This is a problem through the motherboard mainly..Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig234
Have you installed any new hardware? Plugged anything new in?
Also, if you motherboard has a option that is like "PCI latency" try setting that to the lowest possible.
I did a Windows XP checkpoint restore to before the new soundcard drivers, and the static was mostly gone (every couple seconds a 'pop'). When I start World of Warcraft, while the login screen is loading up, the static now still start up (crackling sound, like 10 pops per second). It continues even after exiting WoW.
I don't know what to do now for this.
I doubt this will cut it, but try moving the card to a different PCI slot.
Thanks for the response; the thing is, the problem started right when I updated the driver (even though it's still happening with the old driver), and the cracking starts not with the system, which could imply a hardware issue, but only when world of warcraft is loading, implying a software connection.
When it happened to me it happened with nearly all opening. The CD drive spinning, a hardrive was reading, something was processing, etc.
This is a common problem with Creative cards.
Just wanting to make sure, have you set your PCI latency (Located in the BIOS) down to the lowest it can be? It can also be put in as "PCI delay" or something of the sort.
In my case static sound was caused by Asus MyCinema TV PCI card. At first there was no static when I installed TV card, but after installing newest Creative drivers it started. Also, at first static usually came when playing EAX games like BF2 or Total War, but later it started immediately with windows start. I tried almost everything: reinstalling drivers, degrading to lower version drivers, changing PCI latency, swithcing PCI slots, spreading spectrum in bios, moving all cables away from sound card - speakers cables, but in avail.
Only removing TV card solved the problem. Anyway this may be of help to someone who has similar issues.
My PC just started doing this a few weeks back. I have an Audigy 2 card, on a computer I built in 2002 and haven't changed any hardware on at all. I only ever used the Creative drivers. It started out as occasional popping but has developed into constant static. I update WinXP regularly but had not updated the soundcard drivers in a LONG time (a couple years possibly). I don't ever use the EAX effects for anything directly, and I live alone so I know nobody else is messing with my PC's settings.
What I have found causes this on my PC is a problem/bug with the EAX effects. Even if [No Effects] is selected but the effects mixer slider is not set to zero, I get the crackling.
If I set the EAX slider to zero%, and then start and exit a game (UT2004 for example) then look at the EAX slider again, it is at 80% and the crackling is back. And if I turn the EAX back down to zero, the crackling is gone.
Also I have seen that the EAX controls are not consistent: I have a copy of Creative Playcenter installed, and if I open the EAX tab of the Creative Audio Console and the EAX control of Creative Playcenter and move one slider, the other does not move as well. If I turn the Creative Audio Console slider up, I get no crackling, but if I turn the Creative Playcenter slider up, I get crackling right away.
Sometimes if I start a song in Creative Playcenter, the crackling is back--and if I check the EAX slider, it's back up to 100%.
At no time have I seen the EAX effects get set differently; it always stays on [no effects].
So basically--I can stop the crackling if it happens, but I can't prevent it from starting again later, because I can't force the EAX effects slider to stay at zero%.
(Creative Playcenter is the audio player program that came with the earlier Soundblaster Live cards. It will work on Audigy cards too, but you need to get it off a SBL installer CD, as the Creative website only ever offered updates for it--they never posted the program itself for download)
Hope this helps.
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I noticed that the static will work with the EAX environmental effects--but not on the Advanced EQ effects. When you open the Creative Audio Console and choose any of the Advanced EQ effects, the slider goes to 100% and there's no static. SO perhaps it might be easiest to just choose one you like and leave it on that.
I tried to play with some of the other EAX effects (the studio effects specifically) and the Creative Audio Console basically locked up on me, and I had to reboot.... :|
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I found the same thing... i didn't have the problem when i bought the card but when i did driver updates it just went into a constant static.... i did kinda figure out whats... CAUSEing it. if i disable the Line-in2/Mic2... it compleatly stops... but.. i use the 1/4 line-2/Mic2 for recording. so it's been an annoyince... just wondering how you would disable the " turbo " setting in the registris he so hey.. since i do have a Via board.
I have been fighting this crackling sound for a while when I found this thread.
I have a Creative SB Audigy 2ZS in a Dell 4700. The noise got so bad that we essentially had to stop listening to internet radio or any audio function.
Tonight I shut down and swapped slots for a Linksys Wireless G card and the Sound card. The crackling stopped and all was quiet for 10 minutes or so and then started crackling again.
I shut down and removed the wireless card. (I am plugged directly into a router, so I don't need the wireless) and am now back up with a very useable sound system, although no wireless network access. To be fair, I don't think the card had been working for quite a while, and I had just plugged a CAT-5 in to the router and forgot about the wireless.
I will be interested to hear if anyone is using the Linksys Wireless-G and has the noise problem.
I am enjoying great internet music for the first time in months.
Ok So I was premature in the post above. After several hours of crackle-free sound, the static crackling sound returned with a fury. Tonight I removed the Audigy card altogether and changed over to the integrated sound on the Dell motherboard. No problems since I did that but I am humbled by my incorrect and all too optimistic diagnosis of the problem earlier, so I will just say so far, so good. I wonder why I bought an extra sound card anyway?
Some people above mentioned that the problem might be to do with Vista. I can confirm that this isn't the case as I run Ubuntu Linux 8.04 and I've got the same problem with crackling speakers - although it only occurs when reading from the DVD and CD drives.
I've got an Audigy 2 Platinum and a Soyo DragonPlus motherboard with a Via KT600 chipset.
I'll have a look at some of the suggestions people have made about BIOS settings and so on and let you know if I get any results.
You saved me some trouble. My SB X-FI gamer started to crackle through the speakers and left SteelSound headset cup. I read this post and remembered I had recently installed an MSI Star key Bluetooth dongle with Bluetooth stereo drivers (which added two other audio devices). Removed same and viola, no more static or crackles!Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePerson98
I just found this forum trying to fix this very same issue. After reading this thread, I decided to just play around with muting different things. About 2 days ago, I muted CD Audio in the volume control, and that seems to have fixed it. I have done everything I normally do and it seems to have worked. I don't ever use the CD drive for anything anyway. I figured that I would let you know - might possibly work for someone else also.
Hey Gang,
I registered STRICTLY to emphasize on this problem of Static Crackling with or without actual sound playing..
Go to your sound controls and Mute that what you are NOT using. Having them all unmuted would cause this "Static" problem for me.
Muted Line-in , since it's not being used and Static b' GONE..
:eek::rolleyes:
Hope this helps.
