Z370 Realtek audio driver sound issues

This is my first time so please forgive me If I miss something, I have an ASrock Z370 Taichi mobo and I have downloaded the newest audio drivers and I am getting crackling and popping when I use my headphones (audio technical ath50x) on my motherboards front audio output not the rear. It only does it at certain volumes (its fine below like 10 in windows 10) anything above it crackles and pops like crazy. The newest driver is the ?œRealtek High Definition Audio Driver ver:8496_UAD_WHQL??and the one that I was using previously and am using at the moment since it worked just fine is the is the ?œver:8210?? I have read online that there are people who are having issues with the Z370 asrock motherboards audio and this one is no exception. There nothing wrong with the rear audio as I have said so I am thinking that it is just a driver issue since the previous one that I am using right now didn?™t have any problems. I think it could also be the isolation on the Cooler Master Maker 5 case, however before I have used an Asus Crosshair 6 hero and an Aorus x470 gaming 7 motherboards (I am done with amd ryzen that chipset is very unstable for me and that asus motherboard is one of worst motherboards I have used in my life, not the point of this post) and the front audio worked absolutely fine on it so I don?™t think it is the main issue. I have changed the bit rates and nothing has changed. I do NOT want to move my motherboard out of my case to see if it is the case. I have thought about getting a sound card as that would solve the sound issue but it isn?™t something that I really want to do at the moment. Any help is appreciated!

Here is a full list of my specs
Intel i7 8700k No OC
ASrock Z370 Taichi
Asus strix GTX 1080 advanced edition
Fractal design Celsius S24 aio cooler
Corsair vengeance led red 32gb 2x16 3000 mhz
Samsung 960 evo ssd pcie nvme 250gb
Wd blue 1tb
Seagate barracuda 3tb
Seasonic prime titanium 850w (I know overkill)
Cooler master maker 5 case

I have found a good solution that will allow both your front panel headphones and your rear (motherboard IO connections) desktop speakers to work.
Still we have no options to switch between the two - no separate headphone/speaker options like most Realtek implementations.
But sound is good and it works without any issues.

Edited by Globespy - 05 Oct 2018 at 5:49am

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Thanks for the reply.
Nope, nothing wrong with the front panel - but Asrock know this.
I've been having no issues of late due to an exhaustive search that involved finding much older Realtek HD audio drivers and a few Windows tweaks.

I use the main motherboard panel at the rear for my desktop speakers and the front panel for headphones. No popping or clicking sounds>

This entire issue is software related. I am 200% sure of it as I can easily recreate the issues by changing drivers.

Hi folks,

I found this post a few days ago and was relieved becuase this has been driving me crazy. I am not certain it's a hardware problem; seems like a driver issue. The Asus driver posted above cleared up the crackling and poor audio from the front panel as well. It looks like driver versions as recent as 8338 work fine, but drivers from 8366 and later have the issue. No idea why, but I have spent a lot of time installing and uninstalling drivers trying to find the latest ones that work. Settled on 8338.

I also tried playing around with the Realtek modded drivers on the Techspot site. The front panel input seemed to work on these but removing the headphones from the front jack would lock up my PC.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd blame Asrock; it's the drivers that cause the problem. I prefer to have up to date drivers and will live in fear of Windows update replacing the drivers, but at least things are working properly now. So many thanks to Globespy for pointing to working drivers!