Solution 1: Changing Minimum Processor State
Your minimum processor state might be causing this issue. Windows 10 has an integrated power saving protocol which minimizes the usage of your processor in order to save energy and prolong battery life. Although this can be a plus point for most of the people, it can affect your audio quality directly. Whenever the processor usage lowers, the audio output isn’t the same and you may experience distortion and bad sound. We will try to set the minimum processor state to 100% and check if this solves the problem.
Solution 2: Changing your Sound Format
Windows has an option to change your sound quality according to your speakers. You can set CD quality, DVD quality or Studio quality. The frequencies vary in all these options accordingly. The maximum being 192000 Hz with the lowest 44100 Hz. If you don’t have high-quality speakers or the speakers don’t configure correctly, setting high sound quality can cause the popping sound in your audio. We can try changing your sound quality and checking if the problem got solved.
Note: You can always try changing the sound formats to different values and keep checking if this solved your problem.
Solution 3: Uninstalling drivers
There can also be an issue of your sound drivers not properly installed or being outdated. Drivers are at the very core of your sound quality. They relay information to your speakers and are practically running your speakers and producing the sound. We can try updating them through reinstallation and checking if the problem gets solved.
Solution 4: Editing the Registry
We can change registry settings on your computer and check if it brings any improvement to the sound quality. Your sound chipset powers down after a specified time of inactivity to save power and conserve energy. This can be the likely cause of the popping sound and the high pitched tone. You can easily configure this by editing the registry settings.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Realtek\RAVCpI64\Powermgnt Delay time: It is the time in seconds which triggers the powering down of the chipset. The default value is 10. Enabled: This option enables the power management. The default value is 0. You should set it to 1 to disable and prevent the popping sounds coming. Only Battery: If your power management is enabled, you should set this setting to 1 to disable the power management only when the laptop is plugged in. You will still be able to hear the popping sounds if your laptop is on battery.
Solution 5: Disabling Audio Enhancements and Exclusive mode
Some sound drivers use enhancements in an attempt to improve your sound quality. If these properties are not compatible or if your CPU is being overloaded a lot, this can result in some major problems. We can try disabling the audio enhancements and check the sound quality gets better. Not all sound drivers perform this function. They may have the Enhancements tab renamed as a sound blaster. In that case, we can try disabling all the effects to the audio. Some sound drivers also have an issue with the “Exclusive mode” option which allows other applications to take full control of your sound card. This shouldn’t be a problem but it is worth a try to see if this fixed our problem.
Note: If this doesn’t bring any change you can always turn all these options back on.
Solution 6: Purchasing a USB to 3.5mm adapter
If you are experiencing popping sounds on your external speakers, it might be possible that your audio jack is damaged or isn’t working as expected. You can purchase a USB to 3.5mm jack. You plug one end of the cable into the USB slot on your computer and the end will be connected to your audio device. This way Windows will automatically detect that an external speaker is connected and we can bypass your audio jack this way.
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