# Serious popping, clicking with USB DAC



## beaver316

I am using an ODAC which is hooked up to my computer directly through USB. The ODAC is connected to a Matrix M-Stage with RCA which connects to my headphones. I am using Foobar with WASAPI Event as well. I get random popping sounds when listening to music and i don't know what to do. It seems to happen most often when im doing tasks on my computer like scrolling through web pages. I had this same problem with an older Fiio E17 when i connected it to my laptop, it would click and pop mostly on Youtube, but not my media players weirdly. When I connected the E17 and ODAC to another PC there were no clicks or pops during playback. Because of this I believe it's my laptop's USB port to blame and not the devices.
   
  I've tried almost everything to remedy this situation but no luck so far. I tried different USB cables, different USB ports on my laptop (3 of them), different outputs in Foobar such as DirectSound, WASAPI etc, different media players such as MusicBee, J River, WIndows Media Player, different buffer lengths in those programs. I even unplugged all other USB devices apart from the DAC thinking it's a power problem. 
   
  I downloaded a program DPC Latendy Checker to see if maybe my laptop couldn't handle audio streaming and this is what I get:
   
   

   
  For the most part it's green with the occasional yellow spikes. Sometimes the spikes occur more or less around the same time I hear pops, but not always. Also sometimes i hear pop when there are no yellow spikes,so not sure if they're related.
   
  Is there anything else I can try? I'm pretty sure this is a USB problem with my laptop since it works fine on my other computer's USB port. Do you think it's a power problem? In this case maybe a powered USB hub could fix it. Or maybe it's a jitter problem, but then why would it work fine with my other computer?
   
  Man I'm stumped, really need help here.
   
  EDIT: solved by disabling aero.
   
  EDIT2: issue has arisen again, please read post 20.
   
  EDIT3: solved for good this time hopefully, read post 23 onwards.


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## NA Blur

You can try adjusting the power management for the USB HUB devices.
   
  Go to:
   
  Control panel
  System
  Device Manager
  ---> Universal Serial Bus Controllers
  ---> USB Root HUBS
   
  Right Click on each to access the properties tab
  Move over to the Power Management tab
  Unclick the Allow this computer...
   
  This has helped some users.


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## beaver316

Thank you for your reply but after countless hours troubleshooting, i believe i found the cause of the problem. It is indeed my graphics card. Since i disabled it, i've played 4 songs and not one pop. If it were enabled i would have heard maybe over 100 clicks by now.
   
  Specifically it's an Radeon Mobility HD 3470 running Sony's proprietary driver. I may uninstall it and try Microsoft's generic graphic driver to see if that would work without stutters. I can't go without a graphic driver enabled my screen is currently 600x800 and slow as heck! But still happy i found the problem


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## NA Blur

Hopefully it is the driver, but I suspect it is still power related.  If you have disabled your graphics card perhaps the power supply has enough oomph to drive the USB ports properly.


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## Roller

GPUs have been known to introduce latency, namely because of dynamic clocks adding system latency. An alternative to disabling the display adapter is to set fixed 3D clocks, which won't make the card run hotter if loads are down.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





na blur said:


> Hopefully it is the driver, but I suspect it is still power related.  If you have disabled your graphics card perhaps the power supply has enough oomph to drive the USB ports properly.


 
   
  I had not thought of that. Hopefully that's not the case, i just installed AMD's latest driver, will test soon.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





roller said:


> GPUs have been known to introduce latency, namely because of dynamic clocks adding system latency. An alternative to disabling the display adapter is to set fixed 3D clocks, which won't make the card run hotter if loads are down.


 
   
  Hmm how would i go about doing that? Do you mean keep it at high performance/battery save permanently?


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## liamstrain

Shared resources - yay. Definitely a problem with the computer, not the DAC.


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## Roller

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> Hmm how would i go about doing that? Do you mean keep it at high performance/battery save permanently?


 
   
  First of all what are your specs, hardware and software wise?


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## liamstrain

FYI - it does not sound like power issues to me, but rather data stream issues. I think the graphics card and usb bus share data resources - when one works harder, the other cannot unless you use software to specifically prioritize tasks.


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## Roller

Quote: 





liamstrain said:


> FYI - it does not sound like power issues to me, but rather data stream issues. I think the graphics card and usb bus share data resources - when one works harder, the other cannot unless you use software to specifically prioritize tasks.


 
   
  Could be. However, shared IRQ issues are more a thing of the past, affecting Windows XP and older.
   
  Prioritization is a good idea, but it's a workaround that should be used only in the event beaver316 finds out it is simply mismatched hardware (some hardware doesn't play nice when it comes to smooth audio usage), as fixing the core issue would be a better option since it won't make way for possible future issues due to prioritization.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





roller said:


> First of all what are your specs, hardware and software wise?


 
   
  Ok i'm running WIndows 7 SP1 64 bit on a Sony Vaio FW21E which is quite an old model. It originally came with Vista. When I iinstalled Win 7, i used a combo of my OEMs supplied drivers and WInsows Update drivers. This has me thinking now, perhaps i should have installed my OEM's motherboard driver. I don't remember if i did 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Specs include:
   
  Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.27 GHz
  4GB Ram
  ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 GPU
  1600x900 LCD
  640GB Hard Disk @ 5400 rpm ( I should mention that i swapped out the hard disk a while ago. It used to be 320GB 5400 rpm, but the newer one is noticeably slower)
   
  Software wise i just got AMD's latest driver version up and running, driver version 8.97.100.3-120703a-145534C-ATI and Catalyst version 12.6. Im using Foobar with the new WASAPI 3.0.
   
