You may hear a crackling sound while changing the volume levels or skipping through a song. Or, there may be a sudden loud popping sound while playing videos or in games.Whatever the scenarios, we will guide you through a list of causes and possible workarounds you can apply if you hear a crackling or popping sound.
Causes for Crackling or Popping Sound on Windows
How to Fix Crackling or Popping Sound on Windows
If you are highly indulged in watching videos or playing games, you must sort out the problem as soon as possible. Solving this issue is not that head-scratching. You can easily figure out the solution once you go through this post.I have compiled a list of 11 fixes for your ease. Let’s dive straight into them.
Perform a Hardware Inspection
Doing a hardware inspection is the preliminary fix you can apply when you hear a crackling or popping sound from your speakers. Perform the following checks as a part of hardware inspection:
Remove Any Sound Booster Application
You may be using a third-party sound booster application like Equalizer APO or FxSound to boost your speakers’ sound. It does not work well with every application on your PC, and you may hear a crackling or popping sound. If you have any of it, uninstall and see if it solves the problem.
Run the Audio Troubleshooter
Windows has many specific built-in troubleshooters as a part of troubleshooting. It also has an audio troubleshooting tool that identifies and corrects issues with your audio devices. It will fix any software issue causing the sound to crack or pop. Here’s how:
Update the Audio Drivers
Audio drivers coordinate sound devices with your OS. Audio devices cannot perform well if their driver is outdated. Audio drivers’ manufacturers release updates over time to fix any bugs in the driver. So update the audio driver and see if it solves the problem. Here’s how:
Reinstall Audio Drivers
The next thing you can do is reinstall your audio drivers if updating does not work. The installation might have been corrupted, and it may not work properly. Follow these steps to reinstall the audio drivers.
Change the Processor Power Management Settings
Windows provides a power management option to increase the computer’s energy efficiency to balance it with the user’s expectations. You can control what power supply to give your processor when it performs an intensive task.Setting the minimum processor state to low value will cause the audio device not to function properly, and you may hear a crackling or popping sound. Set the processor state to a higher value and check if it solves the problem. Here’s how:
Change the System’s Sound Quality
In Windows, the sound quality is basically determined by two terms: Sample rate and Bit depth. The sample rate is how many audio samples the audio file carries per second. At the same time, bit depth states the number of bits in each sample. If they are set to lower value, you may experience a low-quality sound and possibly cracks and pops. Set it to a higher value and check if it solves the problem. Here’s how to do it:
Disable the Audio Enhancement Settings
Windows has many built-in audio enhancement methods. They are made to improve your sound experience. But if they are enabled randomly, the settings may conflict, and you may hear a crackling and popping sound. Here’s how to disable them:
Disable the Exclusive Control
Exclusive sound mode allows audio applications to bypass Windows audio engine and coordinate directly with the Sound card. If enabled, the applications can take control over your speakers and interfere with the currently playing audio on your computer. Disable it and check if it solves the crackling and popping sound problem. Follow these steps:
Open Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > SoundUnder the Playback tab, select your active speaker and click Properties.Click the Advanced tab in the new popup window.Under the Exclusive mode, uncheck Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.Click Apply > OK to save the changes.
Check the DPC Latency of Your Drivers
DPC is a short form for Deferred Procedure Call. It looks after the hardware driver efficiency in Windows computers. If the drivers are outdated or not optimized correctly, their processing can be delayed. In such a case, they can prevent the audio drivers from faster processing due to delay or latency. You may experience a distorted or crackling sound if the audio processing can not go smoothly.You can install a third-party application like LatencyMon, SG TCP Optimizer, or DPC Latency checker to check the DPC latency. It will show you which hardware driver is causing the issue. You can take the necessary actions after you figure it out. Consider disabling or removing the guilty driver and see if it solves the issue with the crackling and popping sound.
Try Disabling the ATI HDMI Device
Many users reported that when they had an HDMI device connected to their computer, they faced a crackling and popping sound issue. I cannot say the exact reason it causes the issue, but if you have it, try disabling it to see if it fixes the problem. Here’s how you can do it:
