cracking sound ( not due to speaker set )

Uncle Seamus said:

updated the driver but the sound isn't better

could this be DirectX related? I believe I did a re-install before problems first occurred.

This is a rough one, crackling can be caused by so many different circumstances.

It could be a wireless driver conflicting, or the network adapter (ethernet), or even software using up abnormal amount of CPU.

I see you have an nVidea graphics card... is there a process/program running in the background called "powermizer"? A lot of stuff nVidea runs in the background is heavy handed.

Ap

Uncle Seamus said:

powermizer isn't running as far as I know...I also ran everest to see if my cpu was the cause of the problem, but he seems to be fine stress test didn't show anything unusual, as far as cpu usage or temperature goes

I do have wireless Internet, but I didn't make recent changes to the adapter

I tried another reinstall of directX but it didn't help
I still believe directX may have something to do with this, since problems started very soon after the reinstall

thanks for looking into it

I doubt if it's Direct X, but anything is possible.

If you right click on the taskbar and select "Start Task Manager", select the Processes tab and you will get a list of (depending on the check box) all processes running or processes associated with your user name login.

Also look under "Administrative Tools" and select "Services" often there are services running that have a negative effects on audio, generally associated with the graphics card.

Also, if you would like to test and see if any devices are causing a problem, open device manager and disable Wireless, or the Network adapter, they're easy enough to re-enable.

Was anything different about the most recent re-install, did you download new drivers for any devices?

Ap

I got a stupid question. Have you checked your headphones on another PC? Perhaps the wiring in them is loose. Sometimes the plugin cable gets worn out, and they begin to fail.

Uncle Seamus said:

I have disabled my wireless network adapter but the crackling remained

I also checked device manager and two processes seem a little odd:
"aeadisrv.exe" and "smax4pnp.exe"

besides that: I recently updated the driver for my gtx 280 graphics card

Did you have the crackling audio before the graphics card update?


From the web...

"aeadisrv.exe"

"Andrea ADI Filters Service. Service installed by the SoundMAX SupremeFX drivers for SupremeFX based sound cards, or for SupremeFX onboard sound (many ASUS motherboards, for example), fitted with Andrea Electronics noise filtering technology. The only role of this service is to aid the reduction of background noise when you use a microphone. Nothing else depends on this service.

There have been so many problems with this service since its introduction at the beginning of July 2007, and there are still so many problems at the time of writing, 18-Aug-2008, that the only recommendation we can make is to disable this service immediately.

And.....

Smax4pnp.exe is a system process that is part of the SoundMAX software program. It is not necessary for sound to work on your computer but is mainly used to run or add components to the SoundMAX software program. Smax4pnp.exe is not a malicious spyware of malware and generally runs automatically at startup and can be removed safely without affecting the sound on your computer. Unless you use the SoundMAX audio program, it serves no use on your computer.


Ap

It may be an audio driver conflict. You HAVE tried removing the drivers from Control Panel....right?
I have an Asus P5B Deluxe mb with onboard audio chipset. I had windows 7 install it's default drivers for what it detected. In other words, you don't always need to download and install your mb audio chipset or soundcard drivers. Often times, just letting Windows 7 select the driver is sometimes better than downloading and installing specific drivers. I did NOT have to install the SoundMax drivers to have my windows play sounds fine. Windows own set did fine. In fact, I had some problems with no sound on Youtbue videos. I thought it was Google Chromes fault. It wasn't flash or quicktimes fault.
Here's a major tip, if no YouTube video sounds, uninstall and reinstall audio drivers! It sounds like it wouldn't solve it, but it does for some wierd reason. Many many have found this worked.

I think was a codec conflict as to why Youtube sounds didn't play. It may be with you too.