# Audio crackling a few hours into session.



## Aceman.au (Jan 13, 2016)

Sound card: ASUS Phoebus 7.1
Headset: Razer Tiamat 7.1
Operating system: Win 10

A few hours (between 2 and 10 hours) into all my gaming sessions in the past 2 months I have been getting severely crackling audio and I haven't the faintest idea what is causing it. I've tried fixes I've found on Google, updating the drivers and trying different settings, I disabled my overclock on the CPU (PSU not giving out enough power, so I tried changing power settings), but none of them work. Resetting the PC fixes the audio for a few hours before it starts again, so it might be a software thing.

Sometimes the PC itself starts to lag with the crackling audio with minimal load or when I'm playing a game, which leads me to believe it's more than an audio issue, but I thought it might be the audio issue causing the PC lag, because the system lag doesn't happen every time, only sometimes.

Help me TPU, you're my only hope!


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

Its because thats an Asus soundcard. It sounds like youre trying to play an older game with EAX enabled.  I had all sorts of audio anomalies with Asus's 3D emulation enabled on older titles. 

Asus arent particularly great with driver updates either. 

My problems went away when i switched back to using a creative soundcard


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## Aceman.au (Jan 13, 2016)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Its because thats an Asus soundcard. It sounds like youre trying to play an older game with EAX enabled.  I had all sorts of audio anomalies with Asus's 3D emulation enabled on older titles.
> 
> Asus arent particularly great with driver updates either.
> 
> My problems went away when i switched back to using a creative soundcard



Never had an issue until these past 2 months or so. Weird.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

I never had problems with some games until a year later. Lots of audio clipping. Distortion and audio that wouldn't respond to ingame sound settings. Id turn the music and sounds off completely but it was still blaring out.

Reinstalling drivers didnt help. 3rd party drivers didnt help so i pulled it out and sold it off


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## Aceman.au (Jan 13, 2016)

Wow. Almost seems intended.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

I wouldnt call it intended lol. There are quite a few people out there who dont have problems with Asus soundcards. But for me and the games i played, I had a lot.

part of the problem i think is tied to surround sound - multiple audio streams etc etc though I have no way to prove this as i havent had an Asus soundcard in my hands for at least 3-4 years.

-- If doing a clean install of the drivers doesnt work, Id look for an Creative SB-Z which is what i currently have and very very happy with since ive had it.


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## Ferrum Master (Jan 13, 2016)

I put my Xonar DX in the shelf too... drivers SUCK for CMEDIA based devices...

Bought a used Ti HD... zero problems...


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

If you do  choose to pull it out though then I'll lose the opportunity to call you up on skype and say

"hows it crackalackin? "


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## Aceman.au (Jan 13, 2016)

Might just have to move back to the onboard audio. Ill try fiddling with some more settings.


FreedomEclipse said:


> If you do  choose to pull it out though then I'll lose the opportunity to call you up on skype and say
> 
> "hows it crackalackin? "


Oh my god I wish this was Reddit. I'd give you gold. 10/10 I Lol'd IRL


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## Aceman.au (Jan 13, 2016)

Ferrum Master said:


> I put my Xonar DX in the shelf too... drivers SUCK for CMEDIA based devices...
> 
> Bought a used Ti HD... zero problems...


Of course I pick the worst audio card brand on market... God I'm good at failing


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## cadaveca (Jan 13, 2016)

Aceman.au said:


> Of course I pick the worst audio card brand on market... God I'm good at failing


The design and features of the ASUS cards were fantastic... when they originally launched. Now.. not so good. My ASUS XONAR D2X is the only card (and its brethren) that can decode a DTS stream, and re-encode it into Dolby in real-time (as well as the reverse or any other combination). It also provides a very flat response.

But drivers are horrid. I'd even suspect that somehow over time the driver gets corrupted or some crap.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

cadaveca said:


> The design and features of the ASUS cards were fantastic... when they originally launched. Now.. not so good. My ASUS XONAR D2X is the only card (and its brethren) that can decode a DTS stream, and re-encode it into Dolby in real-time (as well as the reverse or any other combination). It also provides a very flat response.
> 
> But drivers are horrid. I'd even suspect that somehow over time the driver gets corrupted or some crap.



the D2X was an amazing card. I had one for a while. Asus's enthusiasm for soundcards never really took off. It feels a lot like they went into the market because Creative was there with their huge market share and they wanted a peice of the pie. 

Since DirectSound is no longer a thing, Creative lost its advantage and Asus never really seemed to want to push harder as built in soundcards have also come a long way.


