Static pop/crack (split second) as soon as sound plays through speaker

Hi, I have already solved much of my issue, but it still persists. I have the new skylake 6700K, new board, new everything except the same HD's. Everything on my prior system worked 100%, even the speakers. The 5.1 speakers are sitting in the same spot as the old PC, but when these are plugged in, I had constant static pops/cracks whenever the CPU was being used. Even just moving the mouse made it happen.

I solved that by going through MANY options. There is no interference because they work 100% on my old PC in the same exact spot. I tried other speakers I have and it's the same issue, only on the new PC I get that static. I tried using my old 750w psu, and had the same issues. I took the GPU out, ran onboard, same issue. I moved USB cables all away from the audio ports, same issue. Literally everything works on the old pc. I know my speakers are good, the case ports are good. All that is fine. Headphones give no static, ever, in both ports. Speakers, 2.1 and 5.1, give static off in all audio ports.

I solved this by turning off those CPU power saving options in BIOS. It was EIST and all the C1 C5 C7 states. Anyone I saw, I disabled. The static is gone then from the CPU being used.

THE ISSUE NOW:
Well, lets say I'm navigating through windows explorer, clicking through folders. That windows click sound comes up, but along with that static crack/pop. Anytime NO audio is playing, then when audio wants to play, it introduces it with a static pop. Another example, if I go to youtube, and watch a video, there will be a static pop right at the beginning when it wants to start to play the audio. NOTE: As the video plays, the static is ALL gone, from everything. So as I have a youtube video playing, I can click through windows folders and will hear the click and only the click, without the static pop. As soon as the video stops and no sound is playing, the static pops come back as sound starts for the split second.

Any ideas? I'm also ordering a different mobo (Asus) to see.

Yes I have all drivers up-to-date, correctly installed, yes I have the BIOS updated. I also muted any audio ports not being used. I think I did everything. I spent days on researching it and this is where I am. I also bought a replacement mobo (same one) and had the same exact issues.

Could there be some audio setting in bios that I may disable? Not sure. My board is by Gigabyte:
GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5

I'm trying the Asus Maximus Gene VIII matx Z170 tomorrow.

Any help would be great. I've tried basically anything, but clearly am missing something or it's just a fault in their drivers/BIOS. I am running Windows 7 pro 64

Thank you.

fireberd said:

Run the free Resplendence Latency Mon. It will probably help or even pinpoint what is causing it.

Resplendence Software - Free Downloads

Alright, ran it. it was all good at first for a minute or two, but as soon as I started clicking around, or opening programs (snipping tool even) the "current measured interrupt process latency" would spike up high, then yeah anything basically putting load on the CPU makes it jump up.

I have EIST and the C1 5/6 7 8 options disabled in bios, if those are enabled it gives constant static from even moving the mouse. With those BIOS options disabled, as I've said, I only get a split second of static upon when audio decides to play, and as audio is playing there isn't anymore static.

Also, it appears that on boot up after the computer has been off for awhile, I get no static issues. I am home from work for now and it's been off and I have 0 static, and ran that latency test. But I know after a little bit, the static comes then and is as I've explained it.

Gigabyte suggests to downclock my CPU if it's OC'd. I have it running at default settings from purchasing it off Amazon, it runs at 4GHz (6700k). I shouldn't have to downclock it.. I never messed with any of that.

Any thoughts? I feel like trying the Asus board and if the problem persists on there, THEN I can attempt to downclock, even though I shouldn't have to unless I'm OC'd in a wrong manner or outrageous speed lol. Gigabyte also suggested that the CPU may be faulty, but who knows. I'll try a replacement CPU if downclocking and switching boards doesn't work.

Thanks for the help so far!

fireberd said:

Reading your post, first there will not be any sound without installing some type of sound drivers. You can use the Realtek or use the generic, basic function, Windows installed High Definition Audio Drivers.

You state you uninstalled the Realtek drivers and "that does it". Does that mean you are using the High Definition Audio drivers? or that there is no sound, which would be right since there is no sound driver installed.

Are the sound files you are playing "known good" files? Play a known good audio file and see what you get, such as a commercial audio CD.

Sorry, I meant in Device Manager I uninstalled the realtek drivers. I had all other audio drivers, and no audio software. I guess I had the HD Audio drivers installed still. But I know that as soon as I installed windows and was at desktop, I had 0 static, and it instantly came back during driver installation from CD.

I got realtek audio drivers from their site, (so no other software would be installed, just realtek) and that if When my 5.1 speakers are on 5.1 settings, is when they have static anytime audio plays (for the first split second). When I switch them to "stereo" the static goes away for the most part. If I listen close enough, it's a minor "tic" but then within 20 minutes of having it on stereo, the static cracks return to how it is.

I just don't get it. The speakers work on my old build in the same exact spot/location, same cabling.

I really hope this can be fixed soon. I'd like to at least know if it's a hardware issue so I can replace ASAP, but I think I eliminated most of it being a hardware issue. Grrr.

Thanks for the help so far! I may install Linux on the new PC and see if I get audio issues, that will help tell me if it's hardware or not, I would think. I'll throw Linux on my HD, not SSD, don't want to hurt her! lol.

I got the same issue on my new and old PC, both of them running on Windows 7 64bit and with a Asus mainboard. Someone can help? Its driving me crazy

fireberd said:

On thing to try. Set the speakers to Stereo. Plug a headset into the GREEN speaker jack and see if you get the same static.

I used to have an ASUS P8Z77 LE Plus motherboard on my recording studio backup system. It had Realtek and never had any problems. The PC had both Win 7 64 bit and Win 8.1 64 bit (dual boot system). The board developed a problem and had to be replaced. The replacement is an ASRock Z77 motherboard with Realtek and no problems.

Hey Hinata, try a lot of what I did to troubleshoot it. Make sure you try everything. if it persists, please start a new thread or search other threads. What will be in this thread is more so after going through almost everything that you can troubleshoot and still having the issue. Not to be rude :P just trying to keep focus.

fireberd, on the other Gigabyte board and this one, no static appeared through headphones, ever. I just don't get how I went through 3 boards, and it's still an issue. hence why i'm thinking it's the drivers, considering as soon as those installed, static appeared. I've used my old PSU which currently works in my old system, without issues, and I still got that static on the new system, so it's not the PSU. GPU seems to work fine - I removed it and used on-board graphics, still had static.

Literally the only part I haven't troubleshooted is replacing the CPU.. but it appears to be fine. Not sure if a faulty CPU would cause audio static ONLY when drivers are installed? Seems funky and unlikely. Everything was fine for the short time until I installed drivers.

Headphones work just fine. That's why I'm thinking it's not a motherboard issue, otherwise anything would be messed up.