  Something i should mention, since installing the latest AMD/ATI driver, clicks are less common, but still present.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





na blur said:


> You can try adjusting the power management for the USB HUB devices.
> 
> Go to:
> 
> ...


 
   
  I tried this and all the options were already unticked. But I noticed something interesting, when i go to Universal Serial Bus Controllers and click the properties of the second option i get this
   
   

   
  Notice the device us using 1% of the bandwidth. When i start playing a song in Foobar this happens
   
   

   
  Are these numbers normal? Also it shows that the system reserves 10%, maybe this can be increased.


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## beaver316

Just a little update again, I have solved the problem completely I believe 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



   
  Changing the default colour settings from 32 bit to 16 bit seems to have fixed it. No clicks at all now for the past 20 minutes. I wish I didn't have to do something so drastic but I can live with this. Aero is disabled and gradients aren't smooth any more, but audio is my priority. 
   
  Thanks for all the help guys, hopefully this can help others with my same problem.


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## Roller

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> Ok i'm running WIndows 7 SP1 64 bit on a Sony Vaio FW21E which is quite an old model. It originally came with Vista. When I iinstalled Win 7, i used a combo of my OEMs supplied drivers and WInsows Update drivers. This has me thinking now, perhaps i should have installed my OEM's motherboard driver. I don't remember if i did
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
   
  Overall, your system is more than capable of glitch-free playback. The HDD is on the slower side, being 5400 RPM, however it shouldn't be the culprit. On the other hand, the GPU is a low end model, and if you intend on doing a lot of audio playback/recording, I would recommend you disabling desktop composition entirely.
   
  You should never update drivers through Windows Update, always from the hardware manufacturer instead. Unfortunately, Sony is one of the few brands that still do shameful Device ID swapping and sometimes adding hardware adapters to make it harder for replacing hardware, which in that case you should first update to the latest drivers available from Sony, then individually updating drivers from the hardware manufacturer itself.
   
  Lowering color depth does indicate that the issue might be related to the GPU. The easiest way to check whether the GPU might be faulty (despite being low end, it should handle full Aero with little degradation) is to go to system properties, Advanced tab, Performance Settings, then selecting the best performance adjustment. Restart your computer and test whether you still suffer from those issues. This, with 32-bit color.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





roller said:


> Overall, your system is more than capable of glitch-free playback. The HDD is on the slower side, being 5400 RPM, however it shouldn't be the culprit. On the other hand, the GPU is a low end model, and if you intend on doing a lot of audio playback/recording, I would recommend you disabling desktop composition entirely.
> 
> You should never update drivers through Windows Update, always from the hardware manufacturer instead. Unfortunately, Sony is one of the few brands that still do shameful Device ID swapping and sometimes adding hardware adapters to make it harder for replacing hardware, which in that case you should first update to the latest drivers available from Sony, then individually updating drivers from the hardware manufacturer itself.
> 
> Lowering color depth does indicate that the issue might be related to the GPU. The easiest way to check whether the GPU might be faulty (despite being low end, it should handle full Aero with little degradation) is to go to system properties, Advanced tab, Performance Settings, then* selecting the best performance adjustment*. Restart your computer and test whether you still suffer from those issues. This, with 32-bit color.


 
   
  I had actually done this previously, but did not think of restarting my computer. Will try and let you know.


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## beaver316

Thank you for that post. Selecting best performance under the Performance Settings, and selecting 32-bit colour works fine  This is certainly an improvement. 
   
  One thing i noticed though, with every combination of settings i have chosen so far in this journey (that's what im calling this), audio plays back click free when the WIndows Aero theme is *not* running. So i actually went ahead and selected best quality (all options ticked) under the Performance Settings and chose a non-aero theme. Rebooted and audio is still fine 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




   
  I enabled the aero theme it just to make sure it's the cause and sure enough the stutter comes back. Disabling it once more and it's gone again. So it looks like the aero theme is the culprit.
   
  It's awesome how we managed to narrow down the issue, but I imagine nothing can be done from here.


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## Roller

There is an odd issue of DWM forcing the desktop to run with V-Syncing, which along with typical modern GPUs doing dynamic clocks for power management, can introduce quite some issues, something that becomes apparent on lower end IGPs/GPUs. You might want to try different driver versions, they differ in more than just additional software profiles. From what some people tell me, 12.10 seems to be reasonably stable, might be a good starting point, but don't be afraid to go further back to older drivers, especially since newer drivers target newer hardware.
   
  Also, you might want to consider giving Windows 8 a try. I found it to fix multiple audio issues that could only be solved with either deep tweaking or specific Microsoft hotfixes that had to be manually requested (such hotfixes don't appear on Windows Update). There is an ongoing thread here about the OS: http://www.head-fi.org/t/631736/windows-8


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## beaver316

I will certainly consider trying out different ati driver versions later on, but for now im happy. Aero isn't such a big deal, plus the new driver seems to be slightly smoother in some games I play. This driver should be stable considering it has WHQL certification.


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## beaver316

I'd like to post an update on my situation here, and im afraid it's bad news. I had a VGA monitor lying around so I decided to hook that into my my laptop, giving me a dual display. Audio still works fine with the extra monitor so long as I disable aero, but a new issue has reared itself. If I disable and unplug the monitor (i.e. going back to how things were previously), the problem arises again even with aero disabled! I was using the monitor for a few months without unplugging it, but now that I've moved my laptop somewhere else and disconnected the monitor the issue has popped up (pun intended). I am at my wits end with this laptop, please can someone help me salvage something here.
   
