Windows 7: Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

How kind of you ! Merci !

Are any of you experiencing Audio cracking/popping/skipping issues under Windows 7? My alienware m15x once in a while makes these noises when I am multitasking while listening to music from any program.. Zune, iTunes, WMP. I have a Core 2 Duo x9000 Xtreme, at high performance, so processing power is not the issue. I might give a try with these drivers and see if it goes away. The problem doesnt occur when I leave the computer alone playing music though.

I just upgraded to the latest realtek drivers, and even though the sound cracking/popping/skipping issue seems to happen less, it still does. I wonder if it might be Bios incompatibilities with Windows 7, since it didnt happen with Vista.

Same here, I really had high hopes for this driver but still nothing. I am able to fix the problem when I mess around a lot but I don't know what is it that actually fixes it and it takes a ton of uninstalls and reinstalls. But if there's a BSOD, it gets crackly again.

Edit: I found my problem. It was "Launch Manager" program I was using for hotkey control on my netbook. Tried another version that doesn't affect the sound but now I can't control the volume with the keyboard

I have the same problem with an old mobo Epox 8RDA3+. Tried several drivers, with no luck. What i've read is to disable any sounds enhancement like Dolby or equalizer. That didn't make the trick for me, but it may that works for some other mobo.
What i've tried is software related: mean tried MediaPlayerClassic, WMP and VLC. The less cracking/distorded sound comes from VLC. Maybe a codec issue?

My soundcard is "Realtek ALC655 @ nVIDIA MCP2 - Audio Codec Interface" and it may I roll back to XPpro if this issus still annoying me so much...

2.16 available Shawn.

Thank you Aaron. First post updated.

Thanks downloaded 2.16. Working great no problems.

Do you mean this one works and the former one didn't? Have you been experiencing sound problems before?

New Realtek HD audio driver 2.17 released 2/24/2009. See first post for details.

Shawn