This cursed crackling sound has gone on for to long. I am sick of having to hear half drowned voices and distorted sound/music every time I access WoW.

What could have caused this. I ponder the thought, and cannot come to an answer. I did nothing between when the crackling started and a few days before, when my sound was crystal clear. Except download a patch, if I remember correctly.

I have a Realtek AC97 onboard audio card, which has always done the trick for me. Not to mention, my computer runs WoW without a hitch - or, at least it did.

As I said, I changed no settings (etc) before this crackling started.

I have tried everything. Editing/deleting the WTF, toggling through the acceleration rates, changing ingame video/sound options, changing sound option on the computer itself, as well as un-installing/re-installing WoW (twice).

I was tempted to buy a new soundcard hoping it would fix this, but from a previous user of WoW who experienced these crackling noises, it was suggested not to (they had bought close to $1000 of computer equiptment/service, to no avail).

This is not a seldom occurance. Many people (including myself) are experiencing this problem, yet all the help we recieve from Blizzard Tech. Support does nothing. "Delete/edit you're WTF file", "change you're computers acceleration rate", all copy and paste references that at best, work for some.

Yes, for some of us. But not all of us. This issues needs to be looked into, and a fix needs to be implemented soon. I cannot understand how we could be all experiencing this sound defect within the same timezone. Even as I speak, I'm sure a user or two have just logged on to a haze of distorted cracklign sounds.

Please, Blizzard. Look into this issue, for the sake of all of us.

Because I for one do not want to pay for a broken game.

[ Post edited by Illidius ]

Illidius,

Are you using Windows Vista? If so turn off the vertical sync in WoW's video options. If you are not, then what are you using? Also cover the sound card, I see you named it but didn't list the driver version number you currently have installed.

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WoW Support Contacts
Technical: http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/
Billing: http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowbilling/
In-Game: http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/

Actually we are interested in this type of problems but either you have missed the replies that we made regarding some users' specific cracklings that we did manage to help fix or some articles regarding crackling noises in general. Currently I believe we have one system in-house that is exhibiting that but only on Windows Vista. Are these all AC'97 sound devices that are crackling? Which AC'97 chip are you using? SoundMAX, Realtek, C-Media, Via? Have you tried going into Windows XP's audio mixer, enabling all of the sliders and muting unneeded ones like PC Speaker or Aux In? Have you tried unplugging extra devices to see if they are causing interference?

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Technical Support
I think Khadgar got mad at people asking him for portals so he made a few permanent ones...

If you all are getting some sound crackling or some audio not pumping 5.1 correctly, try posting your World of Warcraft\Logs\sound.log file.

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Technical Support
I think Khadgar got mad at people asking him for portals so he made a few permanent ones...

We got a few people from Compatibility Team to test machines with Realtek AC'97 chips and will report back if we find something. Which AC'97 driver are you using? Are you using the one packaged with your motherboard chipset drivers (nForce Forceware x.xx) or one from the Realtek site? If you can, please provide the link to it so we can check those out.

We did find that on some systems, performance problems or an overtaxed system bus will cause onboard audios to become crackling since it is all software-based. You can try shutting off background programs and applications (http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww0558p) or try lowering some in-game video settings to see if that stops the audio from crackling.

[ Post edited by Datth ]

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Technical Support
I think Khadgar got mad at people asking him for portals so he made a few permanent ones...

For SigmaTel AC'97 chips, you may want to either update the drivers from their website (http://www.sigmatel.com/products/pcaudio/) or try adjusting the dxdiag's sound acceleration slider to see if the 2nd or 3rd notch will help you with any crackling or popping sound. Run dxdiag.exe from the Run menu then go to the Sound tab. Try playing with the sound slider there.

[ Post edited by Datth ]

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Technical Support
I think Khadgar got mad at people asking him for portals so he made a few permanent ones...