On-board sound going bad?

[scifo223]

Lately I've noticed an odd issue.

If I'm listening to iTunes/a YouTube video and I multitask, the sound will just.. get choppy, and sometimes it will make an awful loud static sound. This has never happened before and I'm not really sure what's causing it because I'm not doing anything out of the usual. I've tried just listening to music without doing anything else and then open Chrome and go to a site like IGN, if I click on an article the sound will go crazy. The entire webpage even goes slow. I have an Alienware (yell at me all you want) so it's motherboard is a "special motherboard made specifically for the Aurora" according to Dell. Would getting a PCI sound card fix this issue? It's getting really annoying.

The rest of my specs if they matter:

Intel Core i7 3820 3.6 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM
GTX 660 TI

This hasn't been an issue until a few days ago and it's getting very annoying. I don't feel like buying a "special" Alienware mobo for $600 when I could get a new case, new mobo, even a new CPU cooler and PSU for probably around that same price. If a sound card would fix this issue I'd definitely go for it.
It's not my headphones, I tried 4 different pairs of headphones/speakers and the problem hasn't gone away. My computer isn't under any stress at all, which makes this even weirder. I don't notice it when gaming.

Anybody got any ideas as to what this could be?

EDIT: I've been doing more messing around and it seems to be slowing down the entire computer, not just the web browser.

 

[lonewolf7]

You could try to update audio drivers, or do a clean install of windows. May be something got corrupted. Or you could buy a sound card that will eliminate the weird sound issue.

 

[scifo223]

You could try to update audio drivers, or do a clean install of windows. May be something got corrupted. Or you could buy a sound card that will eliminate the weird sound issue.

Reinstalling drivers fixed it somewhat but the problem is still there.

What kind of sound card should I buy? I'd prefer something with good quality but I've never actually bought a dedicated sound card so I don't know too much about them. If the sound card doesn't work, then it sounds like I might have to buy a whole new motherboard?

 

[lonewolf7]

It depends on your budget. And we are on the same boat mate, I myself also never used one. Here is a link might help you to choose one :

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/sound-card/

If the PCI slots on your MB is working, then there is no fear of not working the sound card. If you have some PCI device then test with it before you buy one.

If you could first do a fresh install of windows, it could save you some money. If it doesn't then buy a card. Good luck.

 

[scifo223]

Hmm, I've made a weird discovery.

Music doesn't have to be playing when my computer just starts going laggy. I decided to pull up task manager and noticed that my CPU usage goes up from 2% to 70% when loading webpages.

Seems to me like its CPU spikes causing my problem but I don't know why my CPU would be spiking. It's an i7 3820, it should have no problems handling a few Chrome tabs. Normally it would never go up past 30% usage but now it doesn't hesitate to go up to 70-80%. Not sure why I didn't check this sooner.

What would be causing my CPU to spike so badly though? I'm not running anti-virus scans in the background or backing my system up or anything. Even when gaming my CPU usage doesn't go up that high.

 

[lonewolf7]

Take a deep look on task manager to find out if its only Chrome or anything else. If it is only Chrome then try to uninstall Chrome fully, and delete the registry entries too. Then reinstall the latest Chrome. It is a known problem with Chrome browser that it gets corrupted out of nowhere. And try to update Flash, and Java too.

This software will help you with uninstallation and clearing the registry values too : http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

If nothing solves the problem then a fresh install of windows will be the answer.

 

[scifo223]

Reinstalling Chrome, Java and Flash did nothing.

It's CPU spikes without a doubt, whenever I get the bad lag CPU usage is over 50%.

It happens on programs like Steam too but not very often or severely, but its bad on web browsers especially.

If I were to reinstall Windows, would I lose all of my data? Sounds like the only thing I can do at this point.

 

[lonewolf7]

Yes all the data's will be lost if you do a clean install of OS. And in your situation you should go for a fresh install. Make a back up of important data's to a external or some other internal drive.

How old is the system ? I mean if its a couple of years old then you may need to re-apply thermal paste on CPU. It will keep the CPU cool and will work better. And its a good idea to format and clean install the OS in 6 to 8 months time. Good luck.

Note : You will need a bootable media(DVD/USB) to format and clean install the OS.

 

[aldan]

what did task manager tell you? imho a clean install is your last resort.