Strange problems with my sound on my custom build

[Dickstar]

I booted up my computer today and everything seemed fine. However, I noticed I had no sound. In my hardware control panel, there are no conflicts or errors, everything is fine.

When I play music or a movie, all I hear is crackling. It sounds like the empty beginning of an old record with scratches on it.

I have a separate sound card connected to an amplifier.
I have my headset connected to my on-board audio.

I get the exact same noise from both sources.


This came out of nowhere. I didn't install anything or changed my configuration before this started. Normally I can find out what's going on myself pretty much all the time, but this time I don't know where to start because there are no errors.

 

[Dickstar]

I figured it out. Looks like my Audiotrak HD2 died on me. It produced awesome sound, but it has also given me lots of driver headaches. No more Audiotrak products for me. I think I'm gonna put an ASUS Xonar D2 7.1 in there now, since it has gotten great reviews. I'll use it for stereo only, and the stereo opamps on this card seems to be exceptional.

Till that time I'll live with the shitty onboard sound. Being used to a good sound card, on-board sound is suddenly very tiring to listen to. Especially bass and mid response is harsh and lacks definition.