Realtek, Windows 7 64RTM Crackle/static/popping

UberB said:

DigitalDeviant said:

It doesn't seem to work on my system. I uninstalled the old driver and installed the beta but when I reboot I get a pop-up saying the HD Audio driver was installed (not the Realtek HD audio driver) and when I check it appears to be the default M$ driver not a RealTek one.I disabled driver signing on boot but it doesn't seem to help.

You need to run the installation file twice and reboot twice. The first time, it will remove the current driver. The second time, it will install the driver.

Had exactly the same results and symptoms (and mal-functioning sound) as DigitalDeviant... did not realize I had to run the install and reboot twice, although it's stated quite plainly when you first run the file. Obviously I didn't remember what I'd just read.

In my case, I have a 4.1 ("quadrophonic") set of Altec-Lansing 641 speakers and was not getting sound out of the rear speakers. Plus the front/rear jacks were all wrong. Everything was crazy. Of course, in retrospect, it was my own fault for not running the driver install file twice.

I backed off by just reinstalling 2.36 (did not run twice and reboot twice, but the install ran fine and I was back in business) and that got everything working again.

Today I saw your post, UberB, and decided to give 2.37 another try. Sure enough, running twice and rebooting twice did the trick. This time everything is normal (and sounding great, on my SuperMicro CS2BX board with ALC883 HD Audio chip).

I don't ever remember having to do this double-install before 2.37. And the fact that 2.36 reinstall went fine with just a single run confirms that. So unless I'm just not remembering correctly, it does seem like this 2-step/2-reboot install procedure for 2.37 is something totally new. Or am I crazy?

Anyway, I'm now back in business and "sounding fine".

Bill321 said:

Just wanted to let you all know about the solution I found to my problem.

Like many in this thread, I was experiencing "pops" and "crackles" when listening to sound played through the onboard sound of my motherboard. I am using a Gigabyte MA790XT-UPD4 with the built-in Realtek ALC889A. and just some simple 2.1 analog speakers.

I had tried running the newest drivers from the Gigabyte wegpage and also the latest 2.37 drivers from Realtek ...and even the older Vista 2.22 drivers. I tried changing sound settings in Windows and also lowering the quality all the way down to 16bit 44100Hz.... but still had the issue.

The solution for me was to stop running the Gigabyte ET6 overclocking/monitoring application. I don't usually even install those programs that come with a new motherboard, but I thought I would give this one a try.

Well as soon as I killed that application my sound issues would clear up. I assume it is not compatible with my Win7 64bit Home Premium or it is hogging a lot of resources every few seconds as it checks temps and fan speeds. Funny thing is that I found that I can run WCPUID HW Monitor 1.15 just fine.

Not sure if this will help others, but I thought I would mention it.

Bill321

Removing the ET6 monitoring software cured it for me also. I removed it when I read this post and I've been noise free since.

Many thanks for posting, greatly appreciated.

Hey all,

I have read this thread from beginning to end. I have a w7 64, a Gigabyte board, 4gb ram, and the same crackle-and-pop issue.

It's so frustating when you're watchig a YouTube clip or trying to listen to a new tune. It's even more frustrating that the problem is temporarily cured on reboot.

I will be trying all of the proposed fixes--beta drivers, tweaking settings, and rescuing memory--but I wanted to say that for me this is not an ET6 issue since I don't have it installed.

The solution (For All)

Start - Control Panel - Performance Information And Tools - Adjust Visual Effects - UNMARK Enable Desktop Composition

Turning off composition shouldn't have to be done! Isn't composition what provides aero, 3d flip, etc.

Computer sound never has and maybe never will be audiophile-grade.

Even under XP when I used the scroll button on my mouse I could hear a squeek in the audio.

armyslowrdr said:

Turning off composition shouldn't have to be done! Isn't composition what provides aero, 3d flip, etc.

Computer sound never has and maybe never will be audiophile-grade.

Even under XP when I used the scroll button on my mouse I could hear a squeek in the audio.

Not only that but it makes the desktop look ugly!

With 5898_PG281_VISTA_TurnOff_PullMode_Upd.zip realtek version, all problems had gone, but i can't hear subwoofer sound anymore. When i run 5.1 speakers test everything works except subwoofer (tuba). With Realtek_R237 all speakers works but i can hear strange voice in subwoofer like other before

So if i use intel motherboard and there are not Gigabyte board, how can i fix this audio problem? if i use 5898_PG281_VISTA_TurnOff_PullMode_Upd.zip, the subwoofer don't work and i can't hear any problems in voice, but how to make subwoofer work again on this version of realtek? I'm reading this forum about a week and trying to fix it

So there's still no real fix, currently can't use my microphone with Windows 7 x64.

I also don't seem to have this Gigabyte board on my system. A few things I've noticed about my sound crackle:
streaming audio crackles, yet streaming video does not (though I think they both use Adobe flash)
after reinstalling the NVIDIA sound drivers, windows media player stops crackling (at least for now), itunes still crackles

Are there other drivers associated with programs like itunes and streaming audio? Also, if the NVIDIA sound drivers are conflicting with something (in addition to the graphics drivers), is there a way to uninstall them and prevent them from reinstalling when I restart my computer?