Crackles and pops after running a hardware monitoring p

eyo · May 16, 2010

rogram.

As the title suggests, I'm having pops, crackles, short interruptions when playing back audio (Winamp, Youtube, ...). Immediately after restart (or after resuming from sleep) everything is fine. Then, after I run something like CPU-Z or HWMonitor the pops and crackles start. They don't go away after closing those programs, but only after restart.

I read this thread, but since this issue for me (so far) seems more specifically determined I decided to make a new one, so that we discuss this separately with those that have the same cause.

Others are free to test with those programs to see if they can reproduce this in the same way. (The programs have "portable" versions, no installing required.)

I'm using onboard Realtek HD on the Asrock ALiveNF6G-VSTA and Windows 7 64bit. I tried with the Realtek drivers and with Windows stock drivers - always the same. I tried Windows 7 32bit - the same. I tried XP - everything works great.
I also tried an Audigy with KX drivers (in Win 7 64) - same pops and crackles.
The only constant here is Windows 7. I've never had any similar problems in XP with the same hardware.

fireberd · May 17, 2010

As it does it with both the Integrated audio and a separate sound card, that would tend to eliminate the audio devices as the source of the problem. I've run these types of programs, including CPU-Z on a Win 7 64 machine and do not have this problem.

Both Vista and Windows 7 handle some audio functions differently than XP so you can't compare XP to newer OS.

How much memory do you have? Also, how many programs are open when you run, for example CPU-Z?

eyo · May 17, 2010

I have 2GB. Running very few programs. I'm not running out of memory at all.

The thing is that once I run CPU-Z or similar I can't get back to proper audio until I restart or go into sleep mode and out. It's like these monitoring programs interrupt something.

Also, I disabled (unchecked) all the Windows features (in Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off). Do you think this could have something to do with it?

fireberd · May 17, 2010

eyo said:
The thing is that once I run CPU-Z or similar I can't get back to proper audio until I restart or go into sleep mode and out. It's like these monitoring programs interrupt something.

With sleep mode fixing the problem, it sounds like memory is one suspect. 2GB of RAM isn't very much for Win 7. After you run one of those programs look at the Task Manager Processes and also the Performance Tab and Resource Manager and see if you can see anything hogging memory.

eyo · Jun 5, 2010

bump

Still looking for suggestions or explanations.

Sanvean · Jun 6, 2010

What is your sampling rate set at, if it is set at "studio quality", that could be a possible culprit.

eyo · Jun 6, 2010

Sanvean said:
What is your sampling rate set at, if it is set at "studio quality", that could be a possible culprit.

I tried many possible combinations. Nothing made any difference.

Aphelion · Jun 6, 2010

eyo said:
I tried many possible combinations. Nothing made any difference.

Have you run the DPC latency checker?

DPC Latency Checker

It won't fix the problem but will help narrow rthings down.
Very simple program, installs no extra files, doesn't add junk to the registry.

Run it once when there are no crackles, and run it again after the audio starts crackling.

We'll go from there.

Ap

eyo · Jun 6, 2010

Aphelion said:
eyo said:

I tried many possible combinations. Nothing made any difference.

Click to expand...

Have you run the DPC latency checker?

DPC Latency Checker

It won't fix the problem but will help narrow rthings down.
Very simple program, installs no extra files, doesn't add junk to the registry.

Run it once when there are no crackles, and run it again after the audio starts crackling.

We'll go from there.

Ap

Yeah, I think we're on to something.

I ran DPC Latency Checker and at first it was all green with maximum 200 microseconds or so. Then I started CPU-Z and the red bars with huge latencies started to pop up (the first pair of red bars is when I started CPU-Z):

Aphelion · Jun 8, 2010

eyo said:
Aphelion said:

eyo said:

I tried many possible combinations. Nothing made any difference.

Click to expand...

Have you run the DPC latency checker?

Ap

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think we're on to something.

I ran DPC Latency Checker and at first it was all green with maximum 200 microseconds or so. Then I started CPU-Z and the red bars with huge latencies started to pop up (the first pair of red bars is when I started CPU-Z):

And after you quit DPC latency checker do the red bars persist?
I'm thinknig they do, just want confirmation.

Just d'loaded CPU-Z and will give it a try.

One thing you can do that would help everyone is post your specs.

EDIT:

Ok, I TRIED cpu-z, absolutely no difference in DPC latencey, my system runs between 11us and 40us, nothing changed.

Is there a BIOS update for your motherboard?

p.s. If you've never done a BIOS update or are the least bit unsure... get someone that has to help.

Ap

eyo · Jun 8, 2010

Aphelion said:
And after you quit DPC latency checker do the red bars persist?

You mean after I quit CPU-Z? Yes, they do although it seems like there are not as many after quitting. But the audio dropouts are still there, even if they don't get "represented" by red bars. Only a restart or sleep->wake fixes them.

edit: also, there's a red bar almost every time I open a program, but it doesn't seem to affect audio the same way as CPU-Z does.

