Intel Motherboards - Z370 Extreme4 Audio Crackle / Static

Z370 Extreme4 Audio Crackle / Static

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Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8199
Printed Date: 06 Aug 2025 at 9:44am
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Topic: Z370 Extreme4 Audio Crackle / Static

Posted By: Rocto
Subject: Z370 Extreme4 Audio Crackle / Static
Date Posted: 27 Mar 2018 at 4:58am

Hello,

I have been experiencing an annoying audio crackle / static sound since I built my new computer. This sound happens randomly when playing audio via web browser and also for in game audio. This sound can be reproduced by sliding the volume control on youtube videos back and forth and also every time I shutdown or restart my computer it will make a quick static sound right before it shuts down.

Things I have tried:

1. installed / uninstalled manufacturer suggested Realtek audio drivers.

2. disabled all audio enhancements

3. changed between audio bit rates / hz properties

4. enabled / disabled application to take exclusive control of audio

5. updated to latest bios

6. set Ram speed back to auto

7. disassembled and reassembled my PC to check motherboard standoffs and screws

8. blew dust out of audio jack

9. plugged headphones into front and rear audio jacks

10. tested with second pair of headphones

Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be much appreciated because the static sound is driving me insane.

Hardware

i7 8700k

EVGA GTX 1080ti hybrid

Corsair 360 rad watercooler

gskill Tridentz 3200 32gb

samsung 860 evo 250

samsung 860 evo 500

EVGA 750g3 power supply

Replies:

Posted By: badbri
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2018 at 9:08am

>1. installed / uninstalled manufacturer suggested http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss%3curl=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=realtek%2Bchipset" rel="nofollow - Realtek audio drivers.

Did you download the audio driver from Asrock website ?
Are you overclocking anything ?

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https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V9/display.php?id=99573335296

Posted By: MKVII
Date Posted: 29 Mar 2018 at 12:50pm

This is not uncommon on Win 10 and or with Realtek HD audio. It's not likely your motherboard. It happens on Asus and Gigabyte as well and there are threads all around about it. One official response from Asus pr in their forums is that it has to do with how Win 10 handles HD audio, and or along with the Realtek drivers - i'm paraphrasing here.

It's not specific to any chipset or codec as posts about the same issue go years and years back.

I did have some static on my new build with k6, mostly with windows "sounds". My audio bit rate was defaulted to 24bit 44100Hz, i dropped it to 16bit 192000Hz studio and the crackles went away. Eventually i would rather be able to use 24bit if i so chose though. I record and mix on my pc and it worked fine in Win 7 with z77 and Realtek drivers.

That's really just one variable but seems to be common. It could also be a latency issue, and or Nvidia drivers as well, which is also not uncommon.

When you install Nvidia drivers i recommend only install the driver and physx. Do not install the hdmi driver if you can help it. And also check your system latency with latency mon. If you do a web search you can find threads about it.