I was was flying earlier today and my computer kept making a crackling or staticish noise every few minutes. It was definitely from FSX. Then later in approach Black Squares appeared on the ground.

Did you reboot the computer to see if that fixed it? The black squares sometimes means that a texture file, like a light, is corrupt and/or missing (in your effects folder). Could also be a system/vid card memory issue, or an issue with a conflict in your system (maybe sound card and some other device?). Hard to tell until you give your pc specs...