  I also installed Ubuntu yesterday and I still hear popping on that, albeit far less. Using ALSA in the media player DeaDBeeF completely solves it, but I can't move to Ubuntu at this time.
   
  Disabling the graphics card altogether in Device Manager solves it, but I can't use the laptop in that state.


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## mich41

Did you try increasing buffer length in your audio player? This may help if the problem is caused by some software grabbing the CPU for itself for too long and starving the player.


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## beaver316

Yes I tried that. I tried many different buffer sizes both high and low. No go.


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## beaver316

I've come across a very useful article that I believe has led me on the right track. On this link under the IRQ Conflicts section shows this:
   


> _IRQ sharing can also cause these problems.  Follow these steps to check for conflicts:_
> 
> _Go to the device manger (Start>Run>devmgmt.msc)_
> _Select Resources by Connection from the “View” menu_
> ...


 
   
  I did exactly this and came across this
   
   

   
  As you can see there are 4 other devices which share the same number as my OHCI Compliant Host Controller. So by process of elimination I started disabling them one by one and testing audio playback between each disable. None of them did the trick until I disabled Mobile Intel Chipset PCI bla bla. By disabling that Im left with a black screen, so I reboot and am greeted with low res. Audio works perfect at this point. So I believe the graphics card was disabled and looking at the Device manager confirms this. 
   
  I further investigated by looking at the Resource usage of the Intel Chipset bla bla, the memory range is highlighted.
   
   

   
  Using this I found it matches here:
   
   

   
  And as you can see it lists the graphics card under the same memory range which explains why the graphics card is disabled when I disable the Intel Chipset.
   
  So long story short either the chipset or the gpu are at fault here, and I think there's nothing else I can do unless somebody has any ideas. I'll try to hunt down some different drivers.


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## mich41

It appears that you have several USB controllers which use different IRQs. Try different USB ports. 

 You can find out which USB controller your DAC is attached to in the "devices by connection" view (look at these 4-digit numbers at the end). Then find this controller in "resources by type" view and check if it shares IRQ with GPU (or something else). If it doesn't, your problem lies elsewhere. 


 BTW, IEEE 1394 is FireWire, you don't need to touch this.


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## wje

In my case, I noted some popping here and there through the USB DAC when I'd open and close windows on the computer.  In my case, it turned out to be a anti-virus program causing the issue.  It was a free-ware anti-virus program -- Avast!  Once I booted into safe mode, and uninstalled it, my sound has been pure ever since.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





wje said:


> In my case, I noted some popping here and there through the USB DAC when I'd open and close windows on the computer.  In my case, it turned out to be a anti-virus program causing the issue.  It was a free-ware anti-virus program -- Avast!  Once I booted into safe mode, and uninstalled it, my sound has been pure ever since.


 
   
  Your post had given me a sense of hope seeing as I have avast on my system. I uninstalled it, rebooted, played some music.... and still pops 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Man I'm starting to think this will never be solved.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





mich41 said:


> It appears that you have several USB controllers which use different IRQs. Try different USB ports.
> 
> You can find out which USB controller your DAC is attached to in the "devices by connection" view (look at these 4-digit numbers at the end). Then find this controller in "resources by type" view and check if it shares IRQ with GPU (or something else). If it doesn't, your problem lies elsewhere.
> 
> ...


 
   
  I will get right on this and post back.


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## beaver316

mich41, it seems your idea has worked a treat!
   
  I had actually done before what you suggested, by seeing what other devices share the same number as my usb port and disabling those devices (there were about 4 of them including my wireless network card and SATA). In the end it didn't work. But I hadn't noticed that my other USB ports have different IRQs, meaning there are different devices with the same number. Turns out for my other usb port there's only one other device with a similar number. I disabled that and rebooted. 
   
  So far so good 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



   
  edit: it seems that device i disabled was responsible for one of my usb ports, so im one port short now but I can deal with that


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## liamstrain

*thumbsup*
   
  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.


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## mich41

Quote: 





> Originally Posted by *beaver316* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> Turns out for my other usb port there's only one other device with a similar number. I disabled that and rebooted.
> 
> ...


 
 It's likely that you could re-enable this device without issues. IRQ sharing shouldn't normally cause problems unless the "other" device constantly does lots of stuff (like GPU does) or has really braindead drivers.


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## wje

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> mich41, it seems your idea has worked a treat!
> 
> I had actually done before what you suggested, by seeing what other devices share the same number as my usb port and disabling those devices (there were about 4 of them including my wireless network card and SATA). In the end it didn't work. But I hadn't noticed that my other USB ports have different IRQs, meaning there are different devices with the same number. Turns out for my other usb port there's only one other device with a similar number. I disabled that and rebooted.
> 
> ...


 
   
  Excellent news !!   I know regarding my own troubleshooting, I went down many roads as just about any computer forum on the Internet are full of similar questions.  The process can be quite frantic as one has so many options to look into, it can be hard to prioritize the order of attack, because you just want to get rid of the issue ASAP.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





wje said:


> Excellent news !!   I know regarding my own troubleshooting, I went down many roads as just about any computer forum on the Internet are full of similar questions.  The process can be quite frantic as one has so many options to look into, it can be hard to prioritize the order of attack, because you just want to get rid of the issue ASAP.


 
   
  I know the feel! As you could tell from some of my earlier posts I was close to giving up, I had looked through so many web pages and tried countless things on my laptop, but im just thankful it's solved.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





mich41 said:


> It's likely that you could re-enable this device without issues. IRQ sharing shouldn't normally cause problems unless the "other" device constantly does lots of stuff (like GPU does) or has really braindead drivers.


