Realtek, Windows 7 64RTM Crackle/static/popping

[Optical]

@Barthelemy Our systems are almost the same, I ran this board under Vista 64 with no sound issues whatsoever. A few months ago it was running Windows 7 with no sound problems. I'm convinced it's software, probably a driver conflict of some sort.

 

[Barthelemy]

A few months ago it was running Windows 7 with no sound problems.

@Optical

Same story here, Windows worked fine until I had to reinstall it (due to malicious software). It's seems just illogical that for no apparent reason suddenly something doesn't work like it's supposed to.

Testing sound on Ubuntu didn't result with crackling noise (few hours of testing).

If that's really the case all we can do now is to wait until either Microsoft or Realtek(?) realeses proper drivers.

 

[Strekjaeden]

I fixed an issue that sounds pretty much like OP described by changing bit and Hz rates.

 

[Aphelion]

Just looking at people's system specs, lot of us with Gigabyte and Asus motherboards. Is there a particular hardware component that these manufacturers use on their boards (Realtek LAN!) that doesn't get used on boards from other manufacturers such as Dell?

Is this a Realtek problem?

Who's having the problem but doesn't have a Realtek network chip?

Interestingly, I have both a Realtek audio and Realtek onboard Lan and don't have any problems.

The only static I had was after the first install and it involved replugging my speakers in (several times) as the jack almost seemed like it wasn't making a good connection. I also disabled some of the Realtek auto sensing features and pop-up notices. Also, the Realtek audio would start to corrupt after the computer woke from sleep or hibernate mode. There was an optional update from MS that addressed this issue, that, the latest drivers and a mainboard BIOS update has everything running smooth. Don't forget the BIOS update, I think manufacturers are tweaking their BIOS to accommodate Win-7.

Ap

 

[Mozenrath]

I think I may have found a solution for some of you.

I have a VIA HD Audio card, which is in reality a Realtek card because it uses a Realtek chipset or something like that.

Anyway, I've tried Realtek's and VIA's drivers and none of them made a difference with the crackle/static/popping problem.

Then I decided to try the updated drivers on my PC manufacturer's site. I've had my computer on for 3 days straight, and haven't heard so much as a pop.

I uploaded the driver I'm using so that you guys can try it out and see if it fixes your problem.

EDIT: Don't install it unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing! Your computer most likely needs to have a Via chipset for this to actually work.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

 

[johngalt]

I think I may have found a solution for some of you.

I have a VIA HD Audio card, which is in reality a Realtek card because it uses a Realtek chipset or something like that.

Anyway, I've tried Realtek's and VIA's drivers and none of them made a difference with the crackle/static/popping problem.

Then I decided to try the updated drivers on my PC manufacturer's site. I've had my computer on for 3 days straight, and haven't heard so much as a pop.

I uploaded the driver I'm using so that you guys can try it out and see if it fixes your problem.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Anyone who downloads that driver better damn well have the same chipset he has, or else you'll take a good chance at at least temporarily messing up your hardware.

Not all motherboards have a Via Chipset feeding the RealTek HD Audio, dude. Be careful what you post.

 

[Mozenrath]

I think I may have found a solution for some of you.

I have a VIA HD Audio card, which is in reality a Realtek card because it uses a Realtek chipset or something like that.

Anyway, I've tried Realtek's and VIA's drivers and none of them made a difference with the crackle/static/popping problem.

Then I decided to try the updated drivers on my PC manufacturer's site. I've had my computer on for 3 days straight, and haven't heard so much as a pop.

I uploaded the driver I'm using so that you guys can try it out and see if it fixes your problem.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Anyone who downloads that driver better damn well have the same chipset he has, or else you'll take a good chance at at least temporarily messing up your hardware.

Not all motherboards have a Via Chipset feeding the RealTek HD Audio, dude. Be careful what you post.

Ah yes, thanks for that warning. I share the same sentiment. Don't download and install the drivers unless you know what you're doing!

 

[Optical]

My system hasn't crackled for over a week - yet I've not updated any drivers.

Looking at Windows Update > View update history I can see during that time there was an "Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB980408)"

It's a general stability and reliability update.

The details don't mention sound or LAN, so it's maybe just a coincidence.

 

[medavies]

same thing here

Hi All,

When playing audio on my Windows 7 64bit RTM using my onboard Realtek ALC888 I get those weird popping/static/grating noises every 30 seconds or so.
When actively using the computer the problem intensifies.
I've installed numerous versions of the Realtek official Windows 7 64bit drivers - no improvement.

After scouring the Internet, I've also tried messing around with the HPET setting in the BIOS (setting it to 32bit/64bit/disabled) - again, no improvement.

I've also went through the posts in this forum, while some people post pretty similar problems, I saw no conclusive solutions - if at all.

Let me state that otherwise, everything appears to be in excellent working order, all -devices are recognized, the speakers are correctly recognized in the "Sound" AND the "Realtek HD Audio Manager" Control Panel applets.

This is slowly driving me nuts as you can imagine - listening to music and getting a loud "Crack!" all the time is, to put it mildly, annoying.

Any help/hint/pointer/advise will be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks
LZ

I hear you LZ. I'm running Win7x64 Enterprise on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR mb with onboard Realtek ALC888. Having the same popping, crackling issue. I'm currently dual-booting with Vista (32bit) and it works fine when running Vista. I have also tried many older versions of the ALC888 driver with no luck. Latest version (R2.48) from the Realtek site did not help. Not sure what else to do at this point.

I'll let you know if I find any answers.

