Speakers make popping/ crackling sounds on top volume

[borka105]

So I've joined the Surface 2 club and what a day it has been. I've gone through 5 Surfaces because of issues (loose volume rocker being the major culprit). The current one I have still has this issue, but I've decided I've got no choice here.

The first Surface 2 I got this morning actually was perfect physically (the only one), but I noticed crackling/ popping sounds when listening to audio/ video with the volume turned all the way up (no headphones). I assumed the Surface was defective which caused the whole fiasco I have been through today.

Well all 5 Surfaces I touched today had this issue with the sound coming from the speakers (only at the highest volume settings).

It seems to me like this must be a software issue especially if every Surface I touched today has it.

My hope is that a firmware update will solve this issue...

 

[SopranoSV]

The quality of the files might also affect...

 

[borka105]

No files. I was listening to a video on CNET. If you watch any review on top volume you should hear it.

 

[troykm]

Having this issue as well. No idea what to do about it. Mine does nit even have to be all the way up. About 80 will start doing it

 

[EMINENT]

This is something I noticed too. Mostly happens when there are sounds like "ch" or "s". Only at upper volumes. I guess it's just the speakers clipping from being too high.

I don't remember this on my Surface Pro. They are different speakers though. I'll check this out and report back later.

 

[borka105]

It has me worried because I don't know if I should just return the damn thing and wait a bit to buy a new one, or if this is actually a software issue. If I know for certain it was a software issue then I could live with it because I assume they will release a patch for it.

 

[ctitanic]

Yesterday a patch with a new sound driver was released. Was this fix it?

 

[borka105]

Nope.. issue still exists. I just re-watched the same video on CNET and still heard the crackle sound...

 

[ctitanic]

No files. I was listening to a video on CNET. If you watch any review on top volume you should hear it.

This has been reported by many users. It happens mostly when streaming movies from the web. If you download the same movie and play it from the device the sound is good. That makes me believe that it's a software issue. One workaround, in case that this bothers you a lot is to go into the sounds property in control panel and disable the Sounds enhancements feature. This will fix the issue but make the sound volume lower.

 

[borka105]

No, I just listened to the music app and I hear the same static and crackling sounds. This is now seriously concerning me... is this a bad batch of Surfaces or does every device have this issue. I have no idea how a device could be released with this issue..

 

[ctitanic]

No, I just listened to the music app and I hear the same static and crackling sounds. This is now seriously concerning me... is this a bad batch of Surfaces or does every device have this issue. I have no idea how a device could be released with this issue..

Well, in this case I think it's a driver issue. The old RT suffered from the same issue at the beginning and was fixed with a driver update.

 

[ctitanic]

We are posting on NVIDIA site about it too.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...drivers/surface-2-drivers-contantly-crashing/

NVIDIA is the owner of those drivers and the only one that can give Microsoft a fix. So let's them know that they screwed big time.