@Nekotrapboy Please try unplugging any audio device you have, and play with only the laptop's speakers (just as a test). If you still get the crackling, try headphones, but again, with nothing else plugged in. I'm curious whether this is an issue of multiple devices or drivers not working well together.
If you get the crackling in both cases, please try playing in a clean boot:
Hello, I'm having the same problem after installing the hot fix on the 17th. Even the start up music is all crackly. My sims sound like Darth Vader 😭😭
The first suggestion worked as the sound was okay with my laptop speakers and when I plugged in my headset the crackling and popping started again.
An idea came into mind as I have three audio playback devices the problem was with my THX spatial audio as seen in the screenshot below. So when making my Razer Kraken Ultimate my default communications and playback device the audio seems to work like intend.
The game doesn't lag on start up or the game audio doesn't sound like pouring milk on rice krispies.
Thanks again for your help and solutions.
I went to Origin and repaired my game and reloaded my game. Worked for awhile but now I've gone to play another house and the crackling is back. Not sure about rice krispies, my toddler sounds like a Vader but. I'm just doing another repair to see if that fixes it. I'm no PC expert.
@Nekotrapboy Thanks for the info, it's super helpful.
@lydzworld80 If the second repair doesn't help, try changing your default sound output device, as shown in @Nekotrapboy's post above.
Just wanted to provide some more info to this. I'm having exactly the same problem with crackling/popping audio, and it also effects any other audio on the computer whilst sims is running (e.g. trying to watch a video at the same time on a second monitor).
I've managed find the source and it only happens when I'm using the Razer AppEngine for surround sound, without this active the audio is fine, so I'm not sure if there's an incompatibility with this somewhere?
@NodrogJRB It's entirely possible that the Razer software isn't getting along with Sims 4 overall right now. You could look for software updates, or report the issue on the Razer forums, but other than that, I'm not sure there's much you can do on your end, at least not now.
Hello all! I figured out the problem myself... FINALLY! So I was having this problem for a long time and fixed it by accident. So if you have Windows 10, here's the problem & fix..
We MUST enable Windows Sonic for Headphones so that it tricks your computer into using those codex to process the sound. (Windows Sonic Spatial Sound is free to use) I turned my audio all the way up to Studio Quality 192000 hz and it sounds crystal clear and perfect, but it helped all the different frequency options so go with what works on your PC.
What you'd need to do is open up your audio properties, by right clicking on the audio icon on your Windows Task bar, it looks like a little speaker icon. From there, you'd choose "Spatial Sound with Windows Sonic" and hover over that, to be able to then click the option "Windows Sonic for Headphones". It'll still play the sound from whatever speakers you have setup on your PC.
What causes this: It seems for some reason those of us with higher end spec computers and audio (my Dell XPS 27 for instance has 4 speakers, a subwoofer and 2 radiators) have problems with the way audio is processed in the background, so by shifting that to Windows Sonic it corrected the issue. I haven't had any lag or other issues arise from this.
I just got a new laptop for Christmas and it's having the same issues, only it's with my laptop speakers and I don't have any other speakers to use. I can only use Windows Sonic when my headphones are on and it doesn't fix my laptop's speaker at all. Do you have any idea how to help? It's to the point that every time I launch the game all my sounds are replaced with popping and it's very frustrating.
@Ublekk Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
here
@Ublekk Try disabling GCU Bridge, which should show up in the Task Manager, before you play. I don't think this should have any negative impact on how your computer runs, but if it does, just reboot and the process will restart automatically.
If that doesn't help, let Windows look for updates to your audio and sound device drivers. Hit Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, open the Audio section, click on each entry in turn, and click the green and black Update button at the top of the screen. Repeat for the Sound section. Restart your computer before playing.
I opened task manager and it said I didn't have any programs running. I looked to update the audio and sound, but it said everything was up to date for everything I tried. At that time, an update was available for my computer and I did that, after that, the game worked for the rest of the day, but I just tried to play it again and It's doing the cracking sound AGAIN. I even looked for any optional updates and used one, but it did nothing for the game. Is there anything else I could try?
@Ublekk Is it possible that some application (like GCU Bridge) is only opening when you launch the game? I've never used it myself, so I don't know enough about how it works. At any rate, you can load the game to the Main Menu, put it in windowed or windowed fullscreen mode, and alt-tab back to the Task Manager to have a look.
this is it! i have the razer surround sound app engine aswell, i honestly was about to give up until i saw your comment and disabled my razer surround sound and my sims work perfectly now! The horrid sounds are gone! thank you SO much!
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