Unclear sounds and sudden bursts in your computer's audio.
Unclear sounds and sudden bursts in your computer's audio.
In recent months, my computer's sound quality has been deteriorating steadily. It began with occasional pops and now consistently produces crackling every few seconds. I've attempted driver updates, rolled back settings, turned off audio enhancements, but the issue persists across all systems. The same problems appear in my speakers as well. I tested a budget USB sound card, which only worsened the situation. Restarting my PC works initially, but the popping returns gradually. I suspect a power supply unit might be the culprit, though I need further advice. Here are the system details: Windows 10, Audio 1:USB Audio Adapter, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, ASUS PRIME X570-PRO motherboard, Corsair Vengeance RGB, 16 GB RAM, Seagate BarraCuda Pro 4 TB SSD, and a Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC 7200 RPM hard drive.
It might be interference from nearby cables near your headphone line. This has happened before. To avoid it, I now keep my cable separate from others. Check if the problem appears in a live Linux environment—if yes, it’s hardware-related; otherwise, it could be Windows-specific. It’s strange it keeps happening across different sound cards. If it’s Windows, a fresh install might help. (I’m just trying to figure this out.)