Audio Crackling/Stuttering with Z390 - Catalina

[Didcot2200]

I've recently rebuilt my hackintosh & installed 10.15.3 (Catalina) & everything is working as expected - i've used this build & this clover setup. However, i'm now noticing subtle crackling in the AUDIO over Bluetooth AND DisplayPort. It subtle and frequency is around every few minute(for a second or 2); its like a 'stuttering' noise when listening to music. A reboot seems to reduce the frequency as does resource utilization (CPU/RAM) seems to increase frequency.. Stopping the machine sleeping also seems to reduce the frequency. Its not a showstopper but it very annoying when listening to music.

I'm not overclocking and using BIOS (F10) & optimized settings.

Any thoughts. I've looked at the below thread & nothing has helped The integrated graphics has been disabled and there are no serial/parallel ports on this board.)

<< Solved >> - Crackling audio under Catalina

Is anyone else experiencing crackling audio? It seems to happen when switching windows and scrolling. It also seems to get progressively worse. Its usually fine for a while and then starts happening. It manifests in a small crackle with my built in sound. My Apogee Quartet gets so bad that its...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I've recently rebuilt my hackintosh & installed 10.15.3 (Catalina) & everything is working as expected - i've used this build & this clover setup. However, i'm now noticing subtle crackling in the AUDIO over Bluetooth AND DisplayPort. It subtle and frequency is around every few minute(for a second or 2); its like a 'stuttering' noise when listening to music. A reboot seems to reduce the frequency as does resource utilization (CPU/RAM) seems to increase frequency.. Stopping the machine sleeping also seems to reduce the frequency. Its not a showstopper but it very annoying when listening to music.

I'm not overclocking and using BIOS (F10) & optimized settings.

Any thoughts. I've looked at the below thread & nothing has helped The integrated graphics has been disabled and there are no serial/parallel ports on this board.)

<< Solved >> - Crackling audio under Catalina

Is anyone else experiencing crackling audio? It seems to happen when switching windows and scrolling. It also seems to get progressively worse. Its usually fine for a while and then starts happening. It manifests in a small crackle with my built in sound. My Apogee Quartet gets so bad that its...

www.tonymacx86.com

Hi there.

How did you set up audio? The guide you followed does not, at first glance, seem to install any audio kexts.

 

[Didcot2200]

Hi there.

How did you set up audio? The guide you followed does not, at first glance, seem to install any audio kexts.

Thanks for the response - i'm simply using their kext that was in the git repo & which is 'AppleALC'. I have done nothing other than copy their kext files.. The sound worked stuttering free just for a full 2 hours without any distortion so i had hoped it was the machine going to sleep but started up again (a lot less frequent but still noticeable). Also thought it could be spotify and/or chrome (as scrolling in chrome seems to enhance the stuttering) but have since eliminated both applications by hearing it without either of these applications being used or open

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Thanks for the response - i'm simply using their kext that was in the git repo & which is 'AppleALC'. I have done nothing other than copy their kext files.. The sound worked stuttering free just for a full 2 hours without any distortion so i had hoped it was the machine going to sleep but started up again (a lot less frequent but still noticeable). Also thought it could be spotify and/or chrome (as scrolling in chrome seems to enhance the stuttering) but have since eliminated both applications by hearing it without either of these applications being used or open

Okay

How is audio just as a straight wired speaker or headphone output?

Trying to get to the bottom of this needs some digging. There's a difference between mouse noise and interference, for example. For a modern motherboard like yours with an ALC1220 chip, Lilu and AppleALC together should work fine. You only need to discover the correct Audio ID, which you have already as you do get an output.

USB connected mice, wireless or wired, are known to cause noise during movement such as scrolling on occasions. The only way around this is to change USB port, or mouse.

Interference can be like radio crosstalk caused by unshielded components like, say, an extra wifi adapter (as you have built-in, incompatible Intel wifi) close to the audio codec.

Experimentation should help you identify what the problem is.

 

[Didcot2200]

Okay

How is audio just as a straight wired speaker or headphone output?

Trying to get to the bottom of this needs some digging. There's a difference between mouse noise and interference, for example. For a modern motherboard like yours with an ALC1220 chip, Lilu and AppleALC together should work fine. You only need to discover the correct Audio ID, which you have already as you do get an output.

USB connected mice, wireless or wired, are known to cause noise during movement such as scrolling on occasions. The only way around this is to change USB port, or mouse.

Interference can be like radio crosstalk caused by unshielded components like, say, an extra wifi adapter (as you have built-in, incompatible Intel wifi) close to the audio codec.

Experimentation should help you identify what the problem is.

Thanks - radio/electrical crosstalk is the type of distortion I'm hearing (& when you have the audio wires too close to an electrical cable). However, Regarding the 'output', it is over both Bluetooth & Displayport & i'll confirm with 3.5mm audio out as well just to gather more data.

Good idea about the (defunct) wifi chip on the board - i'll see what i can disable in BIOS. Also, thanks for the heads-up about the audio codec on the motherboard; i didn't expect it to be hardware related so something to also test with..

My setup has me using both the apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Bluetooth trackpad.

I'll also try and see if the logs are pumping anything out when the distortion occurs..

 

[Didcot2200]

Hey Guys - Update. Moved a few components around on the MB to see if it was 'crosstalk' but same issue so i reverted to a previous kext setup along with Majove and everything is now perfect - that implies its an issue with either the new kexts OR catalina (or both) - I'm not that bothered with not running Catalina as now i've a gold setup and not spending any more time trying to resolve giving the intermittent nature of the issue - may try again in a few months but for now the issue is resolved for me.

Thanks @UtterDisbelief for your time on this.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hey Guys - Update. Moved a few components around on the MB to see if it was 'crosstalk' but same issue so i reverted to a previous kext setup along with Majove and everything is now perfect - that implies its an issue with either the new kexts OR catalina (or both) - I'm not that bothered with not running Catalina as now i've a gold setup and not spending any more time trying to resolve giving the intermittent nature of the issue - may try again in a few months but for now the issue is resolved for me.

Thanks @UtterDisbelief for your time on this.

Good news!

Agreed. No need to update macOS - unless there's a specific reason. Though I do have a Catalina install running fine, my daily driver is High Sierra because I need 32-bit support.

 

[Kentakoong]

Yeah, and this is happening in Big Sur too. It's a shame, like every 10 minutes or so, the audio would stutters or the audio would loop like crazy. Is there a resolve to this, it really annoys me.