while now. I am not sure what I did (if anything) that helped that. I am running an old ASUS MB BIOS as I was getting bluescreens occasionally, but I thin I have that narrowed down to an NVIDIA driver issue. Seems like there are many potential causes and the problem isn't big enough to get much attention from Microsoft of other vendors.

Audio crackling/popping when I interact with Windows10

Anonymous

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.

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46 answers

Anonymous

2023-11-10T03:48:43+00:00

So ive had a similar issue where id start playing music and the music would sound crackly/ sounded like it was being bitcrushed. I use a focusrite scarlett solo and i also use vb audio cable to run my obs through so i can have the obs filters on my mic in discord games ect. I just went and uninstall vb cable my focusrite software, then i just plugged in my focusrite and didnt install the drivers for it and reinstalled the vb cable and i havnt had any problems with the sounds being bitcrushed or cracklyeven after restarting multiple times I also uninstalled and devices i wasnt using in device manager aswell. This has been a fix for me but others might have a different problem to mine. Hope this helps someone.
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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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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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Anonymous

2023-06-01T16:16:57+00:00

Yep, same issue with me, you're the first one that I saw had Synaptics Audio as well. Ran all of the tests, did all of the things, no dice.
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Anonymous

2023-05-25T22:45:35+00:00

Sure is a tricky problem. My system has been free of the issue for a while now. I am not sure what I did (if anything) that helped that. I am running an old ASUS MB BIOS as I was getting bluescreens occasionally, but I thin I have that narrowed down to an NVIDIA driver issue.

Seems like there are many potential causes and the problem isn't big enough to get much attention from Microsoft of other vendors.
Was this answer helpful?

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