Sager NP5796 -- Realtek HD Popping / Crackling audio

As the title implies, I'm trying to use the onboard Audio with my new Sager Notebook, however, am getting pretty bad popping, hissing, and crackling in games. I wonder if anyone perhaps has encountered this or found a solution.

I was at first using the Sager provided drivers from their site, however, started hearing this popping and thus went to the Realtek website and got the absolute latest. Popping still persists.

Microsoft HD Audio bus is not sharing an interrupt with any other device. Tried increasing PCI Latency for the audio controller to give it more bus time, however this didn't do it either. Lowered Sampling conversion to lowest quality and tried turning off audio acceleration, but it's still popping.

Ironically, Vista works flawless here and the problem is only with XP / 2003. Sadly my dev tools won't work under Vista and I'd like to listen to music while I work. Always something eh? heh.

Any suggestions?

 

have you tried the drivers from Realtek? the R2.0?

 

And you can improve the overall sound quality by doing some configs in the Realtek Sound Manager software.

Set the Environment option to Carpeted Hallway. And if you want even more quality, set the Equalizer to Soft (as in Soft Rock)

 

Yes, I'm running the latest directly from the Realtek site. Unfortunately doesn't help.

Realtek drivers dated in device manager 7/24/08. Version 5.10.0.5672

 

I can confirm that the popping / clicking noises start when a sound channel is opened or closed (start/stop of playing an audio file), hence why it's so heavy when playing games, and not so heavy during standard Windows use (playing an MP3).

Still haven't managed to find a solution, but apparently this is common with notebook hardware.

 

(assuming Vista, tho XP is a similar if not identical process)

In Device Manager:
View -> Resources by Connection
Expand the IRQ group
See if the Sound chipset is sitting on the same IRQ as other things

 

No shared interrupt, and problem is under Win2k3x64 and XP64.

 

It might just be your speakers then. Turn on/off SRS audio and see if it helps.
Shortcut : Fn+2

 

Happens with external speakers, so it's not the internal. Fn f2 on the NP5796 turns off the display backlight.

Oh, doi.. Fn 2, not f2. But yeah, still persists with SRS WOW off.

 

You may also need a ground-loop surpressor, which will reduce the noise being generated through your power circuitry. For example, the Hum X from EBTech, which can be ordered directly from PNB.

 

Exactly, Shyster1 remembers that we had a user who needed such a device. Plus, it`s inexpensive considering the purpose.

 

Will look into if the popping exists on battery again, however I'm pretty certain that it did last time I checked. Interestingly it's not so much a problem during playback as when audio streams start/stop.

 

Popping persists when connected to a UPS with AVR and line filtering, and whenever on battery. I additionally tried the supply from my M570A and the popping is the same.

Everytime any audio stream starts or stops there's a brief pop/click (this is most noticeable when using headphones). Listened very carefully, and it does not occur in Vista, only the older OS's such as 2003 and XP. So that more or less rules out hardware issues and it's something driver related.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good USB SoundCard that they've tested under the XP64 or 2003x64 that produces clean audio, and has features such as bass boost?

Also much appreciated if anyone has more suggestions for alleviating the clicks with the integrated.

 

Update:

So, on further experimenting I found that the popping WAS there under Vista64 as well. However, ONLY when using the drivers provided by Realtek.

Under the "Microsoft High Definition Audio Device" drivers (default installed by Vista), there is ZERO popping. So, that makes the choice simple for me, use the Microsoft drivers with Vista.

Now, does such a generic driver exist for XP64? If so, I am set.

Will write Realtek as well and see if there's any potential of having this addressed.

 

Bad news. Popping still exists with the Microsoft HD Audio driver (except random and not the start and end of audio streams). Popping also exists in all the older Realtek drivers.

Called Sager, Sager says there is no problem with popping audio. Wrote Realtek and now waiting for a reply.

 

I also have this same laptop, running WinXP MCE 32bit, with just the drivers off the CD, and there are absolute no audio issues. So it's probably just 64 bit driver issues, as you are finding out. No issues with 32 bit so far.

Also, I wanted to comment on the audio quality of this laptop. I am very surprised in how good it is. Every previous laptop I've owned has sucked pretty bad for audio quality. This laptop ranks among the best, with no line noise, and very good detail. I use headphones with a 104 dB sensitivity, so SNR is a big deal to me. Audiophiles should take a serious look at this laptop.

 

Just 'cause I'm curious: have you opened it up to check the physical wiring on the speakers, just to be able to discount the possibility of a loose or damaged wire?

 

i noticed in one of your posts you said this is happening with "external" speakers. that opens up the possibility that it has something to do with your jack, jack connection, external speaker wiring, speakers, etc... have you tried any other speakers?

 

I have tried two pairs of headphones. Additionally I know the headphones aren't the culprit as I have tested them in other systems.

Far as the cracking audio, you won't hear it if you just play an MP3 file and do nothing else, as it occurs at the start and end of the audio stream.

For instance, say you're using firefox and you hold a key down in the search pane, at the start and end of each sound it will cause Vista to play there will be a pop. This is a serious problem in games or applications that don't do internal re-mixing of audio and constantly open new sound streams for each sound effect they play.

 

I have opened the laptop and took a look (did not see a problem). I have not tried directly connecting a headphone or bypassing the front panel.. Or anything of that sort.

