Click/Static Noise

I'm not really sure where to put this query, hopefully it's OK in this section.

ASUS N73SV laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate.

For a month or so I have been getting a tiny little static-like click when I open pages or programmes.

I've unplugged any peripherals and and muted the sound but still the clicking is evident. I've also unplugged the laptop and run it on battery. Same result.

When I am browsing on Google Chrome it doesn't seem to happen at all. In fact, I have just opened all my bookmarks one after the other and not once did I hear the clicking.

However, as soon as I opened Opera it clicked. Opening and closing Audacity causes the same thing.

Does anybody have any idea what is causing this (increasingly irritating) problem?

Thank you.

See if this tutorial will help

Clicking Sound while Browsing Internet and Windows Explorer - Turn Off

Is there a bunch of clicking when you do something that scans the drive, such as an AV scan or a defrag?

paul1149 said:

Is there a bunch of clicking when you do something that scans the drive, such as an AV scan or a defrag?

No, there's nothing like that. It's something to do with the Realtek High Definition Audio Device. Specifically the Record element. Using the Advanced setting of Revo Uninstaller Pro I deleted Realtek and all the left over bits shown after scanning.

Microsoft automatically reinstalled their own audio drivers and I was able to open whatever pages and programmes I liked without any unwanted clicks. (It isn't really a "click", it's more a short "staticky" sound).

However, under the Record settings there were only shown two microphones and not the Stereo Mix previously installed there as the default.

I went to the ASUS page and downloaded their Realtek audio driver and set Stereo Mix as the default.

So far there has been no repeat of the unwanted click and I suspect there may have been some parts of the previous audio drivers that were not acting together as they should have. I seem to recall first noticing the problem after a Windows update.

Hopefully that's the end of that.

Thank you for your responses.