PC Drivers & Software

[_OMEN_USER646]

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Laptop: OMEN Laptop - 15-en0023dx

Driver version: 22.2.3

The 2 latest AMD Graphics drivers cause audio to crackle at random times.

When Radeon Software is launched, AMDs graphics panel, the crackling starts immediately.

Please help me.

Omen User 646

[Francobér]

The audio crackling is not caused by the AMD driver but is a Microsoft problem. Unfortunately, I don't know to what extent this will be fixed under Windows 10 because I'm on the Windows 11 insider channel. But there the sound problem was fixed 3 days ago and I have since then no more problems with the audio.
Check out Microsft. maybe they also have a patch for windows 10 ready

[_OMEN_USER646]

Thank you for your reply

[amdman]

Here is my post about the problem, please put a bug report to AMD even if it is a Microsoft problem so they know it needs to be fixed. I am really frustrated by it but am trying to remain calm. I was able to fix it by using DDU or AMD Cleanup utility and then installing 21.11.3. I hope you can fix it.

https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/adrenalin-22-2-3-or-22-x-x-driver-audio-stuttering-in-...

[Otoyase]

Thanks, installing version 21.11.3 solved my problem.

I am having the same audio problems on my Acer Nitro 5, I don't know if this information is helpful,but the laptop has the following features:

Processor: Ryzen 5 4600h 3.00Ghz
RAM memory: 8 GB DDR4 3200 Mhz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

I tested on Windows 10 and Windows 11, both have the same audio issues.

[hkpd]

I just created an account to post a reply here. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Solo Gen 3 interface hooked up to two studio monitors and I have been experiencing clicking and popping (when resizing browser windows and other windows such as the Focusrite Control software) while any audio is playing in the background. This is a brand new PC that I bought two days ago. I have been troubleshooting this issue for about 40+ hours now. I have tried SO MANY different things, from changing my BIOS settings, to changing my RAM speed, to changing my voltage settings, to uninstalling audio drivers, ANYTHING you can think of. I've tried disabling C-states in BIOS, I've tried different USB ports, different USB cords, tried enabling MSI Mode for all of my PCI and Audio drivers, tried installing the latest drivers manually through device manager, tried installing older drivers all the way to version 19, etc. I TRIED EVERYTHING!

But I finally pinpointed the problem: the display adapter driver.

I am using a brand new PC running a Ryzen 7 5700G CPU with an integrated Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. To solve my crackling and popping issue, all I have to do is go into Device Manager, go under Display Adapters, then Disable 'AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.' That instantly fixes all of the audio crackling issues, but introduces massive screen tearing because it's using a generic Microsoft driver from a long time ago. So every time that I want to work on my audio, I have to disable that display adapter and deal with the massive screen tearing. If I want to go back to gaming, I have to go back to device manager and re-enable that display adapter.

What the heck kind of joke is this? This is completely unacceptable and incredibly disappointing by AMD.

[amdman]

It's frustrating, hopefully you can find a fix. I'm currently running older drivers 21.11.3 and have fixed my problem for now. The first thing to try, use AMD Cleanup Utility or DDU in safe mode. Then reboot and install the latest drivers, if you still have problems install the 21.11.3. If that doesn't fix it, please post your PC configuration including Power Supply watts and then you can look at further diagnosis.

Here is an excellent list for troubleshooting by @ThreeDee:

Make sure your motherboards BIOS is up to date

Make sure you have the latest AM4 Chipset drivers installed from AMD.com

Make sure you are running separate power cables to each power input on your GPU

Make sure you have latest GPU drivers installed from AMD.com

Make sure your Windows install is up to date

What speed is your system RAM running at? (Task Manager>Performance>Memory)

IF your RAM is running faster than 3200 speeds .. is your fclk (infinity fabric) set to 1:1?

Make sure Surface Format Optimization is unchecked in Radeon settings .. you might want to play with other settings in your Radeon settings as well

Are you overclocking anything?

How are your CPU/GPU temps?

How is the airflow in your case? You have to keep your VRM's and memory cool too

What case?

How are you cooling your CPU?

Are you running any modded PSU cables? .. PCIe Riser cable?

[amdman]

@cplifj  I'm not trying to make excuses, just possibly help someone else. If you notice I have the problem myself and found a way to fix it. I don't work for AMD, I do try to help others in my same position. I also know I do get frustrated, but I try to use the adage "you get more flies with honey than excrement". I hope AMD fixes it because I am not happy either, but I am going to take the high road and hope it's fixed soon.