Aphelion said:
One thing you can do that would help everyone is post your specs.

MB is Asrock ALiveNF6G-VSTA, the CPU is an Athlon 64 4000+ X2 (65nm). 2GB of 667 DDR2 RAM. GPU is a 5450 now, but I tried with the onboard as well and it's the same. (Onboard is disabled now.) I also have a USB Wlan adapter, which I tried unplugging, but it didn't help (also, when there's some internet traffic the latency goes up a bit, but it doesn't affect the audio). One PATA HDD, one SATA DVD.

BIOS is updated to the latest version. (And it was the same with an older version.)

Aphelion · Jun 8, 2010

eyo said:
Aphelion said:

And after you quit DPC latency checker do the red bars persist?

Click to expand...

You mean after I quit CPU-Z?
<snip>
BIOS is updated to the latest version. (And it was the same with an older version.)

Yes, after you quit CPU-Z.

Well, hmmmm... there, been so many crackle & pop threads with a wide variety of fixes that it's hard to pinpoint a single cause.

You're using the latest system/motherboard drivers (inf config files)?

Next thing to try is disabling the USB wlan adapter then reboot, and try again.

Also take a look at background processes/services. Shut down any ATI background
processes and stop and ATI services.

Ap

hirak99 · Sep 2, 2010

I confirm the same problem. I was misled initially since I noticed this only after overclocking, and was also venturing this thread here: http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/22369-realtek-windows-7-64rtm-crackle-static-popping.html

But then I found this happens with no over clocking, and starts everytime CPU-Z is run, remains even if CPU-Z is closed, until next restart. I also confirm that DPC Latency Checker correlates with the crackling.

Also I have checked that it is not due to overclocking - even when overclocked the system is fine till when I run CPU-Z.

So I have the exact same problem.

eyo · Sep 2, 2010

Oh, cool, at least I'm not alone..

What motherboard do you use?

I suspect there are many more people who are potentially affected by this, but they either don't use these programs (CPU-Z etc.) or they don't know that this is what's causing it.

I should repeat that this happened with 3 different soundcards and two different drivers on my PC. So in terms of hardware I would only link this to the motherboard.

I also tried various settings in the BIOS and it didn't seem to do anything. In fact I have AMD's Cool'n' quiet enabled now without issues (until I run one of those programs, of course).

hirak99 · Sep 3, 2010

You are right, most people have not seen it or not correlated with CPU-Z. Btw I tried CPUInfo, and it doesn't start the issue - probably because it may not probe the motherboard(?)

I use Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2 with the Realtek onboard sound card. You can find the rest of my specifications when you click "My System Specs" below my nick on the left of this post.

Which specs do you use? Do you see anything common?

eyo · Sep 3, 2010

I'm using the Asrock ALiveNF6G-VSTA. Compared to your Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2, it's very similar. The same 6100 integrated graphics and nForce 4xx chipset.

We also have the same A64 X2 4000+ CPU, but I'd say the motherboard chipset is the main cause.

BTW, I'm not using neither the integrated graphics, nor the integrated soundcard, it doesn't seem to make a difference for this particular problem.

Another thing, more offtopic: do you also have weak USB power on the motherboard? Like, trouble with long USB cables, trouble recognizing USB flash drivers or slow transfers?
I do, and I was wondering if it's related to the main chipset or is it a separate issue.

hirak99 · Sep 4, 2010

Regarding the USB, there are 8 USB ports in total, out of which I think I managed to fry 4 when I was using a bad PSU for a long time without knowing it. The remaining four give no problem however. I sometimes use an USB cable + a controller with its cable, total length being about 2m and still I saw no issues.

vitaliks777 · Feb 12, 2011

Hi all!

Acer 7520G laptop, 4Gb 6400 RAM, Windows 7 SP1 x64.
Same problems with pops and crackles after CPU-Z or HWMonitor running.

After AIDA64 everything is fine.

mladen357 · Sep 13, 2011

Maybe it's too late but i have found the solution,you're all running cpu-s with uneven multiplier,like 4000+ 10.5x or in my case athlon tk-53 8.5x and that causes issues with memory speed and ram:fsb ratio.
When multi on my cpu was 8x than ram was running at 666mhz but when it goes up to 8.5x memory drops down to 566mhz and during hardware monitoring cpu-z and hwmonitor cant detect real value and creates some kind of conflict.
Anyway i swapped tk-53 with tl-60 (multi 10x) and everything is perfect,no more sound cracling and popping when run cpu-z or whatever.
Now ram speed is always at 667mhz when testing,and in WEI scores 6.9 (5.9 earlier with tk-53).
Just to mention i have notebook msi gx610.

Crackles and pops after running a hardware monitoring p

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