 
   
  Im guessing it's a result of a bad driver because when I upgraded to Windows 7 I used Windows update drivers which are sort of a "one size fits all" driver solution. Sony didn't make available certain drivers for those upgrading to Win7 from Vista which my laptop originally came with.


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## PleasantSounds

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> Yes I tried that. I tried many different buffer sizes both high and low. No go.


 
   
  You are aware that when using WASAPI, the buffer control is in Preferences -> Advanced -> Playback -> WASAPI ?
  Something between 250 and 500 ms should work fine.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





pleasantsounds said:


> You are aware that when using WASAPI, the buffer control is in Preferences -> Advanced -> Playback -> WASAPI ?
> Something between 250 and 500 ms should work fine.


 
   
  I had no clue! I was always using the one under Playback > Output.
   
  The one you mention is at 10 by default, that seems quite low. Increasing it seems to give a large hit to my spectrum visualizer frame rate. Im thinking of re-enabling the device I disabled before and increasing the buffer to see if that would help but honestly I think I'll leave it the way it is. Why fix what ain't broke?
   
  But thanks for the tip.


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## PleasantSounds

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> Why fix what ain't broke?


 
  This is exactly what fixed similar issues on my laptop, without disabling anything. You may find out that everything will run fine with all devices enabled. Disabling them looks to me like addressing the symptoms, not the cause.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





pleasantsounds said:


> This is exactly what fixed similar issues on my laptop, without disabling anything. You may find out that everything will run fine with all devices enabled. Disabling them looks to me like addressing the symptoms, not the cause.


 
   
  I just re-enabled the device and the problem comes back.


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## romster

Sorry for the bump, but I figured it'd be better than starting a whole new thread.
I'm currently having similar problems. I've got dt770 pros hooked up to a fiio e07k USB DAC, and I'm getting small pops, clicks and cracks that seem to get worse when I'm doing something on my pc.

I've checked:
E07k with my ipod: no problems
E07k with jack into pc: no problems
that one little program measuring buffer: all in the green
I've changed:
buffer size in foobar: no change
mich41's and your solution (no similar numbers on any other ports): no change
updating drivers from mobo: no change besides I'm now getting a bsod on shutdown... that's going back to default.
small general things like using 48khz instead of 92khz, changing usb ports, turning off the exclusive use etc: all no change


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## mrinspire

I have this issue too recently,and will try the solution later at home


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## beaver316

Quote: 





romster said:


> Sorry for the bump, but I figured it'd be better than starting a whole new thread.
> I'm currently having similar problems. I've got dt770 pros hooked up to a fiio e07k USB DAC, and I'm getting small pops, clicks and cracks that seem to get worse when I'm doing something on my pc.
> 
> I've checked:
> ...


 
   
  Are you sure you're disabling the right device(s) which share similar IRQ to your DAC? Perhaps post a screen here so we can better analyze it?
   
   

   
  This is mine. The device highlighted is my USB dac, I know this because when you right click it and select properties, then Advanced, it displays how much bandwidth the device is using. When no music is playing it shows 1%, when music is playing it shows 46%.
   
  And as you can see under it there's another device ending in 293A which shares the same IRQ (23). If I disable and *reboot* (important) that then there aren't any other devices sharing the same IRQ as my DAC. Audio works fine then.
   
  If you find that there are too many devices which share the same IRQ, try a different USB port. When I try a different usb port, then there's like 5 devices which share the same IRQ number as my DAC, luckily I have another port (the one im currently using) which only has one other device sharing the same number.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





mrinspire said:


> I have this issue too recently,and will try the solution later at home


 
   
  Hope it works for you. It can be really frustrating.


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## romster

Quote: 





beaver316 said:


> Are you sure you're disabling the right device(s) which share similar IRQ to your DAC? Perhaps post a screen here so we can better analyze it?
> 
> This is mine. The device highlighted is my USB dac, I know this because when you right click it and select properties, then Advanced, it displays how much bandwidth the device is using. When no music is playing it shows 1%, when music is playing it shows 46%.
> 
> ...


 
  The reboots were probably the problem. I could not turn off my PC as it gave me a BSOD and rebooted immediately after so I just tried it without.
  I fixed the BSOD by running some cleaners and installing the drivers off the factory CD and then spent some more time looking at the numbers. While I had previously stuck it in a USB port shared with 3 other things (that I disabled) I now managed to find one that did not share any numbers/IDs/whatever. It seems the problem has been fixed, I don't hear any more pops, cracks or clicks... for now .
   
  Glad that it got fixed, it took me through a lot of problems. Thank you very much for the help.


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## beaver316

Glad to hear that! Since doing this myself, the problem has completely disappeared. All my media players and even youtube works perfect. Hopefully it doesn't reappear for you.


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## romster

Unfortunately for me the problem has returned. Could it be something related to BIOS? I reverted that to default.


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## tk3

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but try raising Foobar's priority in the Windows task manager to 'real time', that might make a difference.


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## knubbe

While this didn't work for the OP, I found switching to a different media player worked. With Foobar even light browsing would result in the occasional pop or click, and I could definitely make it stutter by opening up a bunch of tabs at once, but with MusicBee this doesn't happen at all.


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## cheuh

Are you guys running any types of Anti-Malware programs? I had the static popping noise issue and I noticed that whenever I browse to different websites, I would randomly get that annoying popping noise. Using the DPC Latency Check mentioned in the first post, it showed my latency spiking up to high red bar levels. So then I went to disable every program that was running and I found out that by completely exiting and closing my anti-malware program called *"Malwarebytes"*, the static popping noises went away and I'm consistently getting low latency green bars now. Looks like I won't be using that program anymore 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





romster said:


> Unfortunately for me the problem has returned. Could it be something related to BIOS? I reverted that to default.


