ARRRRRRRRGGHHH popping/cracking audio

F

fortyways

banned
I have a frustrating problem. I'll try to keep it concise. On the machine in my sig, the audio starts popping and cracking after a little gameplay. Then, it persists in other applications (Windows media player) after gameplay has stopped.

Attempted troubleshooting so far:

- Tried headphones instead of speakers. Problem persisted.
- Tried the same set of headphones and speakers with another computer, and an MP3 player. No problem.
- Installed a Creative Extreme Gamer card. Problem persisted, though slightly less intense.
- Tried both the front (case) and back (motherboard) outputs. Problem persisted.
- Formatted system. Updated drivers for both onboard audio and the Creative card. Problem persists.

I ripped the computer part and tomorrow I'm driving to Fry's to exchange the motherboard for an identical one. No such problem like this exists on the Asus forum for my mobo.

Is there any way at all that this could be caused by my CPU, RAM, video card, power supply, or hard drive? These are the only things I haven't changed through trouble shooting.

edit: my RAM passes memtest86. The HDD passes chkdsk in Vista. The PSU passes a voltage test, but hasn't been tested under load, only at idle.
 
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like if you have a cell by your speckers you will pickup the radio waves. anythign that comsums evergy puts out magnetic fealds that can generate interference... try pluging a ipod in the same spot like on top of the computer so you have the same surroundings and see if it does the same
 
Well, the speakers haven't moved but the audio jack is right next to the onboard WiFi on this motherboard. Should I have a look at that?

Which part of the speaker system might pick up interference?
 
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well any part of it. usualy it is the wire. that is why on power cords or monitor cords you see thoughts "lumps" they are actually chunks of magnetic material that can cancel out the effect
 
Sounds like it's definitely worth looking into the onboard wireless then.

I never knew that's what the lumps on monitor cables are for. Those nasty things won't fit through my monitor base's cable management.
 
It turned out to be the driver. It just wasn't agreeing with Vista apparently. I uninstalled it and let Vista get its own, so now it's a generic "HD Audio Device," and the problem is gone.
 
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