Realtek, Windows 7 64RTM Crackle/static/popping

Frostmourne said:

AaronDude said:

Anybody have any idea what I should do? Should I just try selling this machine on ebay and take what I can get? Acer won't fix the problem and the store won't take it back. I'm fed up, I've never had problems like this with a computer before.

Maybe I should buy Vista 64 bit and install that? I'm worried about the drivers though. Doesn't doing a fresh install of an OS purge the drivers? So it makes your computer useless right? I've never installed an OS from a disc. I always bought a computer with it pre loaded and only use the full system restore feature provided by the manufacturer such as acer, hp and IBM.

If the PC is faulty, why doesn't the store agree to return it?

They told me I have to have the original packaging and also that the return deadline is up. I asked them if I could still return it in the plain brown box acer sent the computer back in and they said no. It's J&R music and computer world btw. I bought it online and they're just telling me I'm screwed. I really can't go there to tell them off because I live in Colorado.

AaronDude said:

Frostmourne said:

AaronDude said:

Anybody have any idea what I should do? Should I just try selling this machine on ebay and take what I can get? Acer won't fix the problem and the store won't take it back. I'm fed up, I've never had problems like this with a computer before.

Maybe I should buy Vista 64 bit and install that? I'm worried about the drivers though. Doesn't doing a fresh install of an OS purge the drivers? So it makes your computer useless right? I've never installed an OS from a disc. I always bought a computer with it pre loaded and only use the full system restore feature provided by the manufacturer such as acer, hp and IBM.

If the PC is faulty, why doesn't the store agree to return it?

They told me I have to have the original packaging and also that the return deadline is up. I asked them if I could still return it in the plain brown box acer sent the computer back in and they said no. It's J&R music and computer world btw. I bought it online and they're just telling me I'm screwed. I really can't go there to tell them off because I live in Colorado.

*SIGH* I went through some possible solutions with you, I think, a few pages back. I'd sell the PC, and build a new one, and never touch Acer again.

AaronDude said:

Maybe I should buy Vista 64 bit and install that? I'm worried about the drivers though. Doesn't doing a fresh install of an OS purge the drivers? So it makes your computer useless right? I've never installed an OS from a disc. I always bought a computer with it pre loaded and only use the full system restore feature provided by the manufacturer such as acer, hp and IBM.

The Vista 64 install will contain most (if not all) of the drivers you require, after loading the OS you can go to Microsoft update and get the latest driver updates.

MS supplies decent default drivers for most hardware.

Ap

Aarondude,

Read this entire thread carefully.

It is doubtfull that your PC (Acer) by itself is at fault. You will see that this problem affects people with many different brands of Manufacturers, equipment including Home Built Machines like mine.

I also have an Acer Desktop Aspire (Wife's Machine) running Vista Home Premium 64 Bit purchased this past August. That machine is using the same Realtek Audio (On-board) Device that my Home-Built Gigabyte M.B. Powered machine has and that Machine has Excellent Audio with no Snap, Crackle and Pop.

After further testing on my Machine I have determined that my audio output is also badly distorted in addition to the snapping, popping, crackling that we all seem to be experiencing.

I have tried all the suggested remedies listed here in this thread including Roll-Back Drivers and none have worked to correct or minimize/reduce this bad audio on my machine.

Next thing I am going to do is to install a whole new Audio/Video Codec Package and see if that might be causing this.

Again, It is my belief (at this time anyway) that something in/with Windows 7 and its configuration (possibly associated with something else) is causing this problem.

I will report back if/when I learn anything.

Bootis

AaronDude said:

Anybody have any idea what I should do? Should I just try selling this machine on ebay and take what I can get? Acer won't fix the problem and the store won't take it back. I'm fed up, I've never had problems like this with a computer before.

Maybe I should buy Vista 64 bit and install that? I'm worried about the drivers though. Doesn't doing a fresh install of an OS purge the drivers? So it makes your computer useless right? I've never installed an OS from a disc. I always bought a computer with it pre loaded and only use the full system restore feature provided by the manufacturer such as acer, hp and IBM.

For what its worth

I also have an Acer Desktop Aspire (Wife's Machine) running Vista Home Premium 64 Bit purchased this past August.

That machine is using the same Realtek Audio (On-board) Device that my Home-Built Gigabyte M.B. Powered machine has and that Machine has Excellent Audio with no Snap, Crackle and Pop or distorted audio.

The Realtek Device is capable of putting out excllent audio. Also, again read this thread carefully and you will see that other Brands (not just Realtek) are also experiencing this problem.

RealTek by itslef is not the issue here.

Pash00n said:

Here's a list of what I've tried so far to remedy this ridiculous popping problem I get before and after sounds play:

- Enabled Spread Spectrum in bios
- Down-clocked GPU to default speeds; uninstalled AMD fusion/OCing and ATI video drivers
- Tried newer drivers
- Tried older drivers
- Tried Vista only drivers
- Tried Microsoft Drivers (Which DO eliminate this problem, but Stereo Mix isn't available! Why not?!)
- Disabled unnecessary devices and cleared NVRam in attempt to change hardware IRQs
- Updated various other drivers
- Messed with tons of settings in the Realtek control panel

I'm in astonishment as to how much clearer my ancient Creative 16-bit PCI soundblaster sounds compared to this new-fangled Realtek sound chip with 5.1 surround sound. Seriously, what the heck? That and this old Soundblaster didn't work with my last computer nor did it work with others, but it's somehow working with my newest build. Maybe it's a sign? I should still invest in a newer soundcard regardless of that. I can't believe a 10+ year old 16-bit soundcard is outperforming a 24-bit one.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: I somehow fixed my problem FINALLY by using some archaic Vista drivers that I had to force feed to 7.

