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Audio issues after recent update to win 11 25h2. I get a click or pop before a new email notification sound, when I delete emails, etc. The popping sound also happens when I open up a youtube video or any other video saved on my PC. THIS IS VERY ANNOYING!! I tried deleting and updating the Realtek audio driver and it comes back saying I have the highest level driver. NEVER had this issue with win 10!!!
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I'm getting this problem too, but I don't have a realtek card. I don't have a solution yet. I regret updating Windows now.
Sorry to hear that---it's an issue with powering the sound/speakers on every time you need to use it and then Windows turns it off when not in use---not sure what driver you are using for your sound card, but try uninstalling the device and when prompted make sure you check the box that says attempt to remove the driver. Then restart your computer---hope this helps, because microsoft's suggestions suck!!
Microsoft states they know about the audio issues with the upgrade and there is no fix as of yet---you can try to do a system restore to get your self to the previous level/date where you did not have the problem but even their security updates have fixes that cause issues---good luck!!
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I have the same issue. My audio is distorted, i get crackling, popping, you name it. I'm on a desktop PC that i've built myself.
I've tried two different headphones, a wireless 2.4Ghz headset, 4 different audio sources (Integrated sound card, Audioquest Dragonfly Black USB Dac, Sound Blaster Z PCI-E sound card and the Steelseries Arctis 7 2019 wireless headset) and every troubleshooting method i could find online. Nothing works. No disabling audio enhancenments, switching sample rates, disabling application control, restarting services, updating drivers, changing power management whatever. Nothing works.
Microsoft just broke the audio with 25H2. It is horrible, like i cannot listen to music. Certain songs cause horrible popping, distortion and crackling. For example Mass Effect - Vigil, Mass Effect - Spectre Introduction and Uncharted Worlds. The source doesn't matter where you listen to it, be it Spotify, Youtube or whatever.
Microsoft please if you are reading this, i beg you... Please fix this. I know even doing a full re-install or reset won't fix it, because it is a problem with 25H2 update. I had 23H2 before and i didn't have any issues with audio. It is broken in the very source before it reaches all drivers or something.
You may want to try this to get back to the date that your system was working OK---https://www.supportyourtech.com/articles/how-to-do-a-system-restore-on-windows-11-a-step-by-step-guide/---
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it was changes to windows audio substack, it controls it all. Reguardless of driver, every PC has this issue. Many are too ignorant to notice or care, but its ruined gaming for many. POP* Door open Click*
Yes, very annoying---it's definitely a Usoft problem---
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The problem is after whatever update ms issued for win11, it took away the power management tab for the audio drivers. It used to be there, not any more. That was where you could turn off letting windows turn the driver on and off that caused the popping noise just before any sound was needing to be heard because the driver was in power saving mode and then woken up.
I had tried multiple older drivers from Realtek and did find one that was not affected and stayed on full time, but the downside was the audio was of a diminished quality and sounded like listening to an old 9v pocket transistor radio. After that a generic ms driver did work for a while, but another scheduled update later and it bumped to a new Realtek one and the annoying pops came back.
The simple solution is for ms to put the power management tab back for all of us who paid them for it. But that makes too much sense and would go against them leaving things alone and not messing with what was working just fine to begin with before they screwed it all up.
M G, Its actually how microsoft deals with Power for the audio substack and its latency. Was changed in 2023. Windows 11 is not officially unusable for AUDIO, Issue is not present on linux.
T G B, I still had the power management tab at the beginning of this year, 2025. As mentioned, an update took it away. If changed in 2023, I was unaffected until this year. Can't tell you how or why, it just was what it was and I was still able to deny windows of controlling my audio's driver power usage until they took that away from me.
Everyone on this post can just give up until Usoft comes up with a fix---unfortunately, they DO NOT have anyone that can come up with a solution or they just don't care!!! If a PC is in shut down, WHY would Windows turn off power to the audio???????? And you get the infamous CLICK before the PC turns off!!! Their engineers are worthless!!!!
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I have a Dell latitude 5300 amd ever since I updated to windows 11 25H2,my audio has refused to fuction,I have tried all the fixes I know and had been recommend,yet nothing is working,I have even reset my PC yet the issue is still persisting,please if you are reading this,please help this is so annoying,I need my audio please
Welcome to the club!! It's been over a month and still NO FIX from Usoft!!!!
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Same issue on my hp zbook ultra with scarlett2i2 4th gen. Audio is unusable after 25h2. Uninstall reinstall don't work. Please fix asap.
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Had the same issue.
sick and tired of these insane bugs, ive rerolled to Windows 10 22H2 and killed every single Window Update, including the broken Windows Defender Updates, as they seem to be root cause for malfunctioning audio devices.
gave me 30% more FPS in games, less network issues and especially no more sound issues.
only encounter soundpops when no sound was playing back before.
however i also no longer have insane lag using the master volume slider in the taskbar etc…
I may just go to a different OS such as Linux. No one should force you to install updates that break your machine! I could imagine all the money spent on machines just so they are supported by Windows 11, nothing really wrong with your old Win 10 box and now you have an OS that does not work and a brand new PC that also does not work!! In the early days of Windows you could tailor the OS to your needs and did NOT have updates that you are forced to install---you basically installed them at your leisure or not install at all!! Anybody contact Gates on this???
Yeah i also have a Linux distro running at this point and only a small SSD for windows.
not just is it easier to navigate in terms of systemsettings but audio devices work accordingly.
