Sound Crackling in DirectX Games with Windows Vista?

[ultimatebob]

I'm having a weird problem with getting crackling noises coming from my speakers when I'm playing DirectX games. The sound is fine when I'm playing MP3's and Movies, but games with a lot of explosion type noises like Battlefield 2 or Civilization 4 seem to cause this issue.

I've already tried upgrading my sound card drivers to the latest version, and even tried a different sound card, with no results. Adjusting the in-game volume levels and quality settings doesn't seem to help, either. The problem doesn't seem to be with the speakers as well, since I don't get any crackling noises if I plug them into my iPod and crank it up to a high volume.

Please let me know if you're ran into this issue before, and how you fixed it.

Here are the specs on my computer if it helps:

Intel DP965LT motherboard (Sigmatel/Intel HD integrated audio, now disabled)
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
Windows Vista Home Premium (I think that this is my problem... Vista's driver support seems to suck in general)
Intel Core 2 Duo 6420 processor
2 GB memory
NVidia 8600 GTS video card
Logitech 2.1 speakers
Antec Sonata 2 with 450W power supply

Edit: Looks like the problem IS Windows Vista related... The Creative knowledgebase has a big write-up about it, but apparently no fixes

 

[ultimatebob]

Do a Google search on "Vista Crackling Sound", and you'll find tons of hits for both integrated motherboard audio and the Audigy card. Lots of complaining, but no fixes

 

[montag451]

Is the sound fine in movies/mp3's off your cd/dvd, or off your hdd?

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: montag451
Is the sound fine in movies/mp3's off your cd/dvd, or off your hdd?

Yeah... The sounds coming out of iTunes or Windows Media Player/Center are fine. It's just games that are giving me problems.

 

[montag451]

What I'm trying to get at is if the internal connection to your sound card is ok (cd - soundcard) but the jackplug externally might have a problem.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: montag451
What I'm trying to get at is if the internal connection to your sound card is ok (cd - soundcard) but the jackplug externally might have a problem.

My new computer doesn't even have a cable going from the DVD drive to the sound card. It's all done digitally via the EIDE cable now. Pretty slick!

 

[montag451]

Wow,
Didn't know about that!

Is that the same with all new mobos?
Could you shove a cable on anyway and see what happens.