sehe jetzt erst das du auch Deutsch sprichst, fail ^^

Hast du das Motherboard bei der Befestigung Isoliert ? also abstandshalter dazwischen geklemmt.?
amsonsten, kannst du noch genau sagen ob das Problem schon ewig existiert oder kam es plötzlich ?

Yeh, es gab aber die halbstille Einigung, dass wir beim Englisch bleiben, damit nicht deutschsprachige Leser dem Thread folgen können. (Ist zwar grad mit technischen Begriffen - die ich selbst auf deutsch kaum kenne - einfacher, macht aber Sinn.)
Eurgh. Ich hab das nicht eingebaut. Die Kiste war ein Weihnachtsgeschenk vor ca. 3 Jahren, in der Zwischenzeit hab ich mal ne neue GraKa eingebaut, wenig später eine CPU + PSU.
Das Problem ist irgendwann letzte, vorletzte Woche aufgetreten, zumindest bin ich mir relativ sicher, dass ich so was Nervtötendes nicht erst nach Wochen oder Monaten bemerkt hätte.

(Rough translation -
Asking about MoBo isolation and how long I've been having issues;
I assume it's fine, the PC was a Christmas present 3 or so years ago and it's still the same MoBo, I only switched GPU, CPU and PSU at some point. Problem popped up last week or the week before that.)

Ack, addendum: Any recommendations regarding external drive manufacturers? I need one anyway, for Windows and other backups.

'twas also pointed out by lugum on page 2.
Had entered my mind too, then left when it saw the mess, I suppose.

I must be doing something wrong with that. Hit/hold (tried both) F8 during boot before Win logo pops up, yes? Like I said, I only got an option asking which drive to boot from and nothing else. Didn't look any different then.

Ha, there's no way in hell you could, at least not to me. :D
So there's always a possibility it's the Realtek sound after all.
Suppose I'll just go poke around in the case, accidentally rip something apart, make a Windows backup before anything activates self-destruction, update BIOS, possibly re-install Windows, check out all the things russellskanne mentioned which go way over my head and THEN start worrying about faulty hardware IF my brain hasn't exploded.

Seems like your motherboard's quick boot menu has the same sortcut.
If that's the case timing matters. You should hit the button after the system initialization screen. On the bottom of that screen (the one where you see memory and drive initialization) you can see the sortcuts used (del for BIOS setup (generally) and maybe in your case F8 for quick boot menu).

You appear to be correct. Apparently it's an ASUS thing, the possible solution being to mash F8 again after that boot menu thing. Loud RL sigh. I think my computer is just trying to make me look stupid now.

@Crackpot

Hi, Crackpot!

May i suggest a couple of things to help troubleshoot your problem?

First we have to find out if it is a bios, hardware, or software problem.

Do you know how to run a live linux distro (Run a linux distribution from a usb pendrive)?

If you know how, you should run it and check if the problem remains.

If the problem remains it is probably a bios config or a hardware problem. If you don't notice the problem the it is most likely a windows driver or configuration problem.

Unfortunately not. It does sound like the perfect way to rule out Windows issues though. Isn't Windows safe mode supposed to do something somewhat similar to that (except it still being WIndows)?
How complicated would running a Live Linux Distro be, keeping in mind that I am easily confused and possibly not very smart?

I guess It is relatively simple. You just need and empty usb pen with more than 2gb, an iso of the linux distro you want to run and Universal USB Installer software.

You can check these 2 links. Link 1. Link 2.

Alternatively you can one of the many magazines about linux that also have a dvd with live distros.

I hope this helps.

It does seem simple, even to me. Thank you for the links. Since that appears to be a completely separate operation, I'll see if I can get it to work as soon as I get my hands on a USB stick (I should really buy one of those too, they're useful to have).


I checked inside the case again, though as I suspected, I didn't notice anything. (I wouldn't unless it's, I don't know, on fire or something. Plugs and such seem fine though and no cables are touching anything.)

Safe mode is kind of a bitch. Earlier Windows wouldn't let me use it because it insisted on re-installing the updates I had reverted with the system restore I did yesterday. Did work on the next try, though I couldn't do much as it doesn't even start audio service(s).

Question: What are the benefits of doing a system restore from safe mode, as opposed to doing it from normal windows? Just wondering.
(I realize I'm asking a lot of possibly dumb questions. I'm just trying to understand what I'm doing here, at least partially. And I'm really grateful for all the help I'm getting.)

In safe mode windows services are as few as possible, so you avoid conflicts when you try to modify files that otherwise are in use (remember the driver you cannot uninstall, maybe you can remove it in safe mode). If I remember correctly there is a prompt during windows loading time and if you select that you want to restore your system you don't even logon to it.

From your description it sounds like you are experiencing digital noise bleeding through the computer's audio hardware inside the computer. This varies from computer to computer and can be a real annoyance often with no easy solution. I get a little bit of that on my computer as well but it's not too noticeable at low volumes. Both moving the mouse and even just applications scrolling data on-screen can trigger it. I believe it might be the PCI IRQ lines or data transfers triggering the noise as I had that type of problem on a few systems in the past.

I also get a bit of the same noise out of my guitar amp which is connected to a Boss GT-Pro which is connected via USB to the computer. As long as the USB is plugged in, movement of the mouse or scrolling on screen results in digital noise coming through the speaker cabinet. I've tried various things to eliminate the noise unsuccessfully.

Unfortunately I can't think of anything helpful to suggest, but you may end up having to make drastic measures of replacing hardware or similar perhaps. Hope not, but sometimes that's the only option. ;o/

Y'know, I think that may also be solved if I could be bothered to un-install and re-install my AMD drivers and chose "Custom Installation" so I could untick the damn sound thing. Not sure why I didn't do that last time, I usually always do that. I'll see if it works in safe mode though, thanks for the suggestion and the explanation.

If that's the case, does it matter whether it's a USB or PS/2 mouse or is it just a general fault in the audio hardware?
I don't think I'd mind a hardware replacement much, if it's the sound card... there are some cheap-ish ones around, right? For now what probably bothers me most is that I don't know what's going on. Doesn't go well with the little control freak in my head.

It's most likely not the mouse at fault at all, and more likely an interference problem on the motherboard between the USB host controller bleeding noise through to the audio device somehow directly or indirectly, or the audio hardware picking up interference noise inside the computer such as from the IRQ pins. It probably wont matter what mouse you plug in or what USB port it's plugged into but you could try to change it up and look for differences.

No difference. :D I tried that at some point, following suggestions. (With USB disabled in device manager and whatnot.) Hence the question. Guess hardware will be the next thing after BIOS update and possible Windows re-install (which will still have to wait), hell, at least it's "just" the crackling and everything else is fine... so far.