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## Ferrum Master (Jan 13, 2016)

The thing is... all audio cards sucked hard in win8 period.

I am kind of shocked that creative actually did give proper drivers to x-fi win10... and many other in the family.

Creative and Cmedia give currently... only solutions for dedicated cards... so screwed up actually.

Well... I am playing mass effect 1 currently... I just adore how much more better it sounds if you hack it via ini mod to use native OpenAl.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 13, 2016)

Creative could have picked up the ball with OpenAL and ran with it when Microsoft done away with DirectSound but they didnt cuz they were selfish. We're in a mexican standoff where nobody is really trying or wants to try to move forward because theres no reason to and any move they make (in the case of OpenAL) will benefit EVERYONE and not just themselves. Creative doesnt want other people getting in on its tech


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## Bansaku (Jan 14, 2016)

Aceman.au said:


> A few hours (between 2 and 10 hours) into all my gaming sessions in the past 2 months I have been getting severely crackling audio and I haven't the faintest idea what is causing it. I've tried fixes I've found on Google, updating the drivers and trying different settings, I disabled my overclock on the CPU (PSU not giving out enough power, so I tried changing power settings), but none of them work. Resetting the PC fixes the audio for a few hours before it starts again, so it might be a software thing.
> Sometimes the PC itself starts to lag with the crackling audio with minimal load or when I'm playing a game, which leads me to believe it's more than an audio issue, but I thought it might be the audio issue causing the PC lag, because the system lag doesn't happen every time, only sometimes.



1) How old is the sound card? It might have a capacitor that is dying. When you are playing audio through the sound card the components heat up and over time the dying capacitors start to lose their ability to hold a proper charge. Restarting the PC temporarily solve the problem because the components have cooled down. It would be interesting to hear if your issues go away for a bit if you simply stop playing for a few minutes and start again.

2) What do you mean by crackling? Is it static, or popping, or is it jittery/stuttering, and does it happen randomly for a short period and stops or does it remain crackly until you restart?

3) When did this start happening; Does it coincide with you upgrading to Windows 10? Since I updated to Windows 10, my Creative E3 USB DAC started to randomly stutter when under nominal to high loads while playing games, with some games worse than others i.e. Not too bad in Metal Gear V but happens more frequently in The Witcher 3. COD BO3....ya it's almost unplayable. Even happens in Vally or Haven benchmarks. Rock solid in Mac OS X or connected to my iPod Touch.


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## Aceman.au (Jan 14, 2016)

Bansaku said:


> 1) How old is the sound card? It might have a capacitor that is dying. When you are playing audio through the sound card the components heat up and over time the dying capacitors start to lose their ability to hold a proper charge. Restarting the PC temporarily solve the problem because the components have cooled down. It would be interesting to hear if your issues go away for a bit if you simply stop playing for a few minutes and start again.
> 
> 2) What do you mean by crackling? Is it static, or popping, or is it jittery/stuttering, and does it happen randomly for a short period and stops or does it remain crackly until you restart?
> 
> 3) When did this start happening; Does it coincide with you upgrading to Windows 10? Since I updated to Windows 10, my Creative E3 USB DAC started to randomly stutter when under nominal to high loads while playing games, with some games worse than others i.e. Not too bad in Metal Gear V but happens more frequently in The Witcher 3. COD BO3....ya it's almost unplayable. Even happens in Vally or Haven benchmarks. Rock solid in Mac OS X or connected to my iPod Touch.



1. A year old.

2. Popping and buzzing sound.

3. Didn't start way into my usage of Win10. Don't think it's that.


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## Bansaku (Jan 14, 2016)

Aceman.au said:


> 1. A year old.
> 
> 2. Popping and buzzing sound.
> 
> 3. Didn't start way into my usage of Win10. Don't think it's that.



Did you try a different PCI slot?


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## Aceman.au (Jan 14, 2016)

Bansaku said:


> Did you try a different PCI slot?


 Ooooo no I didn't Ill give it a go.


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## hat (Jan 14, 2016)

Maybe try some 3rd party drivers?


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## JrockTech (Jan 14, 2016)

Hey. Im using the Creative Fatality Pro and I'm no longer getting any clipping/popping in regards to sound while gaming. Only in the new "Edge" browser do I get clipping with YouTube (A well known issue)

Upon first installing Windows 10 I did get a bit of popping under heavy CPU load. This was fixed by muting every component not in use (Line in, FP microphone, Digital out, etc.). I also wiped my Sounddriver that Windows gave me and installed the official driver from Creative's website. Onboard sound is Disabled in BIOS.

Props to Creative for releasing a driver quickly that works great.


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