Random Crackling/Distortion

[PNGmangi]

Hey everybody. At the beginning of 2010 I got a new laptop for Christmas. It's specs are:

Processor: Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10GHz 2.10 GHz
RAM: 4GB (2.84 usable)
System type: 32-bit Operating System

The sound card is Realtek High Definition Audio.

I would have expected there to be no problems for at least a few years but no. I have had this problem for a while and am now on holidays so can ask for some advice.

My problem is that sometimes when I listen to music or watch movies, i get a crackling or (the best way I can describe it) electronic distortion. It's not all the time. It happens even after a reboot. So I don't know what to do. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am trying to record the sound distortion that happens so you can better understand what is happening. When I get it I will try upload it. I will repost if I can get it.

Thanks

 

[MEgamer]

try reducing the system volume.

 

[enzo matrix]

Has this problem always been there or is it new?

 

[PNGmangi]

It has been going for quite a while. Not sure exactly when it started but more than 6 months I think.

 

[soupflood]

Hey everybody. At the beginning of 2010 I got a new laptop for Christmas. It's specs are:

Processor: Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10GHz 2.10 GHz
RAM: 4GB (2.84 usable)
System type: 32-bit Operating System

The sound card is Realtek High Definition Audio.

I would have expected there to be no problems for at least a few years but no. I have had this problem for a while and am now on holidays so can ask for some advice.

My problem is that sometimes when I listen to music or watch movies, i get a crackling or (the best way I can describe it) electronic distortion. It's not all the time. It happens even after a reboot. So I don't know what to do. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am trying to record the sound distortion that happens so you can better understand what is happening. When I get it I will try upload it. I will repost if I can get it.

Thanks

I have the exact same problem , only with an Armada E500 "dinosaur" laptop . The noise:
>is present sometimes only in one channel (usually the left) - and my headphones are fine.
>it can be heard at all volume levels.
>it is actually a noise "modulated" by the "clean" sound.
>it happens toall sound output.

My guess is it's either a driver issue (I tried older drivers and later drivers to no avail), or a sound card hardware bug. I wanted to change the sound card IRQ (because video and sound and many others are all sharing IRQ 11), but Windows XP won't let me - even after installing Standard PC instead of the modern ACPI .

I'm not sure if bad RAM can produce such horrible noise through the sound card. I had 2*128 MB RAM modules of which one (I discarded it) began reporting massive errors in Memtest86+. The other one seemed to work well.

The most annoying thing OF ALL is this : the support center from HP (owns Compaq) answered to this bug by releasing an "updated sound card driver". It obviouslly doesn't work, because I have it installed right now and the noise is still present sometimes, like before. But no one seems to care about it...

 

[PNGmangi]

Ohk. So alot of that didnt make heaps of sense because I'm not a computer genius. Is there anything that can be done for this problem?

 

[soupflood]

I've recently downloaded Virtual Audio Cable from a torrent site. Basically, I:
>>>installed the program,
>>>dragged "Audio Repeater" from its initial "Start->Programs->Virtual Audio Cable" entry, to Startup, so that it will auto-start after login (you can do this later after you were convinced it works),
>>>started "Audio Repeater",
>>>set the "Wave in" scroll-box to "Virtual cable1", and the "Wave out" scroll-box to "[YOUR-SOUND-CARD's-NAME]"
>>>clicked "Start" button. It has to run all the time like this (duh).

...My ESS Maestro2E soundcard driver works with this little program. No sound-modulated hissing in the left channel anymore. I hope it will work for you too; if it won't, I apologize in advance.

 

[soupflood]

Another technical note: After installing that lil program, you have to start playing a song until it sounds "clean". Only after you have clear sound coming out of your speakers, should you press the Start button in the program and let it run.

*The reason for this (I think) is because the sound quality somehow "locks" when you start the program during music playback. It happens only with the "Wave" output - not with the "Microphone", for example (at least on my dinosaur).

I'd like to know if this solution worked for you or not.

 

[PNGmangi]

Hey. Sorry but I don't quite understand what this VAC does? And why I need it. I'm not really keen on downloading something I don't know what its for or anything like that. Could you please explain (in simple terms what this is and does?

 

[soupflood]

Ok. You could've just googled about it.
It's a program which repeats sound from a sound card to another sound card/channel. I'm quite sure it's not a virus (your antivirus would alert you anyway).

As you said before, the crackling happens sometimes. [Only the Wave audio channel (in Windows XP), is affected.]
If it happened for the song to have a no-crackling sound, it would continue playing so unless you changed the track. VAC locks that initial state once you set it and push the start button, so track changing won't trigger crackling.


So: VAC Locks your Current Sound Crackling Status.


That's the simplest way I could explain it. I have to say this program hasn't even once allowed any crackling on my soundcard, since I began using it one week ago.

Finally, if it simply won't work at all for you, then you'll be able to uninstall it...

 

[PNGmangi]

Hey. My problem seems to have fixed itself so thats good. Thanks so much for helping.

 

[soupflood]

Lol. That seems great
Next time it shall bother you, give it a try.
Cheers!