 
   
  Hmm not sure. Have you tried playing with the foobar WASAPI buffer? I think it was mentioned earlier in this thread to use the hardware buffer, not the one in Playback > Output, but rather the one in Advanced > Playback > WASAPI > Hardware buffer.


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## beaver316

Quote: 





cheuh said:


> Are you guys running any types of Anti-Malware programs? I had the static popping noise issue and I noticed that whenever I browse to different websites, I would randomly get that annoying popping noise. Using the DPC Latency Check mentioned in the first post, it showed my latency spiking up to high red bar levels. So then I went to disable every program that was running and I found out that by completely exiting and closing my anti-malware program called *"Malwarebytes"*, the static popping noises went away and I'm consistently getting low latency green bars now. Looks like I won't be using that program anymore
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
   
  Yes someone earlier in the thread mentioned disabling Antivirus programs as a solution for them, it didn't work for me though. I was using Avast.


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## romster

Changing stuff around in Foobar isn't working. Itunes has the same problem.
  I'm thinking it might be a power issue...
   
  Laptop isn't popping or cracking either. No issues there. Same Antivirus so that can't be it. The USB port is even shared.
   
  It seems I fixed it. No idea how.


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## tankpopper

hey guys. 
   
  sorry for bringing up an old thread but i have the same problem and im just about to pull all my hair out.. i tried everything you guys suggested but with no luck. the problem started when i updated my video card driver and now i can find the original driver to roll everything back :/
   
  my setup - intel dn2800 motherboard (everything is onboard..) and a MF V-DAC II
   
  the problem - POPS! lots of them.. more when using youtube, less when using foobar - but they are alway there, mainly at the beginning of tracks or when i try to do other stuff (web browsing etc)
   
  i also tried to check the IRQ and it is shared but i cant disable the other element:
   
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ld6wI9c_Fmk/UePLYOyjZ7I/AAAAAAAAB6k/3ts_60cNY4g/w1117-h631-no/Untitled.jpg
   
  any ideas on what to do next guys?


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## beaver316

Didn't your computer come with disks with the original drivers? You'll probably find the graphics driver on it.
   
  If not, then try plug your usb dac into another usb port, then check what devices it's shared with. They should be different.


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## tankpopper

it did, but i cant find them.. but even if i did, i updated the driver for a reason - playback of video files was slow and now its fine.. when audio is played through the hdmi output directly to the tv its also ok. the problem is only with the usb DAC.


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## beaver316

Did you try different usb ports and check if there are differing IRQs with your dac?


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## tankpopper

i just did, i also made sure its the one that has no shared irq.. and the problem is still there :/
   
  im gonna go for broke, format my computer and give it all a fresh start.. lets all pray to the audio gods it works.


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## PleasantSounds

For those struggling with the breaks in signal, here's another thing you may try:
   
  The pops and cracks we hear are often resulting from the DAC buffer starvation: the DAC is running out of the stuff to play, because your computer has more important things to do than feeding data to some peripheral device. These "more important things" could be as trivial as waiting for your hard drive or network to respond...
   
  The key to address this issue is to make sure that the DAC won't run out of data to process. One thing we can do to help is to increase the priority of this task. 
   
  You may have heard that messing up with thread priorities can lead to instability of your computer. This is very true - if you take this too far, but elevating priority of one well behaving thread is not going to make any noticeable difference. And you do want to enjoy the music uninterrupted, don't you?
   
  I'm a f2k user, so this is the domain I've been concentrating on, but the principle will be the same for other players, or even other platforms - you'll just have to find the specific solution.
   
  In the f2k it is possible to change the player's thread priority, but in my experience this makes only marginal impact, if any. What you want to affect is the process of feeding the player's output to the DAC. In Windows this is one of the kernel activities and you're out of luck, if you have to rely on this mechanism. But there's also another way. This will not work in every situation, but if you've got the right toys it's worth a shot. There's one prerequisite: your DAC has to support ASIO, or better still - come with it's own ASIO driver.
   
  Why is this important? ASIO bypasses the Windows sound support altogether and controls the DAC directly. Now, since the player controls the ASIO driver, it is able to set it's thread priority. And indeed - f2k allows you to use this feature by checking the "Run with high process priority" box.
   
  I won't get into the intricacies of enabling and configuring ASIO - there are tutorials for that. Just wanted to point out that if switching between DS/KS/WASAPI doesn't make any difference, don't assume that ASIO won't fix it either.


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## Zares

I had the same problem! First with FiiO E10 Olympus. I tried everything what ppl wrote on forums - nothing helped. I found the solution by accident, when I was having problems with suddenly PC turning off.
  
 I had OC i5-750@3.9GHz and it was stable. After few months it began to be unstable... so I downclocked it to 3.6GHz and raised voltages to be stable. I have a serious problem with suddenly PC turning off, so I decided to restore settings to defaults in order to see if this causes problems. And after this the problem from this topic returned. It returned, but I hadn't it before!
  
 But why am I talking about OC while the topic is about popping, clicking? Well, my point is: As ppl who OC know, we have to disable these in BIOS:
*Turbo, EIST (Intel Speedstep), C1E (Enhanced Halt State), C-STATE tech i Spread Spectrum*
  
*It seems that EIST, C1E C-STATE and Spread Spectrum enabled cause these popping, clicking! *I disabled them after loading defaults BIOS settings and there is no more popping while listening to the music  I have Turbo enabled. It's strange, but it works for me.
  
