I bought a new Lenovo gaming PC and when I plugged in my external sound card via USB, my speaker started crackling. After a couple of days of googling I tried different things but they did not work. What I tried:
- Plugging in my soundcard into another laptop (works fine)
- Plugging in a different sound card into my gaming pc (crackling sound appears)
- Tried different USB ports (still crackling)
- Tried using a USB hub (still crackling)
- Used another USB cable (still crackling)
- Tried to change the minimum power settings of my CPU (from 5% to 100%). Did not work
- Updated BIOS, Windows, sound card drivers
- Changed the power settings of Realtek from the Windows registry (regedit)
- Thought it might be a grounding issue so I plugged the PC chord into another socket.
- I changed my HDMI cable just in case it was interfering.
- Edited the sound settings (disabled enhancements and exclusive mode)
What does work:
- Plugging in headphones via a USB port works fine
- When the sound card is plugged in, all sound coming from the PC is fine but the crackling still remains in the background.
I really like my PC and I do not want to send it back. However, I have seen similar issues in the forums of Lenovo. I am running out of ideas and any suggestions are very welcome.
One thought on the grounding issue: my pc is standing on my desk, next to my monitor. Is there anything I can do to avoid any excess voltage/current coming out of it?
My devices:
- Lenovo Legion T5 26AMR5
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen)
- BENQ 35" curved monitor