[hkpd]

Hi guys,

I'm the one with the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Solo Gen 3 interface hooked up to two studio monitors that kept experiencing clicking and popping (when resizing browser windows and other windows such as the Focusrite Control software) while any audio is playing in the background. I fixed my issue by returning the computer that I bought and buying another model. It was the hardware that was faulty. It is quite unfortunate and hopefully nobody else will have to go through the same hassle that I went through. 

[untouchable2k]

OMG i haven't had any audio cracking since using PCI cards years years years ago. wow.  When i had the problem it was never cause from any drivers, just motherboard sound issues, once i got away from PCI and upgraded to slightly newer hardware and PCIE cards, haven't had that problem since.

That's weird that you're getting the issue from a driver though. Maybe downgrade back to a driver that didn't have any issues before?

[Skrybe]

Just in addition to what amdman said to trying older drivers. Make sure your Windows install doesn't automatically overwrite them with newer ones as well. Either Google "stop windows 10 automatically updating drivers" or this link explains it;

https://wethegeek.com/how-to-disable-automatic-driver-updates-in-windows-10/

And a question regarding this:

---

@amdman  wrote:
Make sure Surface Format Optimization is unchecked in Radeon settings .. you might want to play with other settings in your Radeon settings as well

---

Out of curiosity what is the issue with Surface Format Optimization? While I have seen guides suggesting to turn it off that's to improve image quality on high end new hardware. Nothing I've seen suggests it helps with audio crackling.

[untouchable2k]

Well he did say the last 2 drivers cause the problem, some drivers do actually cause issues , using my Radeon Pro W5500, I can only use Adrenelin 20.8.3 and Adrenelin 20.9.1 which solved all my issues and problems and better stable. Other drivers may give slightly better framerates, but are unstable(enterprise 21q.3)  and cause color issues using Cyberlink or any video player. 

And the recently 21.q4 driver from last year causes massive framerate freezing lol. So yea certain drivers does cause problems, depending on the hardware, etc.

So my advice again, for the OP just use the driver that didn't cause any problems. There's a rumor that a new driver is coming on the 17th. 

[amdman]

@Skrybe  The list for troubleshooting by @ThreeDee is a good list for general troubleshooting, I included it so it may fix other problems. Yes, also anyone will need to set Windows to not update the drivers. These procedures are getting complicated. On the plus side I am able to play everything with no audio stutters with enhanced sync on with 21.1.3. As far as the surface optimization, I agree probably doesn't have anything to do with audio stuttering, it's more of a "thing to check" if you have problems.

[Skrybe]

Fair enough. I wondered whether there was a report/guide I hadn't seen that detailed problems with sub surface optimization.

[_OMEN_USER646]

Guys, the issue remains.

I have to use ASIO drivers on foobar in order to play music properly....

Someone from AMD please respond, its like the last time that the driver update disabled windows 10 acrylic effects.

[hkpd]

I am about to return my PC and get an Intel/nVidia-based machine because of this issue. I don't want to use ASIO4ALL when I have an expensive audio interface sitting right there. The only workaround to fix this issue is to go to Device Manager > Display Adapters > Disable 6700XT. That solves the audio crackling issues, but introduces massive screen tearing since it uses a generic Microsoft Display Adapter driver. This is an issue with AMD's drivers and I even emailed them but they keep telling me to go through the same troubleshooting loop that I've gone through multiple times. 

[Flyfisherman]

Are You using AMD CPU and chipset?
Audio crackling could have something with the AMD fTPM issue to do.
See this thread: https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/amd-ftpm-causes-random-stuttering-issue/m-p/510369#M15...

And https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-issues-fix-and-workaround-for-ftpm-stuttering-issues

I have also this video stuttering problem once in a while on my pc:
Mobo: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero X570 (Bios 4004 with AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.6b ).
CPU: Ryzen 9 3950X AM4 CPU
GPU: ASUS Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB TUF GAMING OC
O/S: Windows 10 64-bit Pro for the foreseeable future.

Then I was wondering if this fTPM issue also cause sound crackling on my Sennhesiser (Epos) GSP670 Headset connected via USB-dongle (wireless)?
Only in games and just once in a while and never a sound problem if I use my stereo speakers 2+1 (Realtek audio).

Instead of waiting to May before AMD releases a new BIOS/Agesa for fixing the fTPM issue, I decided today to buy a separate ASUS TPM-M R2.0 Module for my motherboard 149SEK (15USD).
Then change in Bios > Advanced from fTPM Firmware to fTPM External
Atleast the video stutterng should be gone and hopefully my sound crackling as well.