 Edit: and I know, I will be probably get eaten because I posted in 2 years old topic, but anyway - I am helpful man so I decided to share this, maybe it will help some ppl that still didn't solve the problem 
  
 Edit2: Now I have FiiO E09K + FiiO E07K.


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## beaver316

Well no use opening a new thread on the same topic right? Interesting findings there, hopefully it's useful to someone.


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## SodaBoy

Well since this got thread got necro'd;
  
 A USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card should help with IRQ issues as it provides a whole new range of IRQ addresses. It should also reduce latency as it is going through the PCIe slot. The power would likely be cleaner as well as the rest of the peripherals will not be on the same bus. Just use the USB port through the expansion card. USB expansion cards are pretty cheap nowadays.
  
 But most problems will be as PleasantSounds has mentioned, not enough buffer. You can usually increase the buffer latency in your audio player in the settings somewhere.


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## H-25

Hi everyone.
  
 Im also having this horrible clipping issue and im seriously pulling my hair out since so far, none of the solutions from this thread (and also from other sources)....
 I feel pretty desperate to be honnest 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  I spent days on this..
  
 Here's what im using 
 - Desktop quite powerful, i7 4790K, 16 GB DDR3, brand new, 4 days old, 650W cordair power supply : more than enough. I had before an older pc, on which I had exactly the same issues.
 - *NAD DAC 1*, it's an USB DAC , numeric / analogic converter, sends wirlessly the signal from one USB transmitter to wifi reciever plugged with RCA cables on Amplifier.
 - No specific driver delivered by NAD for this device, recognized as "Generic USB headset" working in 48Khz/16 bits by W7 = all good so far, these are the DAC specs. No ASIO driver as well.
 - Reciever and Transmitter are about 3 meters away from each other (specs say it works up to 40meters, so still good here)
 - Foobar2k, installed on system SSD (also tried from another SSD dedicated to my softwares)
  
 I have the exact same problem as described in the first post : random clipping / parasites in the sound, variable inensity, from nothing to completely cracking and trashy sound, seems to increase as im using the mouse, or browsing internet pages, but also can appear when I do nothing.
  
*Here is all that I've tried to solve this issue, without success*




  
 => Use Asio4All instead of Windows direct sound
 => increase Asio buffer
 => increase all kinds of buffer i could find in foobar
 => Use WASAPI (push/event, tried both) with SOX2 resampling to fit my hardware 48Khz/16 bits spec
      _*NOTE : With WASAPI, crackles and skipping are very reduced compared to ASIO, less frequent, less intense.*_
 => Try to locate USB IRQ conflicts with other ressources: i was able to find one of the USC bus on the same IRQ code as my Graphic card.
          -    However I was not able to locate exactly where my DAC was plugged despite the details found in this topic (i may miss a tip here).
          -    Anyway, *I basically tried all USB ports of my Motherboard* + front panel ones plugged on other specific motherboard controllers , and there
               are alot  (4 USB2.0 and  8 USB 3.0), and it changed nothing
 => Run foobar with Avast unistalled (did not change anything)
 => Run Foobar with highest processus priority possible from windows processus list & from foobar tick box in preferences
 => Use Asio output while disabling the DAC/USB generic headset in the Windows devices manager
 => Disabling EIST, C STATE and Spread Spectrum in BIOS, as explained in a recent post
 => Read flac file from SSD instead of storage disc
 => Plug the DAC on USB hub with external power supply to clear up any power supply issue.
 => change USB cable
 => Disable AERO in W7
 ==> and i'm sure im forgetting other attempts i made on other settings...
  
 As I mentioned at the beginning of this post , this pc is brand new, all fresh : new motherboard, new RAM, new CPU; Windows 7 version is different.
 Onlly a few things remained the same
 Same Graphic card (MSI GTX 760) as in previous PC
 Same Hard drives
 The NAD DAC 1 itself
 The fact that i'm using internal/native motherboard USB ports.
 My bad luck.... lol
  
 My last move : I have ordered a PCIe USB 2.0 extension card, to get a new range or IRQ addresses like SodaBoy suggested, and i will plug my DAC alone on it.
  
 I would deeply appreciate any feedback, tip, advice, divine intervention.... to shoot this once for all.
  
 Thanks a lot


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## castleofargh

not an easy one.
 the 16/48 thing is what the usb dongle wants from what I see on the nad specs. if the buffer in foobar is not too small that shouldn't be the issue, but just in case did you try converting some songs beforehand so that foobar would just have to play them as is? not much hope on that one TBH but you've already done the obvious outside of trying to get another USB card. saying you can make noise with your mouse suggests a problem(most likely a grounding one :'( ) between the pc and the dongle, so the DAC would have nothing to do with it. else I would suggest trying to plug the DAC or amp on some other maybe cleaner power sources(try in another room or try to unplug a lot of stuff on the same circuit in the house just to check).
  
 did you check with a wifi analyzer if there is a lot of traffic on the 2.4ghz in your room(again what's one the nad specs)? I'm not super convinced again. your mouse can be heard in the output, so it would suggest that the problem is with the dongle and the computer, and not so much between the dongle and the DAC.
  
  
 all of those are kind of far fetched, but you already went through what would be the most logical stuff.


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## H-25

Thanks for your feedback castleofargh.
  
 Well, i did not try to read directly falc files fitting the native 48 Khz of my DAC but after your suggestion i tried : no improvement.
  
