I've recently (like 3 hours ago) started hearing random popping noises while listening to music. When I hear a pop during listening and go back to where it popped and then it's not there anymore. What's going on? I got the latest (lol latest) drivers for my soundcard, but the soundcard is really old already. About 6-7 years old. I don't recall having popping problems BEFORE getting updates for my soundcard, which was a few weeks ago.

While searching for similar problems I came across something that "VIA KT chipset and Soundblaster Live/Audigy/Audigy2" cause the popping sound or something like that. I don't know what a KT chipset is but is this true?

Also three hours ago I was playing around with the foobar equalizer and while equalizing the 20khz my arm twitched and maxed it out for a few seconds. Could have this been the problem? Are my headphones messed now? Hopefully this wasn't the problem.

I don't know where I should be posting this because I'm not sure if it's a headphone problem or audio hardware problem but I figured here is okay.

Here's my system specs:



Using senn 280 HD pro as headphones.

Also, could someone recommend me a decent soundcard? ~$100-150. I plan on getting a new computer soon since mine is 6-7 years old.

Any help is appreciated.

There's a chance that your PSU is about to dead. I once have similar problem and changing PSU solve it.

But you can try revert back to your old driver first. But if the PSU is the cause, it may not long before you here that popping sound again.

Easy trick is to go into the control panel and then into the SYSTEM icon and locate / remove the entry for the sound card. Reboot the PC and allow Windows to locate the hardware and reload the software by itself.

Is there still a popping sound when you play files? Is this just with MP3s or is it with all files? If you know how to load drivers I suspect that you are at least somewhat computer savvy. Are there a lot of items running in the START / RUN / MSCONFIG / STARTUP tab listings? Are you running that cursed Norton Antivirus on an old bomber PC - which might put you in a position of a background application sucking up valuable CPU cycles while it conducts a full system scan or live-update?

Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com

>Revert back to your old driver first
>locate / remove the entry for the sound card

So which one first?
And I want to confirm that I'm going to do either remove or revert back under Device Manager, right?

>Is this just with MP3s or is it with all files?
It's all files. 320kbps mp3, 160 ogg vorbis, flac, wave, etc etc.

>Are there a lot of items running in the START / RUN / MSCONFIG / STARTUP tab listings?
I figure there isn't a lot of things running. I've optimized my computer so It wouldn't run any random things while I'm doing stuff since my computer is old. Around 7-8 entries under my name, not including the important system items.

>Norton Antivirus
OH GOD NO.
I'm using AVG along with Zone Alarm.

>Is there still a popping sound when you play files?
Most important question left last. Yes. The popping sound is still happening. As I'm typing up this post it's popping randomly. And it disappears after I rewind back to the spot it pops as I mentioned in my first post. I've switched between my senn 280 HD pro's, ER-6i's, and some old $10 ear buds and they all have the random popping coming up. So I can safely assume my soundcard is the problem. Unless someone can spot a problem other than that.

The sound is, probably, coming from an Event Notification from a recent program you installed.

I, recently, installed an anti-virus program called Kaspersky. Afterwards, my computer would make random Popping sounds. After researching and diagnosis, I discovered that the POP was generated by a Notification Event from the Kaspersky program each time it would complete a successful update or other related event.

If you go to Control Panel / Sound and Audio Devices. Then, select the "Sounds" tab, you will see a list of sounds corresponding to events (Opening Windows, etc.). Select each event and listen to its corresponding sound (by clicking on the RIGHT arrow - NOT the down arrow) next to the sound listed in the bottom portion of the window. As you listen to each sound, you should come upon the random sound you are hearing and, then, you can change the sound or select "No sound."

Again, my POP was coming from one of three events in the Kaspersky anti-virus program.

By the way, in order to confirm I had the right solution, I changed the sound Kaspersky had allocated to the three events which were making the Popping sound to a "Ding." Then, until I selected "No Sound" for those events, I would hear a random "Ding!"