Terrible crackling sound (new Acer Spin 5)

ronanski

The sound from my laptop speakers became awfully crackly and distorted. It has happened twice now. The first time only briefly, but just now it wouldn't stop and I had to close all sound related programmes and reopen to get sound working properly again, which is obviously not a feasible solution. Unfortunately seems a common issue with Acer laptops, but I didn't see any thread with the issue on this model, and didn't really understand much of the responses anyway. Can someone shed some light? Should I return the laptop? (only have few days to decide).

billsey

I haven't heard of it, so not too common. What apps are you running that are doing audio? It's possible that one of them is stepping on toes. It could also be bad power, though that's usually a low static roar instead of crackling. It's less likely but possible that one of the other of the speakers isn't plugged in fully... The only sound issues I've seen with my Spin 5 is when I get it fully into tablet mode the sound gets muddy, because the back of the screen is covering the speaker grid holes.

ronanski

So it was Spotify yesterday when it happened. The first time it happened briefly with sound from a game, either on chrome or Microsoft edge cant remember which. What do you mean by bad power? It wasn't low battery if that's what you mean. It was definitely crackling. And what do you mean by other speakers. I am just using the in built laptop speakers, nothing is plugged in.

Commodore_1995#

This problem occurred after some windows update. Microsoft is investigating a similar problem after a windows update causes sound problems.

Easwar

Hi ronanski,

# Try to update the sound driver

1. Hold windows key and hit letter X.
2. Choose the device manager option.
3. Go with the option sound.
4. Under the title sound.

5. Right click on that option ----> Update all driver under the title sound.
6. Choose "search automatically". 

Check this T/S and post the result. ​

billsey

Bad power would be either a power supply that was failing or the power from the wall was fluctuating more than the supply could adjust for. Either case can provide the right voltage to the laptop, but with lots of noise. That noise is what causes crackling or static in the audio. Other speakers would be external speakers plugged into the speaker jack and would help determine if the issue is in the builtin speakers or elsewhere in the sound system.