Windows 7: Pausing/unpausing/scrubbing audio creates static crackles/pops

I can't figure this weird little issue out.
I'm not sure how long this issue has been around on my PC because only recent situation made me aware of it.

I was creating some SFX in audacity and I noticed any time I looped a specific type of audio there was a static pop/crackle at the end/start or during scrubbing, the SFX is a continuous droning bass loop to be used like a server humming etc, and any clip that ends or starts quiet doesn't seem to share this issue.

I have tried updating my audio drivers, and video drivers, didn't fix it.
I tested on speakers and also headphones, and in different jacks, crackles are on both, so it's deff coming from my PC, not faulty speakers.
I tried most things in this help article that applied to my PC (minus updating BIOS drivers):
Fix Audio Static Crackling Popping with Realtek Sound Card

And just for a test, if you play this SFX (no DL, just play in browser), and pause/unpause during it, do you hear any static pops? or is it just my PC? lol
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I dunno what else to try to figure this out

I'm happy to do any tests or provide screenshots to help diagnose this issue.

Thanks guys

Specs:
Windows 7 pro 64bit
Intel core i7 6700 @ 3.40ghz
ASRock z170 extreme4
32gb
Nvidia gefoce GTX 970 MSI

Realtek High Definition Audio. NVIDIA High Definition Audio. (both are shown in the device manager for sound)

LG ultrawide - 2560 x 1080
Keyboard
logitech G510s
Mouse
logitech g502

Browser
Chrome/firefox

Audio Playback Devices:
Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (default)
LG ULTRAWIDE (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)

Set up a virtual machine with Linux Mint in the VM. Install Audacity in Linux. Try it in Audacity in Linux, to see if the problem persists there. If this is a Windows or a driver issue, it won't exist in Linux.

@fireberd is the go to guy for audio here,

I assume the audio you have is the onboard default system, I think this could be at least part of the issue as on-board sound is always a compromise between cost and performance, and the quality would be increased with an additional bespoke Audio card. Other thing to check is the placement of the power cables with relation to the audio components

Is it safe to do this? I will give it a shot though, just don't wanna go messing around with the registry or stuff of that nature

I listened to the sample clip. I wouldn't call it "crackling" just sounds like a momentary dropout. Since it appears, from your post, to be what you are creating in Audacity I would suspect that is where the problem is generated and not really a problem with the PC audio.

Also, don't confuse the HDMI audio with the PC audio (Realtek). If you are not using HDMI audio it has no affect (and in most cases HDMI is generated in the video card separate from the PC audio such as Realtek).

(I have a recording studio using Cakewalk Sonar and Studio One 3).

Okay well I did think it could simply be that I made my SFX incorrectly, so I looked at other audio sources, but I still get the pop too, Eg: Forest Ambience Sounds, Sci Fi Insect and Fantasy Creature Sound Effects for Download - Exoplanet - YouTube pausing/unpausing also gives me the popping noises.

Well my audio comes from my speakers being plugged in the normal jack at the back, I dont use HDMI for my audio, unless you mean something else (im obv a noob at audio just FYI lol)

I don't get any pops/crackles etc on the YouTube audio so its back to your system.
Your system is similar to mine, ASUS ROG Z170 motherboard and an i7 6700K and Realtek sound.

Download and run the free Resplendence Latency Mon. See what that shows. This program is very "picky" and has lots of data (I actually call it data overload) but it may show what is causing it.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

One other thought, for testing. Uninstall Realtek in the Device Manager (and the drivers). Then restart the PC and Windows will (should) install the generic High Definition Audio driver. See what happens with this driver, again for testing.

It is perfectly safe. You don't have to touch the registry. And you have so much RAM that it should work very well.

Okay I ran it for a while, seems it found some issues :| and it described exactly the issue I'm having, so that's good.

So what do I do next? the suggestions it gives arent something Im familiar with doing on windows.

And thanks mrjimphelps, I'll look into testing that if this current testing fails, cheers

(edit) oh and heres the report it gave me:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CONCLUSION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 7:56:38 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
SYSTEM INFORMATION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Computer name: GJ-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: ASRock, Z170 Extreme4
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 32715 MB total


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU SPEED
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Reported CPU speed: 3408 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 20974.871198
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.809035

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 5746.696461
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.757167


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED ISRs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 245.477113
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.087461
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.100976

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 33030943
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED DPCs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 344.558099
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: tcpip.sys - TCP/IP Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.053287
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: iusb3xhc.sys - Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver, Intel Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.152404

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 143351025
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 56
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: chrome.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 69531
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 29009
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 1008762.292840
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.063749
Number of processes hit: 67


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
PER CPU DATA
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1244.068981
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 245.477113
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 231.018303
CPU 0 ISR count: 33030943
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 307.274648
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 330.280332
CPU 0 DPC count: 137187184
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 583.711232
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 1 ISR count: 0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 253.237676
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 1.947490
CPU 1 DPC count: 640085
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 276.701443
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 2 ISR count: 0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 228.330399
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 2.566825
CPU 2 DPC count: 994198
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 728.668220
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 298.473005
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 1.276198
CPU 3 DPC count: 433105
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 603.993392
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 297.394366
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 4.021379
CPU 4 DPC count: 1336031
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 566.326903
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 344.558099
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 1.098345
CPU 5 DPC count: 285292
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 479.584232
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 219.146127
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 5.194454
CPU 6 DPC count: 1549801
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 477.691150
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 211.685446
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 2.292005
CPU 7 DPC count: 925385
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____