Popping/crackling noises after changing mobo

After waiting for nearly 6 weeks, I finally got a replacement for my fried mobo (Gigabyte P55A-UD3). It's a different board but practically same as my original one except it has two eSATA ports (P55A-UD3R).

Ultimately, after replacing with the new one I'm experiencing noticeable popping or crackling noises while:

• playing any videos via any media player
• streaming such as youtube
• gaming

I currently use a headphone via USB DAC. More importantly, I don't hear these noises while idling or doing anything that doesn't utilize audio.

After surfing for solutions, I was able to find few simple troubleshootings though non of them fixed the problem:
- Used different USB cables
- Used different USB ports as well as external hub
- Have latest driver version for the DAC
- Disable SPDIF from "recording devices"
- Disabling other audio devices from "device manager"
- Set sampling rate to something else

I also eliminated my headphone and DAC as the problem still happened for other devices. The DPC latency checker didn't help either as it showed constant green results with no drop outs.
With the new installation of mobo, every drivers and BIOS are up to date with newest version.

As a result, I'm starting to suspect the problem is caused by the mobo itself... after all, all of my headphones and DACs worked fine with my previous mobo with no issues.
With that being said, this isn't the only problem that is happening for my newly replaced mobo as there are all sorts of big/small problems which is just driving me nuts atm... I'm in a verge of buying a new mobo and CPU because I don't see the point of returning this mobo again and waiting another 5+ weeks for the replacement which God knows if that board will have the same issues or not.

Though before I do that, I'd like to try one last time so I'd appreciate it if I could get more solutions to try.

fireberd said:

Did you happen to install the Gigabyte "EasyTune" program? If you did, uninstall that. It caused me audio problems in my recording studio system that uses a Gigabyte motherboard (GAZ77X UD5H).

Other things that can contribute to the problem: Wi-Fi, a cordless phone or cell phone close by. Video card drivers, sound card drivers. Also a power supply can cause this.

But, as you have found out there is no "one fix" for the problem.

I'm can't find EasyTune nor I remember installing one.

As for other contributions... I have all of those you've mentioned so I'm not sure where to start with that.
Though wouldn't the fact that I didn't have this issue for the previous mobo rule out all of those contributions? Or it just doesn't matter at all?

fireberd said:

It could very well be the motherboard, just wanted to rule out the other things.

Hmm, seems like replacing my mobo as whole would be a better option... I really don't want to experience another painstaking journey of fixing "unsolvable" problems for weeks. Not to mention I don't want to wait another 5+ weeks for another replacement (if they let me one).

Anyway, thank you for the help really appreciate it.