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lonewolfay's avatar
lonewolfay
New Rookie
8 years ago

Running the sims 4 causes speakers to make popping noises

Hello everyone!

I tried searching for a thread or known issue of this, but I have not. Whenever the Sims 4 is loaded and is my active full screen application, my speakers and headphones make annoying popping sounds. I tend to play music from my Google Play or itunes in the background, so that is how I noticed the noises. When my Sims 4 is minimized with audio focus checked on, the popping noises go away and my music plays just fine.

In game, I have set the sound quality set to low. On my computer, I have set the lowest bit depth (16 bit, CD quality) when in shared mode, and I have both boxes checked on for exclusive mode. I made these changes after I noticed the noises, as they were happening with a higher bit depth in shared mode, and with exclusive mode unchecked. (Btw, I have Windows 10 64 bit)

As for other troubleshooting I have tried, I have repaired the game at least twice by now, I updated my sound driver, and I even have Origin in-game off (notifications, voice chat...like everything off).

At this point, I'm not sure what else to do ☹️. I just know that the popping sounds are annoying and this momma just wants to kick back and play my game with peace of mind ☹️

pc

2 Replies

  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    Hero (Retired)
    8 years ago
    It seems that your soundcard can not handle two sound streams at once. You can try with an updated sound driver. That may help.
  • TheSteelRodent's avatar
    TheSteelRodent
    8 years ago

    This is a known bug. Occasionally something glitches and the sound breaks, causing the game sounds to play as pops. Your sound settings shouldn't make any difference on a computer that's less than 10 years old (channel and quality settings are only for VERY old computers that typically aren't even able to run the game).

    Normally you can temporarily resolve the problem by restarting the game, but there is no way to prevent it from reoccuring. Unfortunately there's normally no error message or anything logged to help track down what causes the sound to break.

    EDIT: You may want to contact the support for the music players you use. There may be a way they can help as your problems seems to come from having multiple sounds playing at once.

    Normally playing music from another program in the background makes no difference (especially if you use proper players like  iTunes or WinAmp), but I am not familiar with how Google or Spotify etc. play their music. They may be locked to specific sound channels that conflict with the channels Sims 4 use. Any modern DSP (the soundchip in your computer) has 255 sound channels and the programs are supposed to request channels that aren't in use.

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