Realtek audio issues

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tybug099

Feb 16, 2018
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Hello. I recently grabbed a custom built PC and I've been having slight audio crackle issues with it. I'm almost 100% sure that it has to do with the realtek soundcard, but maybe someone else has another idea.

There are certain frequencies that seem to cause my audio to crackle, usually on the bassier end of the spectrum. I've tested it across two different devices. My main computer, which is a desktop, and my laptop. Both have realtek soundcards and I can get both to reproduce the same crackling from certain test audios with both speakers and differing headphones.

I've tried a bunch of different steps to try to fix it. I've tried setting my minimum processor state to 100, I've tried uninstalling the realtek audio driver and installing the base HD ones by windows, I even ordered a usb soundcard and tried operating through that. Nothing seems to help. All those suggestions that you can find with 5 seconds of googling that seem to be the only suggestions didn't work, so now I'm looking for windows 10 compatible realtek drivers. I've tried the ones that windows automatically installs, and even the ones from my motherboard's website. Any suggestions?

Just for reference, my motherboard is an Asus PRIME Z370-P. I've heard there are some audio issues with the asus prime line, but I haven't found a fix for that, either. Barring that, my laptop has a non asus motherboard, so I'm unsure if that's the issue here anyway. Sorry if this is in the wrong board.
 
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Go into your sound options by right clicking the speaker icon in your system tray and selecting "sounds". Click on the "Recording" tab and disable any microphones that are enabled. Save settings, exit sounds and try your sound to see if that was the problem.

If not, make sure you have the most recent motherboard bios version installed. Then try again if there was a newer version available, after updating to that version.

Are you using the integrated sound, or an add in PCI soundcard?
 
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Sorry for dead air the past day or so. Tried each step, even updated to the latest revision of my bios, despite anxiety of messing up the build in doing so and nothing seemed to do the trick. It's still prevalent. As far as the sound goes, it's integrated, not a pci.
 
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Have you checked to see if there are newer drivers on your motherboard product page than what you have installed? Or checked on the product page of the audio codec? Maybe there is a newer Realtek driver available through Realtek than what is listed on the motherboard page. That would not be uncommon.

Windows version 1809 released today as well, updating to that might possibly help.
 
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I heard 1809 was released to the general public recently, but I still can't manage to force my system to update to it yet. As far as the updated audio drivers go, I tried going through the asus webpage and updating through there didn't fix the issue. I've been sending Realtek daily emails for compatible drivers and I haven't heard back from them for weeks, so I'm kind of stuck there.
 
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If you wish to upgrade to version 1809, click the link below and run the installer. It will upgrade your current version to the NEW version of 1809, not the one released in early October that had problems.

https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/4/E/94E04254-741B-4316-B1DF-8CAEDF2DF16C/Windows10Upgrade9252.exe


This is the latest Windows 10 driver for your ALC887 Realtek audio chipset. I would highly suggest that you remove the current drivers in Programs and features, for the Realtek chipset, and then go into device manager, open Sound, video and game controllers, right click on the existing Realtek device and select Uninstall, then install this driver. Then reboot.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/01AUDIO/Realtek_Audio_8504_WHQL_RTK.zip?_ga=2.202889685.579420675.1542311713-2005208695.1541406744
 
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Another swing and miss. Although I've already tried that second step ages ago, so I knew that wouldn't work. But I heard 1809 fixed some other problems I was having, so hopefully now that I got that, those will be resolved. Still no luck on the crackling front, though.
 
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What does your "audio" consist of? Speakers? Headphones?

Have you tried them on another system (Without Realtek or that is known to not have this problem with other speakers or headphones) to verify that the crackling does not occur there as well and might not simply be a problem with the speakers or headphones, rather than with the audio driver itself? Probably not the case as it would be usual for both the speakers AND the headphones to do this, but since you say it does it on your laptop as well, it makes me wonder if both those speakers and headphones might not have been damaged by something.

Honestly, I haven't had much luck lately myself with some of the Realtek onboard audio. My Hero VIII has some issues I can't seem to resolve and another system recently that worked fine back in the fall of 2017 but ever since the spring 1803 update, no driver seems to eliminate the hum I can hear regardless of settings.

Might actually consider an aftermarket card, even though I know that is an expense you'd probably rather not have to make.
 
