Asrock 670E Steel Legend Audio/Video crackling-lag

Hello, I built for my friend a new pc and and when we play a video be it 1080p or 4k it starts well but after a while the video starts stuttering or and the sound gets crackling or goes off completely.

Closing the video the starting it again makes it starts well but after a while again the same happens.

Tried Unigen Heaven benchmark and it starts good but again after a bit the sound goes off and the benchmark starts stuttering.

Specs are:
CPU: 7700X
Motherboard: Asrock X670E Steel Legend
Ram: (Compatible as per the QVL) 16x2 Corsair
GPU: RTX 3070
Air Cooler: AK620 dual tower
PSU: EVGA 1000w GQ
OS: Windows 10 Pro


Tried the following but to no avail:

1. Updated and tested 3 motherboard bios version.
2. Changed the GPU to another 3070 and 3080 so total 3 GPUs tested, same problem.
3. Tried a single stick of ram and then rotated.
Tried removing the HD audio + ARGB cables from the motherboard and just kept the fans + CPU + Motherboard cables.
4. Tried using the second PCIE slot with a riser.
5. Tried 3 HDMI cables and one of them was new and sealed.
6. Tried 3 different Nvidia other than the one that gets installed automatically by Windows 10.
7. Disabled the iGPU from the bios and from Windows 10.
8. Tried a different wall socket (Doesn't make sense but eh well).
9. Ran benchmark Cinebench R23 on the CPU and kept it looping and no issues from the CPU.
10. Windows 10 was installed 3-4 times.
11. All devices drivers were tested using drivers from Asrock website and from Windows 10.
12. Ram tested with XMP1 and without.
13. Tested different video players.
14. Made sure to test with the power settings in Best Performance mode.
15. PSU tested on another PC.


I apologize for the wall of text but I am hoping to find a solution, please let me know if you have any idea on how to fix this.

Regards,

Temperatures are within spec, when idling the cpu hovers late 30s and early 40s, the gpu is within the 30s degree celcius.

I think since I am using an HDMI cable the hdmi audio is being used

By everything you've written, it's hard to imagine something broken at the PC side. What display device are you using? (i.e. what's at the other end of the HDMI cable?)

Vinasis wrote: A 4k TV, the TV has another pc and laptop connected to it and I've tested them and no sign of any issue with them

My Samsung KU6400 4K TV got 2 HDMI inputs but only 1 offer "HDMI UHD Color" for full RGB and 8/10/12-bit Color, perfect for PC video source.

The only advices I can give you is to swap HDMI inputs that work well with your other PC and laptop, check if your TV's firmware is up to date, reset default TV settings and be careful if you use an HDMI switch.

Good luck and thanks for detailed post

I have the same problem. The sound through HDMI is terrible, constantly interrupted. And it doesn't matter through Nvidia or iGPU. Through the analog audio output, much better, but still sometimes I hear interruptions.