Sound Cracking (Z77-D3H)

First, there is no "one fix" for this problem. If you look at what has been posted here (the many posts on this subject) you will see there can be many potential causes.

The EasyTune is one (and it got me on my new Gigabyte motherboard install as I had high latency spikes until I uninstalled it). Wireless adapters is another. Device Drivers can be another issue (check Gigabyte and update any needed drivers). Video card drivers are another. External to the PC, wireless devices can cause interference.

Disconnect the front panel headphone and mic connection from the motherboard and see if that makes any difference. Dell had a problem with one model a while back due to the routing of the front panel headphone/mic cables. Rerouting the cables fixed the Dell problem.

Also, since you have an i5, it has built in video. Although not as good as your video card, remove the video card and use the Intel video, if your motherboard has a video out port, just to see if the video card is causing anything.

Running the DPC Latency Checker will show if there is a problem (it showed mine and as soon as I uninstalled EastTune my latency dropped down to consistently under 100uSec). DPC Latency Checker

Hi fireberd,

Thanks for the quick reply, i have downloaded the DPC Latency Checker, and i am waiting to test it when the crackling appears.

This motherboard does not Support WiFi, and all of my processor/motherboard/discrete graphics drivers are up to date. The front panel has also been disabled, with no avail. I have also checked if it is my graphics card by disabling it and the problem is still at large.

I have one more thing to add.

Earlier on this week, i disabled my ethernet adapter while the crackling was at large, and the crackling immediately stopped. I have however, installed all the latest updates for Atheros Ethernet/LAN and there has been no fix. I think there must be a problem with the adapter in that case, but i am not completely sure, but it is a helpful pointer towards a solution.

EDIT: Disconnecting the adapter does not solve this problem at all this time

Try this and see what happens. The sound is on a shared IRQ (Interrupt) with a higher priority device. Sometimes when its uninstalled/reinstalled Windows will put it on a different shared IRQ and symptoms can change.

Go to the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the sound then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT check the box to also uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound.

I did as you advised, but that did not fix the crackling sound. I have also gone through device manager and disabled most of the drivers while the sound was present, and that did not help either.

Another thing to add is, that yesterday for a while the sound crackling was not present, but my headphones kept on getting disconnected and reconnected by windows itself, which shut off all the sound, microphone and made them have to be reconfigured again. I'm not sure again, but i don't think the sound crackling was present during those moments.

EDIT: On the DPC Latency Checker, i get two kinds of crackling. Short, occasional pops/cracks which show up on the DPC Latency Checker, and a persistent static/crackling sound which does not show up on the Checker.

You have done all the usual things that help or minimize the problem. As this is a new build, a problem with the motherboard is not out of the question.

You noted you do not have EasyTune6 installed, how about other utilities that Gigabyte supplied (that you aren't directly using)? Or maybe some other software such as an Antivirus (I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials).

I don't see anything there that would cause your problems. I have basically the same thing installed in my Gigabyte system. I didn't install the USB port charging option but I don't think that would cause any problems. I have dual Ethernet controllers and ports (an Intel and an Atheros (I only use the Intel).

If you don't have an Intel NIC the drivers will not work (or install). I have an upgraded model Gigabyte board and it has an Intel NIC, along with a second (Atheros) NIC.