Unusual driving problems are occurring.
Unusual driving problems are occurring.
I've been dealing with a pretty puzzling issue with my sound lately. It began a few days back when my screen went black and then flickered back on, causing the audio to reset and all devices in the audio settings to restart. At first, I assumed it was just a graphics driver update, so I brushed it off and kept scrolling through Reddit. The following day, I started hearing occasional pops and crackles while watching videos—nothing too severe. I chalked it up to fatigue from long viewing sessions. The next day became more bothersome; while playing Banished on YouTube, the audio would crackle intermittently. Later that day, after listening to some music, I realized the problem might be related to streaming. Then, while enjoying a song, I noticed the audio was slightly off by five seconds, which I attributed to the stream quality. Eventually, I tried reinstalling the audio drivers, which seemed to help for a short time—though it didn’t last. The following day, as usual, the pops and crackles returned, prompting me to test with headphones on my phone. It turned out they weren’t the issue. I then checked other connections, including the front panel and earphones, but found no solution. I eventually looked into a forum post about Realtek + ASUS compatibility issues and discovered a fix. After reinstalling the GPU drivers, the sound improved—until the next reboot. The problem resurfaced again, so I considered updating the GPU drivers once more. That worked temporarily, but only until another restart. Over time, I realized my screens would black out and audio reset repeatedly. I tried updating the graphics drivers, which helped briefly, but only until the system restarted. Eventually, I was exhausted from trying everything and felt stuck on this small but persistent issue.
I’ve noticed some audio problems while watching videos and playing games lately. It seems to happen only when using my browser, not with the new Realtek drivers. I recently updated the audio drivers to Z170 Pro Gaming and tried reinstalling them, which resolved the issue completely. No more distortion. Have you considered trying an older driver version instead?
It matches exactly what I'm experiencing. No fix has been found for me yet.
The latest update on Realtek's site was available, and I managed to locate it easily.
I encountered the same audio issues once more after reinstalling the earlier version—it was much worse, with constant cracking and popping across YouTube, music, videos, etc. R2.82 fixed it for me. I didn’t mention using the Asus Realtek driver, so updating from the official Realtek site worked for me. Hope that helps.
You might want to try the opposite approach if you haven’t already. It’s possible you’re still using Realtek drivers; installing the Asus version could help.
Update: I can no longer access the Realtek HD Audio Manager, even the executable isn’t running. Still preferable to dealing with crackles and pops.
You checked your PC for an update, it installed itself without any notification. After the update, everything seems normal.
It seems the issue returned after about a day. Reinstalling the audio drivers helped but only briefly. It probably began right after the Windows 10 creator update. I suspect the update is interfering with the audio drivers. I really wish this gets resolved quickly. Updated: Fixed after the latest Windows release. Took just nine months, honestly.