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I've tried two pairs of headphones, a usb card that I bought off of amazon as well as a usb card that came with an old pair of sennheiser headphones, and then the onboard speakers of my laptop and they all experience the crackling. It's not so much that I wouldn't want to make the expense, but I don't think I should have to. Especially if it might not fix it. As far as trying them on another system? Not technically. I experienced some crackling doing remote play on my PS4 to my desktop, and when I swapped my headphones to my PS4 controller, the crackling was gone. So I'm pretty sure it has to do with the realtek audio itself.
 
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Somewhat unrelated, but directing me to that 1809 update did seem fix a desync issue I was dealing with with netflix causing stuttering and dx11 causing audio desync from videos. So thanks for helping me push that update through.
 
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To be totally honest, I didn't expect anyone to come up with a solution for me. I've spent hours looking through boards for solutions and I think it just comes down to it being a realtek problem. I've read buying a DAC is a workaround, but I'm not sure if it will do much more for me than an external usb soundcard. As far as americanaudiophile goes, I'm sure he'll pop up sooner or later. I'm not in a real rush..
 
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The fact you're experiencing the same issue on a desktop, a laptop & a USB soundcard would in all honesty point to this bring an external issue rather than a chipset or driver issue.

Either external electrical interference or an issue with the output device itself.

Youve not mentioned what you're using audio wise??

Headphones, speakers?? What brands?
 
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Actually, he did. Both headphones AND speakers. I have to wonder as well if maybe it's not a problem on the power circuit being used.

Perhaps trying the laptop with it NOT plugged into the AC outlet might eliminate that possibility? They also sell cheap circuit outlet testers that can tell you if there is an issue with reversed hot an neutral wiring or a bad ground.
 
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I did try different connections for SnG's. My laptop is plugged into a power strip for charging, I tried it unplugged and then I tried it plugged directly into a wall. Nothing changed. My desktop is plugged into a UPS, so I tried unplugging it from that and plugging it directly into the wall. Both are using different wall sockets. Going into the external setup, I have my desktop sitting on top of a side table with my ps4 and router next to them, though my laptop was far detached from any of those. When I was testing it I had it on my table where I have my mouse and keyboard and monitors, etc.

As far as the brands of my speakers and headphones go, one pair was a set of sennheisers, the other logitech and the speaker make of the laptop is Bang and Olufsen, I think.
 
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Thankfully I think I can save you some headache here. This is a VERY well-known issue with a number of Realtek Semiconductor HD Audio integrated chipsets. I have the same problems with a Toshiba Satellite laptop from 2014, and Realtek has apparently NEVER been able to come up with a driver to resolve the issue. Microsoft and Dell both, from my reading, got heavily involved since it was reflecting badly on their products. Investigating drivers from both companies for a possible match.

Some possible solutions:

• Remove ALL audio devices (including those in Device Manager under "Audio Controllers" and "Sound and Video Controllers" both). Reboot your computer to complete the uninstallation. Importantly, be sure to remove ALL driver software as you do and don't reinstall any. This solution has worked for me by forcing everything over to the more reliable Intel(R) HD Audio chip, but obviously, you're going to lose a lot of functionality (audio enhancements, bass boost, surround sound, etcetera).

•You can try removing the DTS Audio software, but I've found it has no effect on the issue. Apparently, THAT software was programmed pretty well.

• In my case, certain programs which have high CPU usage of their own will introduce problems. The Quantum releases of Mozilla Firefox were TERRIBLE with this—couldn't play an audio CD, YouTube was unwatchable, etcetera. Going into Task Manager and adjusting the Priority and Affinity of the Firefox and audio processes sometimes helped a wee bit (audiodwg.exe is inaccessible without extraordinary methods, BTW). Obviously, you don't want to play with such things if you don't know what you're doing.

• Restarting the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service (which will force a restart of Windows Audio service as well) resolves the problem for a while, which leads me to believe a memory leak in the Realtek software is at fault. You'll need to restart any audio which was playing when the services were restarted (for example, click Play in Spotify again). This works, but eventually the memory leak will lead to the familiar scratchy, gappy audio again.

I wish I had better news—I really do—and if anyone has a better solution of a driver for Windows 8.1 than the 6.0.1.7090 driver dated 11/12/2013, I would CERTAINLY appreciate knowing about it. Investigating a Version 6.0.1.8351, A12 provided by Dell at https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=vvppy. but DEFINITELY be careful when experimenting with driver software from other manufacturers!

