Here, you can download sounds and sound schemes for all Windows versions. I'm not spending $200 for an audio card every time MS comes out with a new OS. If they can NOT make drivers for my 2 year old card that I paid $200 for, well, I guess I will be using the onboard sound that comes on the mobo. Many USB cards help reduce popping, static and crackling from original recordings for high-quality sound through the speakers. External cards with monitor and echo volume controls let users control the sound coming through the speakers and headphones. If the crackling stops than doing the above will probably help. You might turn UAC off first and try the game.
Don't really want to be the guinea pig on this! I only experienced the crackling very briefly once before and I was lucky enough not to blow my speakers. I haven't done any testing to see if it fixes the issue. There is indeed a new Cirrus Logic sound driver dated.
