Realtek, Windows 7 64RTM Crackle/static/popping

Ok, I'm going to have to ship my desktop back to acer for repair. The crackling and skipping is back, it might be ok for a few hours but then it just sort of randomly starts up again. It ruins the sound in your games and dvds. Only a restart fixes it. It might do it from every 10 to maybe 30 seconds. I don't think it has anything to do with the realtek audio since my external creative x fi does the same darn thing.

I'm starting to believe that this isn't normal even for Windows 7. I'm beginning to think if it really was windows 7 there would be millions of people complaining about it. Anyway, what should I tell acer?

Also I don't know if it's related but every once in a while like every couple of mins or so sometimes when I'm like while watching a DVD there will be some noticable artifacts and it looks like the video is almost going to skip. I was also playing a game where the screen would kind of flicker. That shouldn't happen with a pc like this, here is the specs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883103230

That PC will lag with modern games - a GT220 isn't built for games, and the flicker is most likely the refresh rate or response time of the monitor. I have not experienced this issue with Realtek sound - neither a laptop or home built pc or vista desktop. Have you tried updating the chipset and BIOS and disabling onboard sound and trying an external or internal sound card?

Home made turn based RPGs don't exactly require a lot of power, It happens with them. I've tried an external creative x fi sound card and it does the same thing. I've also tried disabling the on board audio in device manager, still does it.

I can't reproduce it all the time but if I leave the computer on for several hours it will start doing it. I don't want to update the BIOS and I imagine it already is up to date, the computer is only over a month old. I don't want to really mess something up. I already did a complete system restore(everything gone) and it still happens

It won't be messed up, and this is why building your pc is a better idea as you have exact control over what goes where. Regardless, update everything and disable the sound in BIOS, not device manager. Use the guide in my sig.

Thanks for the info, octane. I downloaded that program. I take it that it's bad when you get a red bar on the Latency Checker? What did you disable to get rid of this? I'm just having trouble narrowing down what it might be that's causing this. I will mess around in the Device Manager and see if network driver or USB device might be causing this. What is the SATA? Thanks again for keeping up the investigatory work on this annoying problem!

octane097 said:

EDIT:I wish there was a way to stress test. Doesn't anyone have a recommendation on how to do so?

Try Intel burn test. Works for Intel and AMD systems.
IntelBurnTest - The new stress-testing program - XtremeSystems Forums

Alright, after installing Windows 7 i ran into some issues (non-working resolutions on CRT monitor etc...) and during my search i passed this board.
Because i had a little soundproblem in a flightsim called LockOn, i installed the latest RealTek drivers (2.39) over the native Windows 7 drivers and then... i had crack-, scratch- and popnoices.
The new driver didn't solve the problem i have in LockOn so i rolled back to the native Win7 drivers and the crack-, scratch- and popnoices went away again.

I too, like most of us here, haven't found any solution to this problem...yet.

But i was not really amazed when it showed up after installing the RealTek drivers. This crack-, scratch- and popnoice problem has been around for ages. I was first confronted with it way back with Win98 (didn't had any problems in Win95 with a Soundblaster card) and has since then given me throuble on every PC (always self build) and every OS used (excluding Vista, i skipped that one).
I did too, like a few others here, bought a new soundcard from another brand then the one i was actualy using in hoping it would solve the problem, only to discover that the problem even got worse.
Some people have it, some solved it temporary, some solved it definitive, some will never find a solution but since it's been around for ages, there is no easy single solution for everybody. As i have to find out yet "again".
I hereby continue my search for this OS and for my current PC. The only solution that i have found working atm are the Windows native sounddrivers. I can live with that for now.

octane097 said:

I don't want to jump to conclusions here but as someone who has been at the forefront of this battle, I believe I may have solved this problem and I would like to share with you how i did it.

First off, let me stress, the solution will be different for everyone! (which is why we're seeing different **** working for different people).

The key to solving this problem is to get your DPC Latency under control. It has been mentioned in this thread before but THIS IS THE SOLUTION... the fact that different configurations worked for different people corroborates my theory. For me, it was upgrading certain drivers (chipset, network driver, and my SATA).

Anyway, here's your framework:

1) Get DPC Latency Checker
2) Narrow down which driver is the culprit by disabling a different one every time
3) Upgrade each of your drivers from the manufacturer's site
4) Once you don't have any lag -- all green -- you're good to go!

My hypothesis is windows 7 is more sensitive to DPC latency issues. GOOD LUCK

EDIT: After 48 hour uptime crackling and popping seem to have returned but not nearly at the same levels that they were before. I wish there was a way to stress test. Doesn't anyone have a recommendation on how to do so? Perhaps the best track/video to play to see how bad it is?

EDIT 2: Apparently my DPC is back out of wack AGAIN... which may explain this. Stay tuned! It's being caused by NIC.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

After weeks of trying to find a solution to distorted Win 7 startup/boot sound and intermittant buzzing in audio and video playback without success I used this DPC Latency Checker to help me finally track the cause down to a Safecom SWLPT-54125 802.11g Wireless PCI card I had installed (couldn't find proper Win 7 drivers for it so used some old drivers which appeared on the face of it to work OK).

As soon as I disabled the card the audio and video sound distortion vanished instantly!

Lange said:

Alright, after installing Windows 7 i ran into some issues (non-working resolutions on CRT monitor etc...) and during my search i passed this board.
Because i had a little soundproblem in a flightsim called LockOn, i installed the latest RealTek drivers (2.39) over the native Windows 7 drivers and then... i had crack-, scratch- and popnoices.
The new driver didn't solve the problem i have in LockOn so i rolled back to the native Win7 drivers and the crack-, scratch- and popnoices went away again.

I too, like most of us here, haven't found any solution to this problem...yet.

But i was not really amazed when it showed up after installing the RealTek drivers. This crack-, scratch- and popnoice problem has been around for ages. I was first confronted with it way back with Win98 (didn't had any problems in Win95 with a Soundblaster card) and has since then given me throuble on every PC (always self build) and every OS used (excluding Vista, i skipped that one).
I did too, like a few others here, bought a new soundcard from another brand then the one i was actualy using in hoping it would solve the problem, only to discover that the problem even got worse.
Some people have it, some solved it temporary, some solved it definitive, some will never find a solution but since it's been around for ages, there is no easy single solution for everybody. As i have to find out yet "again".
I hereby continue my search for this OS and for my current PC. The only solution that i have found working atm are the Windows native sounddrivers. I can live with that for now.

Check msinfo32.exe for any IRQ conflicts in Hardware/devices. Do you have any attached PCI devices not in use? Any external hardware that may conflicting? Disable unnecessary options in the BIOS such as serial ports? Possible tried enabling spread spectrum if your BIOS has it?