Crackling sound in Zoom & Skype after 20 minutes with Catalina, Bootcamp, and Windows 10

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Crackling sound in Zoom & Skype after 20 minutes with Catalina, Bootcamp, and Windows 10

MacBook Pro 15.2 (Mid-2018 13" (Touch Bar)) running Catalina (OS X 10.15.4) with Windows 10 (10.0.18363) under BootCamp (6.1.0). Totally fresh install of everything this week.

When running Zoom or Skype under Win10 everything is fine for the first 20 minutes, and then people on the other side start hearing increasingly crackling or scratchy sound coming from this machine, which gets worse and worse for about 5 minutes, and then slowly goes back to normal.

Before latest Win10 updates, was able to restart AudioSRV when it's bad, and that fixes it temporarily. Resetting the SMC (Method 1 from this article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295) also fixes it until the next reboot. After Win10 updates AudioSRV is gone and resetting the replacement AVCTP service has no effect.

This only happens under bootcamp, not under the native MacOS, so it's not a physical problem. Have noticed this on two different machines under bootcamp. On one it only happens when on Wi-Fi. On this one, it happens both on Wi-Fi and (with Wi-Fi off) on Ethernet (with a USB-C to Ethernet adapter).

Happens under both Zoom and Skype (and, I think, MS Teams). If you restart the session, it's good for another 20 minutes and then gets bad again.

Seems like an audio driver issue.

Looking for suggestions! Thanks in advance!

MacBook

Posted on May 16, 2020 3:58 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 16, 2020 7:37 PM in response to DavidTechie

DavidTechie wrote:

I found Microsoft support documents about this problem, but the solutions had to do with re-installing the sound drivers and they were not followable due to not having a Catalina disk with a bootcamp folder on it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2622620/troubles https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/fx

See Download and install Windows support software on your Mac - Apple Support for reference. Be aware that these drivers may be older.

But in any case, this was all a fresh install this week, and it works perfectly on the Mac side, so reinstalling bootcamp, or the MacOS sound drivers does not seem fruitful. I have this issue on two different MBPs. And this post on Reddit comfirms more people are having this exact issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/fx094c/boot_camp_static_mic/

I have two late 2013 rMBPs (W10 1511 is the original install) and a 2014 iMac (W10 1809v2 is the original install), on which there are no audio issues on the macOS or Bootcamp side. BT headsets with Microphones work correctly. Apple AirpodsPros do not work properly (no microphone) on the Bootcamp side on any T2-based Mac (2018 rMBP and a 2018 Mini). Macs running macOS Sierra or older behave much better with W10, compared to 2015-2020 Macs running macOS High Sierra/Mojave/Catalina. It pains me to see such needless issues. You can also try the Apple Software Update as noted in the Reddit thread.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 16, 2020 4:37 PM in response to DavidTechie

Most Apple T2-based Macs have audio issues on the Bootcamp side. If you search on this forum, you can find many examples. Let me know if you need links to specific discussions.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 19, 2020 10:03 AM in response to DavidTechie

On 2019-2020 Macs, I would not recommend an external dongle. It causes new issues with BT/WiFi.

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Answer 4

DavidTechie Author

Level 1

10 points

May 17, 2020 4:59 PM in response to Loner T

I will try this. Thank you! =d=

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Answer 5

DavidTechie Author

Level 1

10 points

May 16, 2020 7:00 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you for responding! I have looked through all of them that I could find. Most were not applicable as they had sound that did not work at all (i.e. speaker issues) and this is a microphone driver issue (I think). I spent 75 minutes on the phone with Apple today about this and the best they could come up with was "call Microsoft". I found Microsoft support documents about this problem, but the solutions had to do with re-installing the sound drivers and they were not followable due to not having a Catalina disk with a bootcamp folder on it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2622620/troubleshoot-sound-problems-on-windows-with-boot-camp

But in any case, this was all a fresh install this week, and it works perfectly on the Mac side, so reinstalling bootcamp, or the MacOS sound drivers does not seem fruitful. I have this issue on two different MBPs. And this post on Reddit comfirms more people are having this exact issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/fx094c/boot_camp_static_mic/

Thoughts?

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Answer 6

DavidTechie Author

Level 1

10 points

May 19, 2020 9:57 AM in response to Loner T

Hello again! Looked through the Apple post, and they list a lot of issues, but not the one that I am having (on two machines), so I was reluctant to do this and get older drivers and potentially break something else. I discovered that if you use an external (USB) microphone, the problem doesn't happen, so that client took the machine back and will try that. Thank you for your assistance!

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Answer 7

DavidTechie Author

Level 1

10 points

May 19, 2020 10:19 AM in response to Loner T

I have a device that plugs in on the right side. It plugs into both USB-C ports and give me 2 x USB-C, 2 x USB3, 1 x HDMI. So far no problems that I have noticed. What problems have you seen?

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Crackling sound in Zoom & Skype after 20 minutes with Catalina, Bootcamp, and Windows 10

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