 You said :


> saying you can make noise with your mouse suggests a problem(most likely a grounding one :'( ) between the pc and the dongle,


 
  
 Saying I make noise with the mouse is not exactly true.
 I just observed (like others), that the crackles tend to appear more often when im doing stuff on my PC, like using Internet browser or switching between some windows. But i can't make a direct link between the mouse usage itself and the noises.
 And grounding noise.... mmm i'm not that convinced either... for me, a grounding noise sounds more like a regular buzzing, something at least you can identify more easily.
  
 Here, once again it feels exactly like it's been described many times, as if at some point the ressources were lacking to pass the data with full quality, and was degraded.
  
 But you are right, the problem definitely lies between the PC and the transmitter, and I believe it is at the BUS level.
  
 I just recieved my PCIe USB 2.0 extension card.
 I will install it and keep you all posted.
  
 This is my last stand im afraid.


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## Tuco1965

I had an issue with noises that believe it or not were being triggered by ethernet.  Disconnect my ethernet cable and noises went away.  Wifi did not cause issues.  I searched for any setting that I could change to fix this, but no luck.  Eventually I bought a good usb hub with a strong power supply.  The hub was purchased for reasons other than this noise problem, but as it turns out, it also cured my noise by ethernet issue.  This doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm noise free and happy now.


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## beaver316

h-25 said:


> Thanks for your feedback castleofargh.
> 
> Well, i did not try to read directly falc files fitting the native 48 Khz of my DAC but after your suggestion i tried : no improvement.
> 
> ...


 
  
 Despite solving my issue like described earlier in this thread, I actually recently bought a PCIe usb extension card because my laptop was lacking usb ports. Turns out the extension card usb ports worked just fine for audio, no clicks or pops. So fingers crossed hopefully it works for you too.


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## castleofargh

h-25 said:


> Thanks for your feedback castleofargh.
> 
> Well, i did not try to read directly falc files fitting the native 48 Khz of my DAC but after your suggestion i tried : no improvement.
> 
> ...


 

 yeah I meant grounding inside the computer, not the house installation. making some other card to pass on some signal to the USB, sorry for not being clear.
 fingers crossed for your card.


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## H-25

beaver316 said:


> Despite solving my issue like described earlier in this thread, I actually recently bought a PCIe usb extension card because my laptop was lacking usb ports. Turns out the extension card usb ports worked just fine for audio, no clicks or pops. So fingers crossed hopefully it works for you too.


 
  


castleofargh said:


> yeah I meant grounding inside the computer, not the house installation. making some other card to pass on some signal to the USB, sorry for not being clear.
> fingers crossed for your card.


 
  
  
 Thanks a lot for your support guys.
  
 Well well well 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





  (<== Enthusiastic Guy on the keyboard)
 PCI USB 2.0 card installed.
 AND
 SO FAR SO GOOD ! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



  
 I went though my favorite test tracks, the ones who gave me the best/worst (depends on the point of view lol) crackles in my previous tests, and... Nothing !
 Not the slightest little clip, crackle or perturbation of any kind. #PartyTime #AmpVolume100% #MyNeighborsHateMeAlready 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



  
  
 To get a bit more into details : i can indeed see that my PCI extension card has created a couple of new IRQ addresses, and since my DAC usb dongle is the only device connected on it, there is no chance to have any conflict here.
  
 This  PCI USB 2.0 Card is probably my best 12€ investment ever !
  
 Thanks again for your inputs, and Beaver316 thanks for making this thread (a decade ago lol)


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## beaver316

Glad it works fine now!


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## H-25

Well well well (<== Not so enthusiastic guy on the keyboard anymore 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




)
  
 The dream did not last in heaven, and some old demons are coming back.
  
 The PCI extension card did bring some good, I even thought my problems were solved forever and ever, until the end of times.
 But, after a few days, the clippings/crackles came back.
  
 Their manifestation now is a bit different than before, they tend to happen less frequently, but more intensively and longer : before I had like spikes, crackles for a couple of seconds, then normal, and then again crackles... quite randomly but it was short disturbances coming frequently.
  
 Now, it's more regular in the intensity when the problems happen
 Level 0 : all good, pure sound
 Level 1 : little crackles here and then
 Level 2 : more crackles, sound very degraded
 Level 3 : like playing a vinyl disc with a fork through a fairground speaker. Inaudible soup. Yes, it gets that bad.
  
 I tried to change the USB port on my PCI card, and once again, it brought a real improvement : it was like first time I plugged the DAC on it, no trace of the smallest little crackle.
 So I guess that if i try again another USB port it will get better. But then what ? I have only 5 ports, what will I do when I have used all 5 ?
  
 So i'm still digging.
  
 [EDIT]
 Since yesterday I was able to discard a few more potential root causes.
 I can affirm that problem is not due to latencies since DPC checker show perfectly green bars all under 500µs event when the sounds get as bad as my level free of horror.
 Deactivating Ethernet controller does nothing.
 Same for raising the CPU min frequency in the power setting.
 I tred also to untick the "Use MCSS" option in Foobar, changes nothing. So I guess there is nothing there and I don't need to waste time trying to tweak the MCSS in the windows registry.


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## SodaBoy

h-25 said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> Im also having this horrible clipping issue and im seriously pulling my hair out since so far, none of the solutions from this thread (and also from other sources)....
> I feel pretty desperate to be honnest
> ...


 

 Yeah give that USB expansion card a try when it arrives. I think there is a very good chance that it can fix your problem, as it did for me. The problem is that all the ports, including PC front panel ports are all on the same bus on the mobo. I did the same things as you, messed with the buffers all day, and whenever I thought things had improved, the popping appeared again and it left me frustrated. Just set the buffers and latency to max and forget about it.


