Head scratching PC problem

[DeZmond]

Alrighty, here's a headscratcher for you. When I try to record sound on my laptop via either the mic or line-in, I get an intermittent crackle (reasonably loud) which also distorts any sound at the same time. This is independant of whether I connect a microphone or keyboard or whatever, the crackle is the same. Also, as those who've spoken to me on teamspeak will know, there is a loud buzzing noise in the background when trying to talk to me.

It has been suggested that this is a CPU problem since I don't appear to hear the crackling if I do a software playthrough (ie feed the input directly into sound output in realtime) - only when I try to record do I get this problem. This is both when using Audacity and Windows Sound Recorder.

The laptop model is Acer 5002LM (5000 series), the sound card is SiS 7012 and I have Realtek .6050 drivers installed.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ronin Storm]

Hmm, that the crackling goes away when you run in software mode would suggest, to me, that the problem is not your CPU at all. After all, doesn't software mode push the processing from the sound card to your CPU? Wouldn't that then imply that the sound card is at fault?

One possible thing to try would be to look at one of the external Soundblaster units. The older Live unit isn't very expensive.