MD

 

[Tpiom]

And I was foolish enough to think M$ actually had solved their driver issue with this OS! The sound is barely usable - it's only a matter of time before I throw out this system, and go back to XP (AGAIN!)... but more likely Ubuntu.

They're repeating the Vista-mistake, by releasing an OS without proper drivers. Do we really need to wait for Sp1 for a potential fix?!

 

[DarrylGittins]

And I was foolish enough to think M$ actually had solved their driver issue with this OS! QUOTE]

And how have you concluded that this is a Microsoft driver issue? It's too to easy to blame MS for any problem that occurs with a computer that is comprised of many components built by many manufacturers. But it's the Microsoft name that appears when the computer starts, so we should blame Microsoft for everything we can't resolve?

I had the same issue, and after trying everything (and I can assure you I tried everything), the problem turned out to be an Asus Motherboard. The problem disappeared after the Mobo was replaced.

An Asus tech explained the issue as follows:



The problem you are seeing could be caused by what we call a grounding/emi interference problem, start by taking the motherboard out of the case you have it in. Next set the motherboard up on top of the cardboard box it came in, straight to the cardboard(do not use the anti-static plastic, foam, or an antistatic mat as these have been known to keep a board from posting.) if you do not have the box that the board came in then use some newspaper a phonebook or some other non-conductive material. Connect to the board just the bare minimums needed to verify the problem you are having i.e.: cpu(w/heatsink and fan), memory, video card and power supply. Power the system up outside the case if the problem then seems to have resolved itself then all you need to do when mounting the board back into the case is use some added grounding/emi protection, the simplest way to resolve this type of problem is to get you some standard electrical tape and make a cross over the brass or metal stand-offs you are mounting the board into. This will do 2 things, first it will insure that we do not have a metal to metal ground and second it will lift the board up away from the case so that if you had a solder point sitting to close to the case generating an emi field the distance added between the 2 should keep this from happening. If this does not resolve the problem you are having then please contact either our tech support office at 812-282-2787 or our RMA dept. at 510-739-3777 option #2 and we will have the board sent in for repair/replacement.

 

[SuperN0owbie]

Ground

The problem occurs when the earth is connected in a loop between screens and computer, for example, if you use a grounding strip in an ungrounded outlet. As I understand it Windows 7 sync sound and image, crackle is ground potential that goes in a loop.

Try using an ungrounded outlet and branching or connect your computer to a grounded wall outlet.

The reason why crackle disappears when you reboot your computer is that you "reset" electronics / capacitors on the motherboard.




**Google Translate**

~CheErs~

 

[Tpiom]

I am certain this is all a M$ driver issue, for three reasons:

A) I didn't have this problem with XP.
B) When I run Ubuntu (Linux) I don't get it.
C) Motherboard is Windows 7 ready, and in fine shape.

 

[Optical]

People talking about grounding:
IT'S NOT A GROUNDING ISSUE

Read the thread and you'll see it's a software issue

 

[medavies]

Yeah, I'm with Tpiom and Optical. The original post and most others that have chimed in were running or are running (in a dual boot setup) their hardware without any sound issues. To me, that would rule out hardware or grounding issues. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like any of us has had any luck so far.

 

[coldpumpkin]

I recently installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and had the same issues, static noise. However, I didn't have any Realtek drivers installed, I had the basic ones that windows provided. After installing the latest drivers from the realtek website, the noise got even worse. Then, after browsing through this topic, I had the idea of installing K-Lite Codecs and the static noise reduced, even though it's not completely gone. But, at least, I'm using the latest drivers. Any other options didn't work, but I seriously think that Realtek fails to provide decent drivers for Windows 7. I wonder when they will come out with a new release that will fix our issues once for all. What I don't understand is why they haven't done it already.

 

[zzz2496]

Anybody tried the DPC Latency checker tool? Most of the time, this happens when your Audio device is sharing an IRQ with some high bandwidth low latency device, like NICs or GFX cards...

zzz2496

 

[coldpumpkin]

I'm using NVIDIA and here's a screenshot of the latency checker:

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6570/25227493.png

What does this mean?

 

[Aphelion]

Without posting your full system specs everyone here is playing a guessing game trying to help.

It means just what it says, you have a device driver that's causing an intermittent severe spike which probably causes a bit of static. It could be a wireless driver, or network adapter driver, it could be caused by a real-time virus checker, or one of the nVidia utilities....etc. MS Security Essentials has caused audio problems on some computers... it's a cr@pshoot from one system to the next. It's difficult to pinpoint a direct cause as there's been several different fixes that work on various systems. What works on one machine doesn't work on the next.

I can't say if it's the Realtek drivers or not as Realtek audio is working very well here, From hanging around here the past few months I can say that Windows-7 is somewhat "fragile" when it comes to dealing with events that most be performed real-time, this includes both video and audio, I had to disable quite a few services/devices and background programs to get my DPC latency down to this level. (including a BIOS update)



There's more info here... (I'm setup to get 10 posts per page, my post should be at the top of page four where this link takes you) Of course not everyone agrees that you should have to jump through so many hoops, but I'm used to optimizing systems so it seems almost normal...still, I hope a W7 service pack would soon be released with some fixes for the poor operation out of the box.

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/81432-10-windows-speed-tips-dont-work-4.html

Ap

p.s. I should add that for some, using older drivers for Vista works.
In this case I think the older driver may shift the IRQ used by the audio system.
I thought we were way past the IRQ game!

 

[zzz2496]

I'm using NVIDIA and here's a screenshot of the latency checker:

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6570/25227493.png

What does this mean?

Get rid of the red spikes, the static will go away. OR in your audio app, set it to use "Wave" output. That cured my static...

zzz2496