Best regards from Sweden

Ps. I did not have any problem with video stutter or sound crackling before on the same system, but then I was using an older Bios version where ftpm was disabled, but with their later Bios/Agesa versions fTPM is Enabled default (preparation for Windows 11) and can't be disabled - even if I try so after reboot it is automatically enabled again.

[_OMEN_USER646]

Guys, lets try and be real here.

A relatively new laptop which works 100% well even under Cinema 4D rendering for 10 hours and gaming loads starts having sound playback issues after an AMD update.

It's either AMD's fault, or HP's fault for not releasing a new sound driver. I have made several posts to the HP forum too.

It's not the TPM, it's not anything else hardware related (maybe it is, but it's by far more likely to be something else).

[jbkcrash]

This may not be relevant as if most people follow the AMD updates then they may have relief already, so take my report for what it is worth.

I recently had the very same issue, I would characterize the problem as "crackling" or "digital break-up" of audio. I am using Ryzen 5 3600X on a ASUS B550M-PLUS, 3600MHz memory OC and Display Port to connect to my monitor. I am in a situation where I could verify the monitor/cable was not the culprit.

My mistake was upgrading to a new video card, RX 5500XT to RX 6700XT at the same time as using the driver cleanup tool and re-installing the latest drivers. That is 22.3.1, of course making two changes at a time is when you have a problem. I didn't know whether it was the card, some abberation of my setup and the new card, or the drivers. I did not downgrade, that was going to be next resort. It appeared if I moved the D-port cable to different ports on the computer and did a reboot the issue would go away; not always but seemed to work somewhat consistently. This drove me even crazier as I couldn't imagine what that was doing to fix anything. I was dissapointed, but loved the video, and even though I could do audio in multiple ways it still deflated my excitement over an upgrade.

Well fast forward a couple days, and when showing my wife the issue yesterday evening, as well as showing her the amazing FPS and quality the upgrade achieved, I noticed an update... 22.3.2. Now multiple reboots later, hour or so of gaming I am seeing better responsiveness overall and guess what no audio issues. So upgrade to 22.3.2 before you pull your hair out.

[jbkcrash]

Make sure you upgrade to 22.3.2, it fixed my audio issues on 6000 series card using Display Port.

[joku]

Fix that worked for my Acer Swift laptop courtesy of ObjectiveFew from reddit:

Go to the device manager and go to system devices then uninstall the 'amd audio coprocessor' and if it asks you to delete the driver, do that too.

[Anonymous]

go to device manager show hidden devices remove microsoft PROXY streaming or streaming anything. remove AMD noise suppression. Remove AMD streaming audio. install adrenaline and chipset drivers. use trueaudionext in registry or a text .ini file and specify audio bit depths and try RENDERING the audio with waves and particles and using PULSE CODE MODULATION PCM and 32bit or 16bit or use actual radiation data and particles for the audio with better than ray tracing technology from the old windows 98 *.WAV wavetracking waveform particles data and prorender your audio with light particle based collision detection for soundsynthesis and soundgeneration so when your game character jumps off a cliff the sword metal hits a rock in the ground its a super loud crisp sharp metallic clang thats like shake the house with your atmos system and use a real atmosphere and wet water an stuff in your game world You can do that on AMD. Consider enabling an audio enhancement like short volume management dolby for headphones or windows sonic and then try switching back to the audio. Configure both audio MORE OPTIONS in windows settings then audio then scroll 2/3 down and click the more options button for the classic playback and recording tabs where you right click properties then go back to windows settings audio after configuring there and using the wizard and enable the checkboxes for full range and in windows settings audio up the top audio device/button click it and configure it in there a second time. 

After install adrenaline browse to c:\AMD\packages\drivers\audio and load in the HDMI or soundwire or l2chst whatever or u could TRY the AMD streaming audio one MANUALLY in device manager.. Type in text .ini file like config.ini VLCstreamoutputSTOP disable all streaming video and audio where possible and disable all overlays. disable all VLC nonsense. use the official microsoft app store codecs.

Consider specifying WASAPI exclusivemode push/pull and RT whatever WASAPI or non exclusivemode WASAPI for audio. You could also try kernelproxyaudiomode (see windows 2000/server)

if you are using rays and real radiation audio data and atmospheric audio your raycount might not be unlimited or the ray functions might not have enough uhh lets go with critical mass and might need to be typed in a second time to have higher lets go with audio bandwidth/bit detph.. or a 3rd or 8th time.. intel and nvidia are **bleep**.