Audio crackle/popping

[Boozman]

Try another cable. Probably not whats wrong, but might as well eliminate the possibility of a shorted cable.

[Nexus_Riggs]

Devin, I had similar issue with GTA SA on Windows 8.1 where my mouse woulden't properly work, there was also sound distortion. After trying numerous things, I had no choice but to create separate hard drive partition for Windows 7 and install GTA SA there. The game isn't fully compatible with Windows 8 yet. I can suggest that you buy a separate graphics card which would resolve the issue with the sound, there is no way around.

[Devin]

Try another cable. Probably not whats wrong, but might as well eliminate the possibility of a shorted cable.

Tried two different cables on two different sound systems.

Devin, I had similar issue with GTA SA on Windows 8.1 where my mouse woulden't properly work, there was also sound distortion. After trying numerous things, I had no choice but to create separate hard drive partition for Windows 7 and install GTA SA there. The game isn't fully compatible with Windows 8 yet. I can suggest that you buy a separate graphics card which would resolve the issue with the sound, there is no way around.

Fortunately the little popping sound that happens when playing GTA isn't a problem, the biggest problem is it happening when I play music or stream youtube videos.
I am fairly certain it has nothing to do with my GPU as I ran the system using on-board graphics and it still had the popping sounds.

[Janar]

Do you have any PCI sound card, which you could try in your system?

[SugarD]

Is your CPU and RAM usage spiking when you hear the audio sounds begin to pop/crackle?

[Devin]

Do you have any PCI sound card, which you could try in your system?

Unfortunately not.

Is your CPU and RAM usage spiking when you hear the audio sounds begin to pop/crackle?

Nope.

[Kessu]

I have the same problem, but I'm under windows 7 with different rig. (Sorry for borrowing your topic, but since the problem is the same I figured why the hell not)

Asus P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3 as a motherboard
Intel i5 3570K as a CPU
nVidia GTX 680 as a GPU
Steelseries Siberia V2 Frost Blue edition (USB) (it has it's own audio card, so I'm using it).

HDMI and every other possible sound income has been disabled other than the steelseries one and I've tried drivers dating months back with no result.

Only thing that seems to help is to turn up the volume on the headset and lowering it from windows to balance it out (then again, it gets fecked at times even at highest possible setting when it tears my brain apart).

Any of the suggestions given here didn't help in the situation.

[SugarD]

...other than the steelseries one...

Is there any software installed that is associated with this?

[Kessu]

Is there any software installed that is associated with this?

The drivers included for Frost Blue edition also gives me Steelseries Engine, which also controls my mouse.

[SugarD]

The drivers included for Frost Blue edition also gives me Steelseries Engine, which also controls my mouse.

The only thing I can think of, then, is that the software may be creating a conflict. Technically you should only need the drivers to use your products, however the software usually controls other aspects too, such as special features and settings. You could try using your devices with the software uninstalled, but I'm not familiar with your hardware, so I don't know if it would help or not.