Audio Crackling and Popping in XP

[qdemn7]

Chenbro Gaming Bomb II
Asus A8N32-SLI / | BIOS 1205
Realtek 97 Onboard sound
Opteron 144 @ 312 x 9
Koolance EXOS AL
2 x 512MB OCZ 4200EL
EVGA 7600GT 256MB
Silver Stone SST-ST60F
Maxtor 300GB SATA x 1
Maxtor 120GB SATA x 1
Emprex 16X DVD/RW
NEC ND-2510A DVD/RW
Dell 2405FPW
Saitek Gamers KB

Logitech MX1000
MX700
Cordless Elite
Corded Elite

XP Pro w SP2 and all Updates

Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers
Sennheiser 575 Headphones


Above is my system, and I’ve got a problem that I can’t solve. I get crackling and popping through either my speakers or my headphones and I can’t make it go away. It’s seems to be mouse related BUT it’s not hardware related. And I get the same thing with all of the above mice. When you move the mice the noise gets worse, but it never goes away. The problem doesn’t start until the system boots into Windows. Before then it’s perfectly quiet. I tried Fedora Core 5 and it didn’t occur. So I know it’s a Windows problem.

So here’s what I’ve tried:

I’ve uninstalled all Logitech drivers and software, and that did nothing.
Reinstalled all the Logitech stuff and nothing.
Did a registry cleanup on all Logitech stuff and nothing.

I’m currently running the Realtek 3.89 drivers which are the latest ones.

Uninstalled, did a registry cleanup, and ran Driver Cleaner.
Reinstalled the Realtek drivers and the problem went away briefly (for about 10 minutes), then came right back.

So it seems the problem is related to the Realtek drivers. But why? It’s not related to over clocking, it happens at default speeds as well as the current over clocked settings.

This has me baffled, and short of buying another sound card, I don’t know what to do.

Any ideas or suggestions helpful.

[josephclemente]

You are using the Realtek drivers which is good. Also, did you make sure to not install nVidia's audio drivers?

Finally, you should check your Windows volume settings and make sure PC Speaker is set to Mute (you may need to go to Options/Properties to show this option).

[jwoolen01]

it sounds like you have an irq conflict. You can change it in the device manager or simply try placing your hardware on a different physical port (pci slot, usb port, etc)

[qdemn7]

Well I've ordered a Via Envy 24 based sound card and I'll post back when it gets here. Can't beat the price, $28.49 shipped.

[qdemn7]

Update: It WAS a hardware problem. I installed the sound card I bought and the problem went away. This is the first mobo with onboard sound that I have encountered this sort of problem.