I want to play music and sounds. Why does my computer’s sound crackle? I’m using Windows vista.
So I take it your just sitting there at your computer and you put on a song or video and it just starts to crackle. That’s got to be annoying!
First let’s make sure exactly where the problem lies. Try another pair of speakers with your computer and if the cracking still exists then it’s something to do with your computer. That’s when you try to fix it.
There are a few possible reason for this but chances are if your using Vista you may have to update the drivers for your motherboard (if it’s intergrated sound) or sound card (if it’s PCI card based sound.)
Go to the manufacturer’s website and find out what kind of motherboard you have and after you have that information go the the motherboard manufacturer’s site and download the newest drivers (ditto for the sound card route.)
If that doesn’t work and you do have a separate sound card you can try downloading PCI Latency Tool 3.1, it’s a free tool that fixes something called PCI latency. It can sometimes cause these type of problems with audio or video on separate PCI-based cards. I’m not sure if it’s completely compatible with Vista but it shouldn’t hurt to try it.
The Fake Geek