Realtek, Windows 7 64RTM Crackle/static/popping

I was using a Linksys WMP300n wireless network card. I've checked with many different forms and did find one forum that had a program that ran a dpc latency spike program. Well anyway I checked on the Linksys Form WMP300N causing dpc latency spikes - Wireless Adapters - Linksys Community Forums
And I called Linksys and found out that the wireless network is NOT compatible with Windows 7 and never will be!!! But my DPC spikes ran all in the red zone up at 24,000 which normal is around 75-150. So I disabled my wireless controller and come to find out all my realtek crackle popping sounds are now gone!!! I've read on a few other forums beside this one that sometimes other wireless internet controllers and also video cards can cause this same problem...so it's NOT a Realtek Driver Problem but the DPC using up all the processing with the CPU causing video and audio to have periods of locking up playing games (Video) and Popping noises because of the new Windows 7 and the way it uses older Video and wireless network devices!!! All is well now!!! Hope this helps some of you!!! Here is the link to the DPC checker in case some of you want to check your system DPC Latency Checker

Yeah I thought it was the graphics card and wireless card as well. I disabled them and the spikes still happened after just a bit of use although it was in the 160-200 range for a while. Other times I can run it for several hours playing a video and it will be fine but it always returns. Usually it does it after a little time but it can sometimes take awhile Could it be the motherboard? It seems as though acer only checks what I tell them to. They're the experts they should be able to diagnose the problem.

Well Aaron, I not to sure you are with computers but, as far as motherboards and drivers, my system is a hp m7480n (which is about a 4 year old system) but I have done many upgrades suck as a NVIDIA 9800 GT (the one with 500meg rather than the one with 1gig). But I don't trust drivers that come from factory or even the drives that Windows supplies. They can be outdated even by the time Acer releases the drivers, they can already be outdated!!! So lets say you are running a Intel Processor with a Intel chipset, I go out to Intel and get the drivers for my chipset which includes usually your Bus drivers for USB and your PCI and PCI-E slot if equip. If your running a AMD Processor AMD & Radeon have merged together over the years, so I would look on the AMD site for ALL drivers for the Radeon video card. Another thing you can do is find out what motherboard is in your system and try to find Windows 7 drivers for it too!!! As I said in my post with that program I used, my highest spike was 24,000 but after disabling my wireless card you can get high spikes just by closing different windows or programs, which I am hitting spikes of 584 and as low as 24...just even typing I see spikes popping into the 100's but with my wireless card hooked up a maintained a constant Latency of up over a 16,000 which wasn't good at all!!! So as I said, I don't know what Acer system your running, whether you have on board video or onboard wireless, I don't know if we are talking about a PC or a laptop or what you max spike is at system idle for either the video or for your wireless...Okay I just looked at you specs on what you put down for video you have a GeForce gt 220, I myself tried running that card in my system, but I had to drop back to the 9800 GT for the one reason my mother board could NOT handle the Bus Speed that the card required. Doing Benchmarks on my system from it and having a NVIDIA 9600, the GT 220 would blow my 2D graphics out of the water but on the 2D graphics and the DirectX my 9600 card outperformed the GT 220!!! The GT 220 is a EXCELLENT CARD!!! But my Bus speed was either a 400mhz or a 800mhz bus...I can't remember?!!! So that card itself dropped my whole system WAY DOWN!!! It would be a Excellent card to put with the new Intel 7, 8 core processor...which would require upgrading my mother board from socket 775 and my old Dimm DDR PC3200 memory to a DDR3 which has a Higher bandwidth performance increase, up to 1600 MHz per spec!!!
But my main question is...did removing the wireless or disabling your wireless network controller at least get rid of your popping in your sound? And do you have the Latest Realtek drivers installed from Realtek for Windows 7?
See as I said...simple things such as opening a browser window or even something running in the background such as virus software can give you small Latency spikes, but my Linksys card gave me HUGE SOLID SPIKES NO LOWER THAN a 16,000 so that told me right off there was NO WAY I was even going to be able to play sound with out the old record type popping like I had a scratch in a old LP record!!! I myself HATE resource hogs such as Norton and currently I'm been just running Microsoft Essentials as my virus protection along with Advance System Care Professional to clean the system of spyware...Another thing I was having problems with was the New Alien vs Predator game...with that wireless LAN card in the system...I was getting video lockups or 30 second stuttering ever so often in the game...now I don't have a problem.
I hope some of this info helps you, and I do know with that GT 220 card that you got a good card...and I would Love to have it back on my system but with my slow bus speed that I am running at the time just doesn't support that card and would chop the heck out of my 3D graphics...but soon it will be time to upgrade to the Windows 7 3.33mhz processor and let the fun begin!!! But for having only a 160-200 range in your Latency it's far from the 16,000-24,000 that I had!!!
Take Care and feel free to write back!!!
Mark

Yeah I would still get the pops and studdering and overall garbled sound when disabling those. It'll be ok for a while but it happens eventually. I even tried linux mint, and used their drivers same problem. Acer doesn't know either, I just want a working computer at this point. The machine also tends to lag a bit after several hours too. That's all I can tell you. I've said it all before. Anyway I'm back to using my gateway laptop and it has absolutely no problems with that. In fact I'm sure it can run games better even with it's old integrated intel graphics. I'm just saying something is wrong with that machine and the manufacturer just doesn't want to admit it. They say I'm doing something wrong or corrupted the OS. Maybe I am but I've owned many computers and have never had a problem like this.

