Asus Z170 Deluxe & Maximus VIII hero alpha crackling sound (emergency!!!)

[UserAlpha]

hi there,
I'm about to build a new Z170 based PC and my choices for motherboard are Asus z170 deluxe and Maximus VIII hero alpha
but i read many report that Asus's Realtek alc1150 drive produce popping and crackling sound
is it true? can it be fixed?
what motherboard do you suggest instead of the problem is serious?

my needs: a 24/7 ON time system for gaming Photoshop and premiere and most of the times casual stuffs
____
and about emergency part! i have to decide in less than 24h

 

[UserAlpha]

funny thing is my second brand of choice has some issues with it's on-board sound too! (Gigabyte z170x gaming7 and GT)
it seems i shouldn't be worry about my purchase either way is the wrong way )

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

I might be late, but if you had the money, you can always get a Sound Card.

 

[UserAlpha]

I might be late, but if you had the money, you can always get a Sound Card.

i bought the Z170 deluxe and the first week went smoothly but after that the pops and crackles start to show up!
about your suggestion which i was thinking about too:
can something like Creative Audigy RX fix this?
the crackles are on my nerves! and i have to fix it fast
i just want to be sure that it's gonna fix it

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

I might be late, but if you had the money, you can always get a Sound Card.

i bought the Z170 deluxe and the first week went smoothly but after that the pops and crackles start to show up!
about your suggestion which i was thinking about too:
can something like Creative Audigy RX fix this?
the crackles are on my nerves! and i have to fix it fast
i just want to be sure that it's gonna fix it

Does the crackling stop when the on-board sound isn't receiving any sound input? Or it just always crackles no matter what's the situation?

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

Alternatively, I've seen that your problem has also happened to others as well. Check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles

The OP also mentions that he got his problem "70% solved", which means it can be a helping hand.

 

[UserAlpha]

I might be late, but if you had the money, you can always get a Sound Card.

i bought the Z170 deluxe and the first week went smoothly but after that the pops and crackles start to show up!
about your suggestion which i was thinking about too:
can something like Creative Audigy RX fix this?
the crackles are on my nerves! and i have to fix it fast
i just want to be sure that it's gonna fix it

Does the crackling stop when the on-board sound isn't receiving any sound input? Or it just always crackles no matter what's the situation?

the most accurate description that i can say is like the onboard sound amplifying everything way too much!
i can easily hear the hiss sound from speaker when nothing is playing (even with low speaker volume) and crackle can be heard without anything playing too
but some frequency triggered this to a whole new level louder pops and crackle can be heard

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

 

[UserAlpha]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

I'd say go for a Sound Card in this situation, or try installing older on-board sound drivers; it might work since sometimes driver updates really screw up stuff at times.

Hope it'll get fixed.

 

[UserAlpha]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

I'd say go for a Sound Card in this situation, or try installing older on-board sound drivers; it might work since sometimes driver updates really screw up stuff at times.

Hope it'll get fixed.

I just wanted to made sure that a new sound card can fix this issue or i have to change the motherboard

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

I'd say go for a Sound Card in this situation, or try installing older on-board sound drivers; it might work since sometimes driver updates really screw up stuff at times.

Hope it'll get fixed.

I just wanted to made sure that a new sound card can fix this issue or i have to change the motherboard

I'd say go for a sound card. Maybe get an Asus Xonar or any well known high quality sound card

 

[UserAlpha]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

I'd say go for a Sound Card in this situation, or try installing older on-board sound drivers; it might work since sometimes driver updates really screw up stuff at times.

Hope it'll get fixed.

I just wanted to made sure that a new sound card can fix this issue or i have to change the motherboard

I'd say go for a sound card. Maybe get an Asus Xonar or any well known high quality sound card

I was a little busy in the past few days and i couldn't get a soundcard but i did a little test and it's worrying me to say the least
I tested both Display port to HDMI and use the headphone output of my monitor to see if the static noise and crackles still exist and lo and behold! it's there!

so whatever it is that making those crackles can travel through pci-e through Display port or HDMI slots and when i change the default playback device to NVIDIA High Definition Audio it still exists

do you still think the problem gonna solve with pci-e Soundcard?
I don't think that nvidia uses the Motherboard's onboard sound card and driver does it ? (it's Asus GTX 1080 O8G)

with the headphone i can hear clearly that some crackles are sensetive to certain frequencies like human voice but even without any sound playback you can hear some pops and crackles here and there

 

[Adios_makes_nuggets]

Okay, I think it's either related to the driver updates for the on-board sound, OR because of "default formatting"!

The user "covertxt5" said the reason it happened was because of him changing the default format to 24-bit. (From http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255457-30-onboard-sound-crackles)

"Come to find out it was the default format which is located in control panel - sound - properties on speakers - advanced tab. I changed it back to 16bit - havent had any further issues. Hopefully this helps but thats my story with crackling sound."

If it didn't work, then we're going to mess around with the driver updates.

first of all thanks for your help mate
I got the latest driver from asus website (Audio Driver Version 6.0.1.7848) and I see no change in this situation
about the bitrate i don't changed it by default it's 24bit at 48khz
i change it now to 16bit, 44.1khz (CD Quality) and nothing changed still there is pops and crackles and after a minutes it's become noisy as hell (after restart the additional noise gone but the damn pops still there)

I'd say go for a Sound Card in this situation, or try installing older on-board sound drivers; it might work since sometimes driver updates really screw up stuff at times.

Hope it'll get fixed.

I just wanted to made sure that a new sound card can fix this issue or i have to change the motherboard

I'd say go for a sound card. Maybe get an Asus Xonar or any well known high quality sound card

I was a little busy in the past few days and i couldn't get a soundcard but i did a little test and it's worrying me to say the least
I tested both Display port to HDMI and use the headphone output of my monitor to see if the static noise and crackles still exist and lo and behold! it's there!

so whatever it is that making those crackles can travel through pci-e through Display port or HDMI slots and when i change the default playback device to NVIDIA High Definition Audio it still exists

do you still think the problem gonna solve with pci-e Soundcard?
I don't think that nvidia uses the Motherboard's onboard sound card and driver does it ? (it's Asus GTX 1080 O8G)

with the headphone i can hear clearly that some crackles are sensetive to certain frequencies like human voice but even without any sound playback you can hear some pops and crackles here and there

If I'm not wrong, if you've installed a Sound Card then your PC should prioritize the Sound Card as the primary source for Sound output, which means it'll most likely work. Also, if it still crackles then I'll assume it hasn't actually registered the Sound Card itself.

 

[jensrobot]

Stumbled on this thread, and i'm wondering why you don't return your mobo? Seeing the date of OP i guess youre still covered by warranty...
I find it hard to believe this is driver/software related.
I have the same board. It should excel with good sound, and it's the best onboard sound i ever had. I've had zero problems, already had multiple OS's installed and different drivers. Also since it was good at first and turned sour later, shouldnt it lean towards a hardware fault then?

Reading this i get a little nervous that i will experience the same faults on my board sometime in the future. But i think yours is broken :/

Onboard sound was something i used to despise, until i got this. You could argue that the front connectors have a lot to answer for for giving onboard soundcards a bad rep. I think we all know those nice buzzing tones when moving your mouse around cause by bad isolated cables to your front connector, and sometimes even poorly isolated on the board itself.... anyway

What happens if you for example boot up into a temporary OS like linux or windows via usb drive? This way you can exclude software/driver faults on your current system.