"Have you tried the processor scheduling tweak I posted?"

Yes, Thanks but no-joy!

Aphelion said:

Bootis said:

AP,

Understand and hope your Fix remains.

Curious, are you listening though speakers or headphones?

In looking at your system specs the only thing you and I have in common system wise is Windows 7. I am running ultimate 64Bit. We also have Gigabyte MB's and an ATI Card but different models of each.

If there was any other obvious common demoninator other than Win 7 we should have seen it here already in some 26 pages of posts within this thread.

I have the Realtek output going into a 24 track mixing board, the output of the board goes to a set of powered studio monitors w/sub.

There are a couple of things I changed, mainly because I'm using this system to test different audio interfaces.

While I'm using the ATI drivers for the video card, I'm not using the ATI control panel.

Some have mentioned the Vista pull_down drivers.... they were actually the first ones that worked well on my system, I uninstalled them mainly because they didn't have the EQ section under enhancements, perhaps they changed a registry setting and it was left in place after the latest Realtek drivers were installed?

Have you tried the processor scheduling tweak I posted?

I pretty much agree it must be a Windows 7 problem, there's too many here with the same complaint, could even be the manner in which Win-7 handles interrupts on different motherboards. Using system information I see that both my M-Audio and the HD Audio Controller are on unique IRQs.

Ap

Well, i tested with latency checker and read spikes when on balanced power or cpu minimum processor less than 100%.

Have the same brands as any here, gigabyte board with realteh hd audio and network.

Tested several bios, but same issue when connected with hdmi to receiver for sound+video.

The crack\pop was on stereo files, music, video files. But not ac3\dts HD material. So figuring that the cpu speeds up is why no issue with HD material.

Then i connected with DVI cable and coax for 5.1 audio, latency red spikes did not go above 4000 and the sound was fine.

With HDMI the spikes were higher

Today I installed a complete set of new CODECS for Windows 7, both x86 & x64 versions.

Unfortunately this did not correct the problem. I also checked many other Threads and Posts elsewhere on the Net for this topic and found many hits, complaints about this same issue dating back several months now.

I did not find one solid lead that offered any proven diagnosis or resolution for this problem.

This appears to be a WIN 7 Problem, but who, where, why, when and how remain a mystery to date.

Bootis

Bootis said:

Aarondude,

Read this entire thread carefully.

It is doubtfull that your PC (Acer) by itself is at fault. You will see that this problem affects people with many different brands of Manufacturers, equipment including Home Built Machines like mine.

I also have an Acer Desktop Aspire (Wife's Machine) running Vista Home Premium 64 Bit purchased this past August. That machine is using the same Realtek Audio (On-board) Device that my Home-Built Gigabyte M.B. Powered machine has and that Machine has Excellent Audio with no Snap, Crackle and Pop.

After further testing on my Machine I have determined that my audio output is also badly distorted in addition to the snapping, popping, crackling that we all seem to be experiencing.

I have tried all the suggested remedies listed here in this thread including Roll-Back Drivers and none have worked to correct or minimize/reduce this bad audio on my machine.

Next thing I am going to do is to install a whole new Audio/Video Codec Package and see if that might be causing this.

Again, It is my belief (at this time anyway) that something in/with Windows 7 and its configuration (possibly associated with something else) is causing this problem.

I will report back if/when I learn anything.

Bootis

AaronDude said:

Anybody have any idea what I should do? Should I just try selling this machine on ebay and take what I can get? Acer won't fix the problem and the store won't take it back. I'm fed up, I've never had problems like this with a computer before.

Maybe I should buy Vista 64 bit and install that? I'm worried about the drivers though. Doesn't doing a fresh install of an OS purge the drivers? So it makes your computer useless right? I've never installed an OS from a disc. I always bought a computer with it pre loaded and only use the full system restore feature provided by the manufacturer such as acer, hp and IBM.

Hey, thanks for talking to me. I've read your post twice. Even if it is windows 7, computer manufactures should stand by their products and give you a working machine. I've talked to family members and they agree that even if it's a problem they didn't cause, they still sold the product and must have a fix for it. The least they could do is offer a replacement of something comparable that doesn't have the problem even if it's a windows vista machine or if they load vista on this machine.

If it is Micro****s problem they need to fix it or give us all refunds or downgrade us to a working OS. I had a Zune that had a constant spin up and spin down problem with the HD and they just denied a problem and never fixed it no matter how much I complained for several years. I'm not holding my breath they'll be able to figure this out either.

So I guess I should put even more money into this and buy Vista basic 64 bit? The external creative sound card idea didn't work. Computers sure are expensive machines to try to run.