In summary, Realtek Semiconductor SUCKS. In general, I've found that Chinese/Taiwanese technology is terrible across the board, which is why I usually insist on Japanese or American tech with SERIOUSLY good tech support behind them. But this was an emergency purchase when my primary computer died—grabbed the cheapest laptop off the shelf, and boy, am I now regretting it.

Hope some of this helps, and please share if you find a working solution—good luck to ya!
 
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Remove ALL audio devices (including those in Device Manager under "Audio Controllers" and "Sound and Video Controllers" both). Reboot your computer to complete the uninstallation. Importantly, be sure to remove ALL driver software as you do and don't reinstall any. This solution has worked for me by forcing everything over to the more reliable Intel(R) HD Audio chip, but obviously, you're going to lose a lot of functionality (audio enhancements, bass boost, surround sound, etcetera).
Click to expand...

This isn't going to work well, on Windows 10 at least (And probably not on 7 or 8.1 either) unless you disable the feature in the advanced system settings to automatically update drivers and manufacturer software, because the system will simply reinstall Microsofts cached version of whatever it feels is the most recent Realtek driver and application upon restart. It will even automatically update it by downloading it over again if you don't disable that feature as follows:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

That video is for an older version of Windows 10, so the process might look slightly different but should be about the same.

The rest, I guess at this point anything is worth trying for sure.
 
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Surprise—the darned Dell driver WORKED.

Some oddness—I now appear to have three Microsoft-branded audio devices I didn't have before, one of them identifying itself as an HDMI audio interface (???). The installer froze for quite some time. I was guessing it was pinging hardware to determine I was actually installing it on a Dell computer (I wasn't), but eventually it continued and installed without trouble. Mandatory reboot, of course, but Windows was strangely hyper-responsive after reboot. The desktop redrew the cached icons in a flash, and things seem to be running surreally smooth.

At the moment, I have the Spotify Web Player jamming, have an HD video of "The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild" playing on YouTube, two Twitter windows open, and this page. Not a bit of hesitation on the audio or with Firefox, and the Audio Enhancements and Advanced properties under the Sound controls all seem to be working exactly as intended.

Mind you, I've not been running long enough to determine if the memory leak issue still exists in this driver version, but so far, it appears this is the solution I've been begging for for ages. Most happy!

If you do use that driver, PLEASE take the obvious precautions—set a System Restore point, back up your existing drivers, virus scan the driver package, all that good stuff. But so far, is working beautifully here!
 
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Valid point. I haven't used Windows Update in YEARS—back in the Windows 2000 Pro days, it repeatedly insisted on installing a video driver in one of the KB updates which overrode the manufacturer software and screwed up my video. Finally got fed up and shut it off, and now review KB updates by hand. A pain, I know, but is MUCH less a nightmare than what I went through fixing that video corruption which interrupted my entire workflow.

Should also note that this particular computer, like many, has a recovery partition. Quite possible the driver software from the main partition was deleted as instructed, but it sneakily kept a copy on the recovery and used THAT to reinstall the Intel(R) HD Audio. Hadn't thought about that!

And incidentally, since you mentioned Windows versions, I believe this driver is for any 64-bit OS from Window 7 forward. Double-check me on that, but playing quite nicely with this horrid Windows 8.1 Home.
 
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What works with Windows 7 and 8.1, while SOMETIMES compatible, are often not. Even drivers that worked on previous Windows 10 builds often will NOT work when they release a new spring or fall update that changes the build version. Windows 10 has become an entirely different beast to deal with when it comes to changing hardware and driver support than with any previous iteration of the Windows operating system.

Seemed like a good thing at first, aside from some of the phone home, advertising and privacy issues, but it's beginning to become a major problem for a lot of us that don't like having to figure out how to make stuff work again every six months.

Worth noting as well, short of disabling the Windows update service altogether in services.msc, and that can create it's own problems, it's not even an option to turn off automatic updates in Windows 10 unless you have an educational, Pro or Enterprise version of the operating system.
 
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Well. I tried everything you suggested. Even trying to install that older driver just gave me an error that I couldn't work around by trying to run it in compatibility mode. It's starting to look like I might be stuck with either dealing with the occasional crackle which thankfully isn't invasive enough for me to not ignore it, or looking at getting a PCI-E soundcard. Still not sure if that will even work, considering I've tried external usb sound adapters and gotten the same crackling through them as I did the realtek driver. Though I'm not versed enough with this stuff to be able to tell whether a dedicated card would change anything.
 
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