 

Did you contact Sager again and let them know ? Insist upon it, something is wrong here.

 

Have you tried lowering the sound hardware acceleration?

 

Yes, I've lowered the acceleration, and disabled it under XP (don't believe this is possible with Vista). Didn't alleviate the problem and it still popped on the start and end of sound playback.

 

I contacted Sager a second time earlier today, and they told me to call Realtek. Realtek claimed that this was standard behavior for the chipset and nothing unusual... That it's common for Realtek HD integrated sound chipsets to make popping artifacts when sound playback begins and ends.

I will probably call back Sager tomorrow and demand it be RMA'd (with the motherboard replaced) unless they will admit that this is a problem and offer me a solution, because I see it as unacceptable.

Should also add that I backed up my partitions with TrueImage, popped in the restore CD, and confirmed that the problem is still there with Sager's provided installation.

 

If you could try it under a 32bit version of Windows and/or a version of Linux, and the problem persists, then my guess would be a hardware problem.

 

Update:

I noticed during more testing that when using the Microsoft provided drivers under Vista, popping artifacts always occur in "pairs". This immediately set me off thinking that maybe it was a power management issue of some sort, and that some device in the system was causing the OS to freeze a brief second ... thus creating the "sound gapping" or pops.

Setup a log in the Microsoft performance logger for the CPU Voltage and Clocks, and a log in RivaTuner for the GPU Voltage and Clocks. Sure enough, every single pop the GPU voltage and clocks were dropping for a few seconds then coming back up again.

So .. I went and disabled power mizer via regedit (Sager Provided 175x drivers). Problems persisted and the voltage kept falling (I suspect power mizer wasn't truly disabled). Went and upgraded to 176.04, disabled power mizer again. Voila, no popping audio!

Sadly this doesn't help me for XP as there's no MS UAA drivers, but at least I have crystal clear Vista audio (albeit with no 3D sound support).

 

This is an interesting result.
Lower voltages creating popping audio, I`ll have to make a note about this.
Nice job!

 

I believe it's the voltage adjustment that causes it, and not the lower voltages per say. I'll try locking the 9800M to a lower speed and see what happens (this is my initial plan anyway at this point to setup fixed clock profiles for batt / outlet use).

Another weird thing is that I kindof expected the mouse to stutter when it happened, or the entire system, but I can't seem to see this. Wonder if it will with cursor acceleration turned off.

 

Another victim of the graphics card and audio popping? I made a topic in the Dell XPS forum about a similar issue. You can find my topic here if you want to read a bit about my findings.

 

Just wanted to contribute to the thread as I was having problems with popping and cracking sounds with my 5793 under Vista X64 using winamp or wmp. I have realtek drivers installed. I noticed that the popping only occured when I set my power plan to powersaver, (even while the system was connected to the power outlet), when I set it to high performance the popping/cracking is gone.

 

I am getting a similar issue with my Sager NP5792. I am running Windows XP Pro SP3 32 bit and when I am using the DVD drive (iTunes, movie, playing a CD, whatever...), the rest of the audio that plays (.wav files during navigation, etc.) are stuttering. I have Realtek audio too...I don't think it's a memory issue or anything like that...I'm installing new drivers now and tried the PowerMizer resolution mentioned earlier, at least I turned it off in the NVidia graphics card Found a PowerMizer entry in the registry but didn't want to mess with it...any ideas?

 

Strange.. My NP5793 also equipped with X64 system but no problem on the audio system, and I tried to change power plan to powersaver (still utilizing power outlet) but there's no problem at all

 

I have an HP TX2525nr (Vista x64) with Realtek HD audio drivers installed. I have tried updating and rolling back the drivers to no avail. Can you give detailed instructions on what you did to get rid of the popping sound? The popping occurs whenever I play a sound longer than a second, streaming, itunes, wmp, they all have the issue and it is driving me crazy. HP has the worst warranty center and I want to fix this myself if I can, but I am not sure what you mean by, " Went and upgraded to 176.04, disabled power mizer again" Please help me out.

 

You might try posting in the HP section, as this forum is for Clevo / Sager systems, and the tread for the NP5796.

HP Section:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

Hi. I just signed up in order to say that most of the people in here may think they know what they're talking about, but actually don't (or some just might be trying to give some helpful suggestions) Anyways... for future reference if anyone needs it right click on the main windows volume icon in the lower right corner and select playback devices. In there make sure Speakers are selected and press properties. Go to the levels tab and make sure PC Beep is muted (I dunno why it isn't by default it's such a stupid "feature" to have on). It should then be fixed.

 

The only way you are going to completely avoid popping and clicking with a laptop is to use an external DAC/amp while using ASIO.

 

As much as I hate bumping old topics, I just wanted to say thanks for this. Can't afford the new desktop rig I was saving for since I lost my job, but I was able to increase the life of my Sager 5760 by getting rid of the popping on my Realtek audio by turning off powermizer. +1 and thanks a ton!

 

if disabling powermizer fixed your sound issues could you please report your problem to this thread? Nvidia is currently investigating this problem.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=157614

Disabling powermizer is far from being a good long term solution. If you monitor your GPU temperatures you'll notice they're significantly higher with powermizer off.

thanks!