having an issue. the sound starts to crackle and pop (think rice krispies) under higher than normal levels during gaming and music. (ie explosions in games or bass intense periods) anyone else having similar issues?

Yes, even on Teamspeak....that crackling sound!! Has anyone found a cure?? Or do I have to go buy a soundcard???

Yeah me too. The best my PC manufacturer can suggest os sending it back (via mail).

I found that plugging in a cable to the headphone socket at the same time stopped the crackling, but my 5.1 sound setup works sporadically.

The crackle and pop's gone though.

Anybody got a better fix?

Usually you will get popping/crackling on the onboard sound that comes with the motherboard. In all my past and current motherboards that i had i had the same problem. The solution was to get an sound card (sound blaster).

I'll stick with my current workaround for the time being, despite it supposedly being a great board. I get stereo with music aps (WMP and Winamp) and 5.1 on some games, but 3.1 (is that a category?) on others.

It'll do for the time being.

I only hope nothing else screws up with it...