Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum CRACKLING NOISE

Machines do age. For example those Electrolytic Capacitors are all but a 5 year design and all it takes is for one in the right spot to age a bit too much (also called a failure.)

I've seen many claim nothing has changed but change is unavoidable. It's in the design and parts that eventually it will fail.

As this is the hardware forum I'll not suggest reloading the OS and drivers.
Bob

I feel your pain.

I have the same card with creative 5.1 digital sound system. Had the card for 4 years now and wonder how long it will be till I have the same problem as you are having.

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I have an older, lower cost Sound Blaster and have had clicks for years. I don't get the noise when using Windows Window Media or the CD player, just when listening to music off the internet (I don't have games).

I also use the Creative WaveStudio, so I can look at the clicks when I record the off line music. I can look closely because the software allows you to edit.

The click part of the noise lasts 0.003 seconds or less, but is very loud and is in both tracks. As part of the disruption, the right channel will go silent 0.01 seconds before the sound of the click. I have also found that even when I thought that there were no clicks, the music shows these disturbances, but they consist solely of lost sound. First, the right channel will go black, which again lasts for 0.01 seconds, then both channels will go blank, which lasts up to 0.003 seconds. Unfortunately, even when so short, the silences and shifting of tracks is noticable.

Sometimes the distrubances will not ocurr for an extended period of time, then, without any reason that I have been able to find, many will ocurr in rapid, seemingly random succession.

It is very annoying.

In the past, I have tried to change the situation, like moving from port to port, using different settings on all of the electronic and sound paths. I have found ways of increacing the number of disturbances, but no way of eleminating or really reducing them.

I finally solved this terrible fault. March 2014

The audigy 2 crackling problem is caused by 4 faulty capacitors. Hold the board with the chips facing you. input skts to the left, gold edge connectors at the bottom.

You can see 4 tiny capacitors at the bottom right hand corner. These are too small to smooth the small power supply chips. The ripple is what causes the interference. You can prove this by pointing a hairdryer at this corner for a few secs whilst in your computer. If the sound improves then these are the culprit.The heat changes the capacitance a tiny amount.

You can either replace them with 50volt 100 uf electrolytic caps by removing them or carefully solder the new caps to the solder points on the rear. Make sure that the negative stripe is pointing the same way as the originals. Then glue them to rear of board with a glue gun making sure that the legs are insulated from everything.

Does it work-YOU BET IT DOES.

Mike