Hello, I'm having this problem for about 1,5 year.
 
I'm using my onboard sound blaster. Traditionaly I install Windows, then I install my SB drivers and everything works fine for a month or two but then suddenly my sound transforms into a scrachy noises whenever playing some type of sound. I tried changing bios parameters, sending my motherboard for repair, reinstaling drivers and even windows but nothing helps.
 
The only solution I found -> When those noises start, I plug in my old SB Live! in PCI slot and disable SB onboard. Now I can hear the sound through my Live! blaster, but after one or two months the same problem hits my Live! blaster! So I'm removing it and going back to my onboard SB, because after few months it works fine again.
 
A year ago I had my old PC and this problem. Now I fully changed my PC set, but still have the same problem.
 
Please help

if ur having the same problem on 2 different computers, u might want to think about looking into replacing ur speakers.

It could be graphics card taking up too much bus bandwidth or cpu load. That could cause the crackles. You can try changing PCI latency to give the soundcard more headroom.

But since it's Creative, it might just be bad driver.

coldneutron, it's not speakers. When I get those noises, I attach my Ipod and speakers work fine.
 
dagger, my onboard card isn't PCI.
 
maybe it's some problems with my home electricity?

PCI isn't refering to the actual slot, but the bus the onboard chipset is running on. But yeah, it's probably the driver.

Do you have a wireless card in the computer?
That could interfere with your onboard sound.

No, I don't have wireless  
 
I'll try to change latency

Ill bet my money its is a PSU/Electric problem. Ive seen that kind of problem loads of times in laptops. Changing AC works ussually like a charm.
If we are taking about the same thing ofc.

There used to be an issue with VIA chip sets and Creative a while back. Where an incompatibility between the VIA chip in the motherboard and creative caused conflicts, which in turn made any application utilising sound gave crackling, hissing and popping sounds.
 
I wonder if that problem might be showing up here.

So, either way it works for a month or two and then suddenly stops working?  That makes no sense at all.
 
Do you (by any chance) see a message pop up that says:
 
"Your sound drivers will self-destruct in 45 days!"
 

If you goto the creative forums, you'll find out it's a NORMAL issue with soundblasters.

I use creative just as a replacement soundblaster. So it's not creative's problem.
 
The other 2 SBs (the older one and the present) are integrated directly into VIA motherboards (older and present) so they can't conflict with them.
 
All of those 3 soundblasters have the same problem.

Hello, I just found one thing, because the same problem occured again.
 
When I set my winamp sound level at 3% and my windows sound level at ~20%, I can hear the music and distortions almost end.
 
So this error is something with my output. Maybe the signal is too strong? But why?