New sound card - crackling/interference

[jb223]

I've just installed an Asus Xonar DG sound card after using onboard sound for a while and I've immediately got a problem.

I started listening to some music and found that the sound quality was definitely an improvement, but then I started getting messaged on Skype and noticed that the sound alert caused the audio to crackle/cut out very briefly.
It also did the same when I clicked to go into the audio control panel which leads me to believe it could have something to do with any sort of load/CPU usage causing it.

I've tried the latest drivers from the Asus website, the drivers that came on the CD and also some "beta" type drivers that caused less latency or something.
I've also made sure everything is sitting correctly and even tried a different PCI slot. Still the same problem.

Any suggestions as to what else I could try would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[jb223]

Just a quick bump and also to add that when in games I'm getting a slight static noise in the background.

It's not very loud but it's definitely noticeable and annoying. A bit like the noise you get from playing old records.