Problem

[Aeron]

I have a bit of a sound problem in some of my games. I can only describe it as the audio equivalent of screen tearing.

In many games, like Company of Heroes and Darkstar One, the audio works great most of the time. But then, particularly when there is a lot of activity onscreen, the audio starts to shatter and crackle and "tear". If I "alt-tab" to the desktop and go back to the game, it seems to go away but then returns as soon as there is a lot of activty.

The speakers are fine but I'm wondering whether this has to do with the audio driver or maybe even the graphics card, since it's usually visual lag accompanied by this sound anomaly.

Any ideas?

 

[Mean_Monster]

Onboard Sound Card? Realtek?

 

[Aeron]

Yes ineed. Onboard 5.1 Realtek Soundcard on Asus micro-atx motherboard.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

There was an issue like this with Oblivion and a 'patch' of sorts was released by a member of the gaming community .... basically it killed background noise so the game wouldn't lag and stutter in busy scenes. It only affected certain types of onboard audio. So, it sounds like this is something similar ..... maybe visit the forums for the games it happens in?

 

[Aeron]

That would take forever since it happens in MANY games, not just the ones I mentioned. Battle for Middle Earth 2 and some first person shooter games also succumbed to the pits of the audio crackle.

 

[Kuga]

That sucks.

Is your motherboard still under warranty? If it is, I would take it back and say the audio is faulty and that you want a new motherboard that doesn't have the Realtek sound drivers.