Yeah 160-200 is good if it actually stayed there but just running the computer will have it go off the charts every second after some time. The same thing happens in Linux I'm sure, but I just can't find a checker for it that confirms it. I'm thinking something gets hot and malfunctions. I just have a gut feeling it's the motherboard. If it was something else I would guess that disabling the graphics card , disabling the wifi card and cd drive would keep it from doing that.

Anyway thanks for checkin' on me :)

No Problem, all I wanted to do is figure out what the heck was the matter with my system and followed EVERYONE'S answers but always came up with the same old thing!!! It wasn't until I downloaded that program and found out the numbers of things that something was a HOG...and come to find out it was my Linksys card and Linksys says their wont ever be a update for it!!! Sucks going from 278 megabit to 100 with a wire but I do a lot with sound and video and just HAVE to sacrifice!!!! But wanted to post what I ran in to after dealing with MONTHS of pain!!! But Yeah, my guess would be a Mother Board...Maybe time to upgrade? And I wouldn't trust anything ANY company says!!! Of course their going to cover their Butts!!! I'm just glad Linksys was up front with me!!!

It just gets pretty erratic after just setting there even for a while. It can be as low as 120 or off the charts. If I wait even longer it really gets up there to as low as maybe 50-1000 and several off the chart reds in a row. It's really different second to second and it doesn't seem to have any reason behind it. My gateway laptop stays at around 1,000 all the time unless I do something to bump it up or bring it down.

Yeah I agree acer is just trying to cover their butt. It's only about four or five months old and have always been having this problem. The graphics card is definitely a problem for this machine but I don't think it is the problem. It'll take a while with that disabled and using the integrated intel graphics. I'd send it into acer again to look at ,but I know what they do(nothing but reload OS) and I wouldn't expect the fourth time to be the charm. I don't know how many times they'll pay to ship it back. I already paid once. This machine can get really costly and time consuming. I guess my only option is to do that until the warranty is up and be left with a very expensive block. I just don't know why a company as big as Acer won't take care of me. I asked them every time I sent it in if they could just give me a refurb and they told me that is not possible and to just send it in. They give me the run around telling me to call back at different times only to hear the same thing again from them. All's I can tell people is to not buy Acer. I should of went with an HP that would of costed just about as much but I thought a matching pair of Acer products(the monitor) would look nice and be cool. Obviously I put my trust in the wrong company.

All I know at this point is it's not a windows 7 problem. I wish it was it so I could at least use this computer for something.

I've been looking at a PS3 for my gaming, web surfing, blu ray and music listening needs. The only thing I can do on this machine i'm using right now(the crappy acer desktop) is surf the web. Of course any media with video or audio is gonna suck on this acer. The problem with the PS3 is it's hard to get right now. I've been checking stores for two weeks and can not find one online or offline that is actually being sold at a reason price. I'm sorry but 370 bucks or more for a 300 dollar machine is not something I'm gonna pay to these jerks trying to make a bunch of money off of desperation. Hey Final Fantasy 13 looks good btw. So I guess I can get my machine when it's in stock again in places and it would do everything I wanted at half the cost. It cost me 650 bucks for this machine but trying to fix it has easily costed 120 more than that(shipping, sound card, different speakers). It's unfortunate that I'm probably never going to get to play them home made RPGs for PC though. That was one of the main reasons to get this. I mean there's people making fantastic RPGs for PC and are probably even more fun than the high budget expensive ones. I just like the old school stuff I guess. However I can adapt to Final Fantasy 13 and sure I would enjoy that too.

HAH! I realize I ramble on too much about the same stuff. :)

