Sound crackling is driving me insane.

[joeblowsnow]

Have you tried the following?
1. Set you power profile to high performance. Control Panel>System>Power

I've been working on trying to fix the crackling on my 2496 for DAYS, tried everything I possibly could, and this simple fix worked!!! It seemed pretty grim, as it's rare to find people online who've resolved this issue in Win7 with their 2496. Thank you mouldie!