Two things... 1. make sure your motherboard has the latest BIOS running.
and 2. Avast has a realtime scanning function... this has been known to cause similar probelems.
Try rebooting, let the machine settle a couple of minutes, then open Task Manger and go to the "Processes" tab make sure the "show all processes" checkbox is enabled. Next, make a screen grab of only the Task Manager and post it here.
Ap
If the BIOS has an effect on this, I have never updated it. Always was paranoid I'd do it and screw my mobo up - so being my mobo is EVGA do I get the updated BIOS from them? Or is this provided by something else like Biostar or something? I've never actually done a BIOS Flash before so a bit clueless on how exactly that works.
Here's the pic of my Task Manager (Large pic - one thing got clipped it was Xfire64.exe). Also, there was no check box but a button that said to show All User Processes which I clicked.
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EDIT: I just looked on EVGA's site and I see that all I need to do to flash it is burn the .ISO of it to a CD and then boot off it - is any input from me required at all? It mentions clearing CMOS by powering down afterwards, is this anything more than just shutting it off - like do I need to do something like remove that CMOS battery or unplug it or anything like that?
If you haven't done a BIOS update before or are the least bit unsure I'd hold off until you gathered more info. The Hardware & Devices forum might be a good place to ask for advice. A BIOS update has helped some as they tweak the timings and other non-user settings to be more compatible with newer operating systems & processors.
Ap
I just wanted to put this in here cause i have been experiencing severe crackling,popping audio too.
Since i see alot of people fixing it with A bios update and im always up to date with my bios....,i decided to downgrade my bios and guess what!!!!!????
All my problems with creative x-fi cracking and popping is gone!!!!!
If u still experiencing all of the above named problems try a bios Upgrade and if u have latest version like i had try a bios downgrade!!!!
For me it fixed it all!!
My Mobo is btw Asus P6T (X58 chipset) and current working bios without the craclking noise is version 1201
Good luck.
I had the same problem on my laptop using Windows 7 64bit.
Got now from Microsoft a special hotfix which solved the problem: KB 981013
You have to ask for the download, special versions for each Windows version available,
but most important: It seems they had success....
Rats! That sounded promising, so I installed the hotfix but it didn't resolve the issue on my system.
Thanks for posting, though!
I had all the popping myself, tried all the fixes, nothing has worked yet (Logitech USB headset).
I was looking at the Properties for Playback Devices (Sound dialog box popped up). Clicked on the Playback tab, manipulated things, turned Enhancements off, changed volume, etc, etc...
So while I was listening to the crackling and watching the little led lights going up and down I decided to click on the "Recording" tab--and the crackle was gone completely. So just for fun I clicked back on to the Playback tab and the crackle came back, so I clicked Recording and it was gone.
I then closed the Sound dialog box and the crackle came back; I opened it again and went back to the Recording tab and it went away. What the heck?!
So now I have the sound dialog box opened in the background, with the Recording tab showing. all my stuff sounds fine.
No wonder so many people are moving to apple
Good luck getting this resolved. I gave up on my system after replacing every component including the motherboard and Power Supply. So I foolishly went out and bought a new computer. An HP HPE-150f running Windows 7 x64. Guess what? Exactly the same problem. The only common factor is Windows 7 x64. The only workaround is to reboot the computer several times a day.
I had the same problem and after reading through this thread I downloaded the DPC latency checker and went through enabling/disabling devices in device manager to identify the culprit.
For me, it turned out to be my realtek ethenet controller. Interestingly, the DPC spikes only came back once it had reconnected to the internet, not immediately after re-enabling the controller. I realised I was downloading in the background, and after disabling the download the spikes went away, so it only seems to happen when actively transferring data using the controller.
Updated to the latest version of the drivers, but alas no fix. Just keep the internet traffic to a minimum while listening to music for now I guess.
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