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My USB mouse—an unknown trackball model made by Logitech—has, as of a recent system rebuild (I used Windows 8’s “refresh your computer” feature), begun making my audio crackle. I did some research and it seems Realtek soundcards—such as my own—are known for having crackling and popping issues with various causes.

In my case, whenever my trackball is moved, the soundcard seemingly hangs for a second or so; I watched the amplitude meter on the volume control and noticed that it stopped moving. I suspect that the mouse driver is responsible for the interference, especially since momentarily unplugging the mouse from the USB port, at least until Windows makes a noise acknowledging the hardware change, makes the noise stop for a while.

Another thing suggesting a driver problem: one of the programs I use, the BlueStacks App Player, starts experiencing sound lag.

Does anyone have a possible solution?

Update: the mouse is a Logitech Marble Mouse USB. It's model number is t-bc21...something-rather (the receipt wore off)

a lot of the information for the computer's built-in hardware is available on its OEM page

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  • At the very least, I should be able to get my dad to check the model number on the box my mouse came in when he gets home from work tomorrow. I would check it myself, but I can't find it and he had it last. In the meantime, I suppose I could check various device properties. I will update the question if I find anything. Also, thank you for correcting my question's grammar. Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 0:47
  • Most of these audio cards have a equalisation, and compression features, you could test via Control pannel/Sound/Playback tab, select the speakers and check both the levels and "enhancements" disable (temporarily) all effects. Then Via the various Volume adjustments in levels, and on the desktop , it is preferable to turn the levels of your amplified speakers (or headphones) down, and to turn all the "software" levels up. This way the actual sounds are at a good level (signal) and the data movement (noise) is not being turned up so much. it is unlikely to be fixed by changing a driver.
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 1:04
  • Check that your wiring is solidly connected. If it is burping popping, check cpu utalisation & Cpu frequency (resmon) during the occurances. when there is a lot of "processing" going on via sound effects , and mixes (windows sound mixing software mostly for realtec chips) Very high cpu use , could be conflicting with smooth processing of the audio, although the audio work is easy, and audio is given priority, a choked or throttled system might make burping popping.
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 1:22

2 Answers 2

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This is a hardware problem and so will not be easily solved in any way but with a change in hardware. You need to put physical and electrical distance between the mouse and the speaker output. How easily this can be done depends on what you already own.

The easiest way I found to fix this is with a USB audio adapter. They can be bought for something like $20 and they are about as "plug-n-play" as devices can get. You may already have one and don't realize it. If you have a smartphone with a USB-C headset, and a USB-C port on your computer, then you can at least test this theory by plugging in the phone headset to the computer. It is theoretically possible for this noise to find it's way back out the USB audio adapter but so far this worked for me for the dozen or so times I came across this issue.

Because the mouse noise is entering from the mouse into the USB port there's no fixing this with a new mouse. Anything that looks like a mouse to the computer will generate the same noise, because all mice will be "speaking the same language", and peaking this into the same USB bus.

Another thing to try would be using Bluetooth, for the mouse or the audio out. If you have Bluetooth on the computer and a Bluetooth headset or speaker for your phone then you can test this as a means to get audio out without buying anything. I know Bluetooth mice are a bit hard to find, and some so-called "Bluetooth mice" are actually using something very different, something that will not solve the problem because they still send a mouse signal into the computer, not a Bluetooth signal.

If you have PS/2 or serial ports then maybe you can try those for connecting the mouse. This sometimes work, sometimes makes it worse. If you have a serial mouse in a spare parts drawer then try it, if not then I would not suggest going out to buy one as they will be rare, expensive, and often junky. All versions of Windows I've seen will handle a serial mouse, and do it plug-n-play style. Plug it in, wiggle the mouse a bit to create traffic on the port, and then the OS detects it, installs drivers, and off you go.

There's likely many other things to try beyond what I listed but I'm already getting into some crazy stuff to try. Start with whatever bits you have on hand to isolate the problem, and if that doesn't work then try to keep the extra hardware spending to a minimum.

I realize this is an old question but I still see things like this come up once in a while.

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uninstall realtek driver in device manager.> disable realtek driver>

if problem persists you have to be very thorough - delete realtek driver or uninstall and disable, download older microsoft drivers called 'surface HD audio' im not getting links for you.

install older drivers "i have disk" option install an older version of your nvidia graphics drivers and dont get geforce experience. take off all battery saving settings if you can find them all

thats where im at, still hearing it... though. so it may be a case of restarting alot, and cleaning out the registry too.. go to regedit.exe and find anything realtek and just delete it. (current user, AND local machine) software>realtek>RAV6 and everything realtek, just delete it

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