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## mAurelius

h-25 said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> Im also having this horrible clipping issue and im seriously pulling my hair out since so far, none of the solutions from this thread (and also from other sources)....
> I feel pretty desperate to be honnest
> ...


 
  
 Hi @H-25 ,
  
 I'm not sure if you're still monitoring this thread 6 months later, but there is something about your situation that strikes me that no one else has mentioned (IIRC). You said that you have had the exact same problem on two different computers. This would lead me to believe that the problem is outside of your computer, and doesn't have anything to do with USB, Foobar, Antivirus, processor priority, etc. 
  
 Most likely, to me, the issue is with your DAC. Can you try out another? 
  
 Here would be a few more specific suggestions:
 1. Could you get another identical DAC just like it (with new USB cables to be safe) and see if you have the same issues? Alternatively, could you take your DAC to a friend's computer at another house, and see if you have the same issues? If so, it's gotta be the DAC. If not, look elsewhere. 
 2. Can you purchase an alternative DAC just for testing (even something simple like the ODAC)? 
 2. The fact that your NAD DAC is wireless also causes me concern. The wirless spectrum is notoriously crowded (especially on 2.4GHz bands), so I could see all sorts of potential for interference. Would be nice to test a fully wired DAC and see if the same issues occur. 
  
 Hopefully this is helpful!
  
 Aurelius


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## H-25

Hello Aurelius,
  
 Indeed I was not really monitoring this thread anymore but thanks to the email notification i saw you mentioned me in your post 
  
 Yes, i had these issues on 2 different computers, but i think the problem lies in Windows 7 itself, how the OS is allowing ressources, and both of my computers were running under W7.
 Of course, the Wireless approach of the NAD DAC was really ringing a bell at first, but honnestly, these DACs are really good. And the wireless does not seem to be an issue, at all.
  
 Now, my problem is solved and I have the proof that it's not my DAC causing the issue.
 How did I solve the problem ?
  
 I bought a NAS (Synology DS214 play) where i have put all my music.
 These little NAS are smart enough to allow you plus an USB DAC and play music stored on the NAS directly to the DAC.
  
 Since the base of Synology OS is Linux... i never had the problem again.
  
 I hope this little trick will help others.
  
 Anyway, thanks again for your time Aurelius, to have read my looong problem explanations, and for your resolution suggestions.


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## mAurelius

Well that's great! That's pretty slick that your NAS can play music straight to the DAC. Those Synology's are really nice in general, good choice!
  
 Glad you posted your solution, I'm sure it will help others.


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## lucianpescaru

You might also give this thread a read: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044


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## lugnut

roller said:


> Overall, your system is more than capable of glitch-free playback. The HDD is on the slower side, being 5400 RPM, however it shouldn't be the culprit. On the other hand, the GPU is a low end model, and if you intend on doing a lot of audio playback/recording, I would recommend you disabling desktop composition entirely.
> 
> You should never update drivers through Windows Update, always from the hardware manufacturer instead. Unfortunately, Sony is one of the few brands that still do shameful Device ID swapping and sometimes adding hardware adapters to make it harder for replacing hardware, which in that case you should first update to the latest drivers available from Sony, then individually updating drivers from the hardware manufacturer itself.
> 
> *Lowering color depth does indicate that the issue might be related to the GPU. The easiest way to check whether the GPU might be faulty (despite being low end, it should handle full Aero with little degradation) is to go to system properties, Advanced tab, Performance Settings, then selecting the best performance adjustment. Restart your computer and test whether you still suffer from those issues. This, with 32-bit color.*


 
 After swapping cables, trying this and that,calling IP, new mouse finally found this thread and tried what Roller suggested above in bold. Guess what it worked, no more distortion while music is playing and using right click on mouse. What made mine so hard to track down , I just received a new modem and higher internet speed, which made me think that had something to do with it, it did not. Also my PC is getting up in age about 9 years old. I guess my old evga 9500gt card was having trouble with the Aero,however the static,distortion when right click was made while music played was the only issue I could tell I was having. Oh well, now that I got it figured out,it is time for a new PC !


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## Ihatemicrosoft

Sorry for being a Thread Necromancer, but I have the same issue.

For over 2 years I was listening to music without any problems, 2 days ago random popping appeared (and I didn't change anything in my OS, no system updates, no drivers update, nothing), thanks to this post:


beaver316 said:


> Quote:
> 
> 
> Are you sure you're disabling the right device(s) which share similar IRQ to your DAC? Perhaps post a screen here so we can better analyze it?
> ...



I realized that my first motherboard USB hub that I was using had the same IRQ as my GPU, so I changed the USB port. That worked, but only for an hour or so... 

I also noticed that when I'm having this problem, my foo_uie_vis_channel_spectrum panel in foobar is acting weird. Instead of silky smooth refresh rate, I get like ~20fps. 

Then I've read this post:


lucianpescaru said:


> You might also give this thread a read: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044


and I tried to switch my motherboard's USB 2.0 hub that I'm using right now to MSI mode (with no success), but at least I learned that my USB 3.0 ports are in this mode right now, so I connected my sound card to one of two USB3.0 ports that I have. For now it's working (or not, I don't know if I'm loosing my mind on this popping issue, but I think that I still hear those noises from time to time...).

I'm using foobar2000, Windows 8.1, and I'm listening through dedicated ASIO drivers. Any other ideas how to fix it? I don't want to waste my USB 3.0 port or do OS reinstall just because Windows is a piece of garbage... Thanks


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