ASRock z87 Extreme4 sound issue

blacklabel67k

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With the Realtek drivers that came with the board, sound is completely messed up and distorted. Loud crackles cut into whatever sound is coming out. I tested my speakers and motherboard on multiple audio sources and speakers, same thing.

But.... without the drivers, sound comes out clear without being cut out halfway through but with lots of crackling when sounds get mixed together.

For example, in a song it starts off with just the guitar playing, I get no crackling. But once the drums, bass and singing kick in the crackling gets louder to the point where it's clearly audible. Then disappears when it's just the guitar again.

I've read about EMI issues with sound but I don't think that could be it if sound comes out clear at times and not clear at others. Or is that possible with EMI?
 
Solution
most emi from pc sound now is from your cell phone or wireless devices to close to the pc or a power wire. on older pc noise used to happen from the cd rom audio cables leaning next to power wires. if the audio goes bad under load it the sound chipset having an issue.

blacklabel67k

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Nope, no network cards or anything else. I believe the sound drivers I installed were the latest. I heard turning off power saving features might work. I was able to turn off all power saving features under CPU config in my BIOS except Intel Speedstep which I can't find and would assume isnt featured in my mobo BIOS.

I guess what I'm trying to find out is if what I described sounds like an EMI issue. I figured since I have a 2 year warranty I can get it replaced anyways and see what happens but I got an odd feeling it's down to EMI or some combination of hardware I'm using that might be causing the audio issues, not the board itself. :/ I thought I was making a good decision going with ASRock since I've read good things.
 


ASrock makes solid motherboards but in computer hardware there is always defective boards no matter what brand you buy its kind of a lottery.
 

blacklabel67k

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I'm just frustrated I guess.

I'm hoping it's down to a board issue since I can simply walk into Micro Center and swap it for a new one within the next 2 years.

If anyone familiar with EMI can explain to me what I described could be what's causing the sound issues, please help! Because that's the common answer I'm finding when searching this sort of issue.
 
most emi from pc sound now is from your cell phone or wireless devices to close to the pc or a power wire. on older pc noise used to happen from the cd rom audio cables leaning next to power wires. if the audio goes bad under load it the sound chipset having an issue.
 
Solution

blacklabel67k

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Hmmm alright, thanks for the help. I think I'm just going to replace the board with my warranty and go from there. Apparently they had the Extreme6 for $10 more and I didn't even know. Maybe they'll let me pay the difference, so this might turn out to be a good thing in a way.