Windows 11 literally carries almost every single audio issue from Windows Vista right into Win11 and they havent really reworked the entire mess of Audio.
including audiopops, i remember that was a thing in Windows XP already with Soundcards.
But the issues that are inside of W11 are def. annoying.
let alone the whole mess of audio enhancements and virtual surround, as hidden and inaccessible everything is in this clunky OS, constantly changing these settings aint any fun.
In case any one needs to know, I had to roll back the RealTek audio driver back to a 2017 level to get the PC working again. Then, Usoft comes up with some sort of update that downloads updated RealTek drivers and it brought me back to the same level I had that had the problem! I uninstalled the driver, restarted the system and now I have a Usoft driver that installed itself as a high definition audio driver in place of the RealTek driver. It appears to have solved the issue!! Time will tell!
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I have audio issues related to both my Sound Blaster AE-7 and my Sound Blaster X4, with my Logitech Z906 5.1 speakers. When using the 3 stereo jacks (FL/FR, C/LFE, RL/RR) on both systems, I don't get even the tiniest hint of audio from the LFE. I have tried disabling audio enhancements, disabling app-related exclusive control, reinstalled the drivers/software after first uninstalling the devices in device manager, then uninstalling the drivers for both devices, and uninstalling and reinstalling both Sound Blaster Command (for AE-7) and Creative App (For X4), and even tried using one device while the other is disabled in device manager. Again, NO BASS! I also don't get bass from my Beyerdynamic headphones.
The ONLY way I am able to get bass now is on the Sound Blaster X4, when I connect it to my Z906 via Optical and selecting Dolby Digital Live in the Windows settings for SPDIF (as it is passing raw audio to the decoder, without Windows processing the bass, and losing said bass in the process, as it does for analog audio). I can't do this on the AE-7 as it can only use 5.1 audio via optical for direct bitstreaming, and therefore I could only get surround sound on DVD's with DD5.1 and Blu-Rays with DTS5.1 codecs, while everything else plays in 2.0 stereo.
On top of that, Windows 11 25H2 has messed with the RGB on my Keyboard (Steelseries Apex 7), caused the dimming on my ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACMS monitor to flicker, and not respond properly in both HDR and SDR modes, causes my games and OS to run in fast-forward, with stuttering (by messing with the timers of my i9-14900KF CPU, and/or messing with my RTX 3070), and is giving me artifacts in both the OS and in games. Sometimes, when booting up, I get artifacts on the desktop, and Windows says "Your PC has encountered a problem and needs to be restarted", followed by a PC restart. This happens even after an in-place repair of the OS so it is the OS itself that is broken, not an issue with settings. I tried all the workarounds I could find through googling, and NONE of them worked AT ALL!
It seems EVERY core component of Windows 11 25H2 is completely, totally, and utterly broken!
Yes, Microsoft will NEVER fix this annoying issue that started with version 24H2!!
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This issue cannot be fixed, It was introduced in early 2023. In both 11 and 10.
I Have yet to run into a windows machine where its audio doesn't pop and crackle when pausing or the end of certain audio frequencies.
Tried 10+ PCs (I do PC Repairs)
in different properties
Different drivers
Different peripherals.
No changes to bios or power management/PCI link will fix this.
Move to linux, I have had enough of Windows focusing on AI while their OS has become unusable for many games with audio for nearly 3 years. They butchered the sub stack.
Windows engineers will try and reinstall drivers and change your power management, then tell you, your Hardware is faulty.
What is every PC faulty now?
Just poor effort from MS.
It's definitely a power management issue---Windows turns on the power to the audio when used and you hear the pop/click and then it turns it off soon enough if audio is not used again---according to Dell, the RealTek Driver is not compatible with my machine but that is what Win11 forces to install---again, the updates for win11 24h2 and 25h2 created the issue because I did not have the problem under 23h2---when I rolled back the RealTek driver it got changed to a Usoft driver---driver date 3/22/25 version 10.0.26100.3624---this driver appears to work until you turn the PC off---while it shuts down you will hear the pop/click right before it goes off---why the hell does Usoft wants to turn off the power off to the audio right before the machine shuts down is beyond me---I worked as a computer engineer for 25 years and there would of been a lot of people fired for crap like this happening to our end users!!!
Annoying part is, no Driver fixes this. and its been a problem for 3 years.
What's really annoying is the solutions that the Usoft staff suggest!!
Yes they gaslight you into saying its faulty hardware, MS support costed me over £2000 in thee past few years with hardware. Came to accept the company has fell of in quality, Will be moving to steamOS
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Popping sound is mostly related to power management when the audio chip "wakes" up from sleep. As laptops get thinner and thinner, they have to get more aggressive in forcing everything not currently using to sleep. So to "fix" your problem, go through everything related to power management - from BIOS update to chipset driver update to audio driver update to windows os update to dialing the os power management to a lesser aggressive mode.
Yes it's a power management issue created by the upgrade---same issue on desktop PC's---except I have nothing turning off or going to sleep---just another annoyance created by Microsoft---
It's not the issue as you state---I am running Winn11 server edition on a Dell 5820 that gets updated constantly by Dell---Microsoft forces you to install updates that do not work and causes all kinds of issues---I was at win 11 24H2 and everything was fine until Microsoft made me go to 24H2 (repair version) and then 25H2---that's when the issue started---Microsoft's update system sucks because again, you are forced to download updates that destroy your PC---
You basically are repeating what Microsoft says. "nEw DriVeRs"
Bruh every PC no matter driver or DAC will have this issue. been a issue for nearly 3 years. No matter mobo or bios or driver or power management.