No worries, as you can tell I do the same thing...just as I said before, even just typing on a USB keyboard can raise those spikes!!! One Idea would be...how about your virus software? Is it running Norton (which is a system hog), do you have your indexing features turned off? To do that double click on Computer in start menu and the right click on your c drive and uncheck the indexing box. It will do slower file searching on the drive but will help in the end beings that when system is at idle it can start the indexing up. Another thing I don't like about (Factory Installs) is the added things such as automatic updates from Acer which lets you know when updates are due (Not the Microsoft Updates) but the Acer updates!!! Also I go into my msconfig under my Start Button/Programs/Accessories/and in there is the "run" command Uncheck all the crap that is marked (under the "Startup") Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, also uncheck and get rid of the Quicktime updates and anything such as Acer may put in there to do to do their updates. I know with my HP came the HP Advise!!! What a piece of crap!!! That program alone would cause my system to lag, even moving my mouse would be a chore when system went to idle. Don't uncheck everything in there tho!!! You do need some things!!!! Java Update is okay anything marked Microsoft is okay...but Acer along with other company's like to put their nice pretty toolbars and other things on your desktop that just like to hog system resources and in the background whether the system is at idle or not it has them running!!!
Another thing to try is run that program I gave you and do a hold on CTRL+ALT+DEL, I'm sure you you have done that before, but go down to Start Task Manager...But in their go to your Processes Tab and click the CPU once so it shows a down carrot in the box and watch if there may be a program that is bouncing or that relates to your High Spike demand when system is at idle!!! The the next thing to try in there is clicking Memory (which right now my Highest is Firefox)..but I have it running, so duh that would be using up my memory!!! But your sying you getting high red zone spikes topping your chart and one place to look is to see what program may be kicking in causing it!!! My guess would be a update search of some sort or your Indexing Service...as I said SHUT THAT THING OFF!!!
On another note disable your Hibernate feature that comes with all versions of windows!!! It's never been worth a crap in any of the windows I have EVER used...it's just another resource Hog and takes up hard drive space!!! You can follow this link to do that Hibernate - Enable or Disable I don't mind my computer going to sleep at night and touching the mouse or keyboard to wake it up...but the hibernate loves to run in the background and takes snapshots of what your sytem is at so if you do let it set there long enough it has a total look of being able to snap back up for you which is a slow process Sleep is a much faster process and I set my system to sleep when it shows idle for 1 hour. But before I used sleep my computer ran 24/7 and just had my monitor shut down after 20 minutes of no use.
Another Bad program (sometimes) that comes with factory systems is a program called GoBack!!! The program is nice, but once again is a resource hog because it wants to snapshot your system constantly so in case of problems you can "GoBack" to what your system was before you had changed something...about the same as Norton!!! It's JUNK!!! That's why Windows has it's own neat little program installed called "System Restore"!!! Much more efficient and takes care and makes system backups when installing programs or updates or when starting you system up for that day...if you don't already leave your system running 24/7.
There must be a solution to your random (HIGH) spikes!!! It has to be something that kicks in. in the background which your just not aware of even when your system is at idle!!!!
If you would like to take a snapshot of your Task Manager and let me run through the startup part of it...it could tell me a lot!!! To do that is to hit you print screen button and the go to Start Menu/ Programs/ Accessories/ and hit the "Paint" feature. Right click in paint on the blank page and paste the snapshot, save it as a jpg file to your desktop and send it along with this forum by scrolling down just a bit on your reply page and hit the Manage Attachments link...Mind you, you may have to take the bottom edge of your task manager down so I can see the whole thing...but would like to at least see what you have running and what's eating at your CPU and Memory that would pop in and cause such a spike!!! I still say it's either a Norton Program, Hibernate function, or system indexing service, or a Acer Installed crap program like I had on my HP that would run out every 20 mins or so to see if there was some sort of update!!!! Also would like a snapshot of your msconfig of only the Start Up tab so I could see what you would be safe with disabling in there...It would give me a heck of a lot better info on your system!!! It sucks how you have shut down that Video card!!! That is one BOMB of a card!!!! As long as you have the Bus speed to support it and a HUGE power supply to handle it!!!! I had to drop in a 750 watt power supply because of all the items that are on this old system!!! But like I said, if you want to take some Print Screens and paste them into Paint also Windows 7 has a Snipping Tool, but I still do things the old fashion way may also give me some ideas of what the heck you got running in the taskbar by your clock if you want to hit the up carrot down there by the clock I may be able to make out a few of those icons to!!! Which also leads to another good point...That Flag down there...you want to left click on it and Open Action Center, Go to Maintenance and see if Backup is currently being Monitored!!!! It's ANOTHER junk program that windows installed so you can make Backup DVD's of your System in case you want to transfer your important files from one system to another brand new PC...Just another piece of junk that needs disabled and turn off notification about it!!! One more final thing...Widows Update, go to the Change Settings on Windows Update and under the Important Updates Menu, hit that drop down arrow and chose the 2nd line from the bottom that say "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them!!!! I've had more problems with making DVD's and have Windows Update kick in and start downloading a file in the background and wanting to install it!!!! Another Pain In My Butt!!! Ends Up Putting a Glitch in My DVD Movie that I'm burning!!!
But Keep me informed...I'm really interested in getting your system running correct and maybe getting rid of some of the JUNK that companies put on there just to cause you needless slow downs so they can charge you for help later down the line!!! Personally I clean boot my system with Windows 7 Ultimate have 45 processes running and I just got METRO 2033 (new Game the other day and it ROCKS!!!!) I love the Blaster games of just killing and annihilation of things!!!

Take Care!!!
Mark

Oh sorry forgot one step...On the disabling of Indexing: To do that double click on Computer in start menu and the right click on your c drive ***(Left Click on Properties)*** and uncheck the indexing box!!!!
Sorry about that!!!!

Doing anything that makes the computer work such as opening a couple programs and messing around with them things will raise the bars like you said. However even after letting the computer sit for five or ten minutes after closing everything down it continues to stay high. It will stay low for maybe a second or two, it will go down to 130-230 or so but then it jumps right back up into the red around 12000 sometimes. Right now after about fourty five minutes of use it just jumps into the high yellow mostly and that is not audible but I would still like to get it down. It seems to be audible however if it's about 3000-4000 or more.