Headset audio crackle and latency problems?
Headset audio crackle and latency problems?
Hello, I've been having trouble with my PC ove the last couple of months. At first, I would notice gradual increase in audio crackle and peripherals+ethernet dropouts when playing video games. I've been fiddling around with updates, settings changes, etc and the problem seems to solely be audio crackle that worsens in frequency whilst playing online games. I'm not sure whether is a settings issue or a hardware issue. I'm almost at the point of replacing the PC entirely as I am struggling to solve my problem. Please help.
I have run LatencyMon and get the following message:
Conclusion: Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what that means.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
CPU cooler: MSI AIO Cooler
Motherboard: MSI B650 Gaming Plus Wifi
Ram: Corsair 16GB x2
SSD/HDD: Cruical 2TB SSD
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 4070
PSU: XPG Kyber 850W (I believe around 4 years or so)
Chassis: Not sure
OS: Windows 11
Monitor: MSI MP252, ASUS VG 328
Headset: HyperX Cloud III
BIOS version: American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.M6, 27/10/2025
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
my PC
Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time. For the sake of this thread, please include your audio equipment as well.
I would notice gradual increase in audio crackle and peripherals+ethernet dropouts when playing video games.
+
I'm almost at the point of replacing the PC entirely as I am struggling to solve my problem.
Are you sure it's not an electrical issue?
Moved thread from Components section to Systems section.
Hi, thank you for the update. I included the needed details to the post. I’m still uncertain if it’s related to electricity.
Motherboard: MSI B650 Gaming Plus Wifi
+
BIOS version: American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.M6, 27/10/2025
Using your motherboard's support site;
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B650-GAM...FI/support
you're on the latest BIOS version
Headset: HyperX Cloud III
That's a USB driven headset. If you remove the inline USB driven sound card and hook up the headset to 3.5 a TRRS port on your case(which is why I was asking for the make and model of your chassis) and/or an audio y-splitter(if your case lacks a unified audio port) and see if the crackling disappears. If it does, then your issue is either the power from your USB ports or the inline USB driven sound card.
On the topic of USB, have you tried working with all USB ports on your platform, both front and back? Would be a good idea to see if manually reinstalling your chipset driver, sourced from AMD's support site, in an elevated command helps alleviate the issue while trying to work with your inline USB driven sound card.
Go to
Start
>Type
Control Panel
>
Hardware & Sound
>
Power Options
, what are you set at?
I'm currently using High Performance. I've encountered the same problem across all ports, despite updating the chipset driver. I haven't used a splitter yet, but plan to try it soon. Also, switching to a different pair of the same headphones hasn't resolved the issue.
The issue appears to resolve with the 3.5mm port. Using an external PCI USB card didn't help.
There is an issue with the USB dongle for the headphones. This is why Lutfij suggested testing the 3.5mm jack. Usually, the USB dongle includes a DAC encoder, and using the 3.5mm connects directly to your motherboard audio.
I've tried the same pair of headphones before they caused the same problem, but they function properly on another computer.