Audio stutters and creates static

Recently, I have gotten an ASUS notebook as a gift and I've noticed that there is one big issue with it. Whenever I stream music from Spotify or watch a movie on Netflix, the audio begins to create a crackling static noise. The issue with the stuttering is whenever I have something playing in the background such as Spotify, whenever I begin to switch tabs or load a new site, the audio begins to stutter and mess up. I don't know what the problem is. I've tried updating my drivers. I've tried changing the default playback on my playback device as well but to no avail. My computer has the Realtek High Definition Audio driver. I have heard that Realtek drivers and ASUS machines don't usually function well together but I am not sure if that's the case. Any one know anything that might help?

I have a desktop with an ASUS motherboard and RealTek and no problems. I have not seen any trend of RealTek problems with an Asus laptop.

One thing that is a know contributor to crackling/popping is Wi-Fi. If possible connect that using a wired internet connection and see if you have the same problems.

Another issue is other drivers (e.g. video).

Memory (amount) can be another possible issue.

Finally, sound is always on a shared Interrupt (IRQ) with a higher priority device and the higher priority device, in some cases, can cause interruptions in the audio (stuttering).

So Fireberd, if it were to be caused by any of the issues you listed above (i.e. higher priority device) how would I fix this? Thank you for your time.

Windows automatically assigns the IRQ's. In XP there was a way to change the IRQ but I haven't found any way to do that in Vista/Win7/Win8. However, one thing you can try; go to the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the RealTek Sound and then LEFT click "Uninstall" DO NO uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. Sometimes, the reinstall will put it on a different shared IRQ.

Oh I see. Thanks. One more question, is there a possibility that it could be a hardware issue?

Scratch that. It seems to be working now for the most part since I have updated to Windows 8.1. I'll keep this thread posted if the problem persists.

8.1 fixes a lot of things. Maybe it will take care of it.