I never had the issue with Windows 10 and 2020 or MSFS, in December of 24 I upgraded to W11 24H2 and the problem was there in both 2020 and MSFS. I then downgraded to W11 23H2 prior to November of 24 and have paused updates. I have never had the issue since then. I just continue to push the Pause updates out until Microsoft figures out what the problem is. I am 100% that it is an issue that was brought in on Windows around December of 24, something does not play well with 2020 or MSFS. 

3 hours ago, jjeffreys said:

I never had the issue with Windows 10 and 2020 or MSFS, in December of 24 I upgraded to W11 24H2 and the problem was there in both 2020 and MSFS. I then downgraded to W11 23H2 prior to November of 24 and have paused updates. I have never had the issue since then. I just continue to push the Pause updates out until Microsoft figures out what the problem is. I am 100% that it is an issue that was brought in on Windows around December of 24, something does not play well with 2020 or MSFS. 

I also think it started happening to me since W11 24H2. Can I go back to the previous version of Windows 11 or is it too late?

I did some testing.

Fenix A320 flying around London a big PG area.

When using Auto FPS if I allow the TLOD to get up into the 400 area I see red spikes more agressively on the main thread and will then see a big fat one resulting in the audio pop and stutter. This happens every 60 to 90 seconds sometimes longer but it happens, I also see a red spike in the download box at the same time.

I ticked on the box that reduces the TLOD to 200 and now the red spikes are much occuring much less and I dont get the big one anymore so no audio pops now.. I managed a whole circumfrence of London with no pops. There must be some correlation between downloading more information and the majn thread getting overwhelmed and it causes that stutter.

Will test more but wondered if anyone else has noticed this correlation?

 

H.

It is not too late to downgrade, I used this guide:

 

Edited October 28, 2025Oct 28 by jjeffreys

19 hours ago, Hamish100 said:

I did some testing.

Fenix A320 flying around London a big PG area.

When using Auto FPS if I allow the TLOD to get up into the 400 area I see red spikes more agressively on the main thread and will then see a big fat one resulting in the audio pop and stutter. This happens every 60 to 90 seconds sometimes longer but it happens, I also see a red spike in the download box at the same time.

I ticked on the box that reduces the TLOD to 200 and now the red spikes are much occuring much less and I dont get the big one anymore so no audio pops now.. I managed a whole circumfrence of London with no pops. There must be some correlation between downloading more information and the majn thread getting overwhelmed and it causes that stutter.

Will test more but wondered if anyone else has noticed this correlation?

 

H.

I have the same suspicion.  Clearly at times, you can see that MS servers are running slow by the time it takes photogrammetry to load and that seems to be when most of the sound popping seems to occur.

I normally don't have much popping anymore.  But noticed a good amount just now flying into KDCA.  Started from halfway into the flight

Am curious - are people reporting the popping in both the cockpit and external views?   Mine only gives me weird popping sounds when in external view and I believe its tied to AI traffic.  

internal for me, haven't tried outside but I will next flight.

I noticed the other day ( I fly with BATC) that when I was clicking the batc drop down dialogue box, that -  minus to drop down and up, I'd get those pops, stutters and a scratching noises.

I'm not saying its a batc thing btw, its probably a me thing 🤪 but definitely a strange one.

I got rid of the sound crackling by:

1) Disabling ALL NOT used Audio Drivers via the windows Device manager AND
2) Uninstall the realtek audio driver as well AND
3) Set the Audio Device in the sim to the used one and NOT to Default! AND
4) Set the Audio Device in the System Sound options from windows to the used output device and NOT to default

I use a Bluetooth headphone with DTS surround sounds and it is amazing.

Since I did that mentioned above, I got rid of every crackling and stuttering, with my 4090 AND 5090 cards. Without these settings I can reproduce the issue and "call the crackling back to my system". 

The Test and Tip came from a user over at MSFS Forums who had found this out and it worked for him and several others as well.....I do not recall the exact topic name, but it may be the one with the most posts about this......redicoulous how many users have these issues! Asobo need to take action I think.

Marcus

Edited October 28, 2025Oct 28 by mpo910

11 hours ago, Tony P said:

Am curious - are people reporting the popping in both the cockpit and external views?   Mine only gives me weird popping sounds when in external view and I believe its tied to AI traffic.  

I had a flight from EBOS to EGNX. In that flight I had this issue with both views, inside out. But, yes, it was more severe with the outside view. And it seemed to be worst while flying close to the London.

But of course, this is just one flight. Might be different elsewhere.

This really is irritating problem!

18 hours ago, mpo910 said:

I got rid of the sound crackling by:

1) Disabling ALL NOT used Audio Drivers via the windows Device manager AND
2) Uninstall the realtek audio driver as well AND
3) Set the Audio Device in the sim to the used one and NOT to Default! AND
4) Set the Audio Device in the System Sound options from windows to the used output device and NOT to default

I use a Bluetooth headphone with DTS surround sounds and it is amazing.

Since I did that mentioned above, I got rid of every crackling and stuttering, with my 4090 AND 5090 cards. Without these settings I can reproduce the issue and "call the crackling back to my system". 

The Test and Tip came from a user over at MSFS Forums who had found this out and it worked for him and several others as well.....I do not recall the exact topic name, but it may be the one with the most posts about this......redicoulous how many users have these issues! Asobo need to take action I think.

Marcus

Thanks for the guide! I repeated the same flight I did yesterday, where I had massive crackling, and had no issues today so that’s a great start. I’m guessing the Realtek drivers were the main culprit here.

But what do you do if you need the Realtek drivers? 

I only use motherboard sound now and it is through a Realtek chip on the motherboard. 
I have no other sound drivers installed, and Realtek is selected in both Windows and the sim. 

Selecting default windows device in both seems to make no difference, and why should it, as it has to use the Realtek by default as it is all there is.

I still think this is primarily a sim issue that needs fixing.

14 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

But what do you do if you need the Realtek drivers? 

I only use motherboard sound now and it is through a Realtek chip on the motherboard. 
I have no other sound drivers installed, and Realtek is selected in both Windows and the sim. 

Selecting default windows device in both seems to make no difference, and why should it, as it has to use the Realtek by default as it is all there is.

I still think this is primarily a sim issue that needs fixing.

Are you able to install different drivers from the motherboard manufacturer non realtek ones? 

19 hours ago, mpo910 said:

I got rid of the sound crackling by:

1) Disabling ALL NOT used Audio Drivers via the windows Device manager AND
2) Uninstall the realtek audio driver as well AND
3) Set the Audio Device in the sim to the used one and NOT to Default! AND
4) Set the Audio Device in the System Sound options from windows to the used output device and NOT to default

I use a Bluetooth headphone with DTS surround sounds and it is amazing.

Since I did that mentioned above, I got rid of every crackling and stuttering, with my 4090 AND 5090 cards. Without these settings I can reproduce the issue and "call the crackling back to my system". 

The Test and Tip came from a user over at MSFS Forums who had found this out and it worked for him and several others as well.....I do not recall the exact topic name, but it may be the one with the most posts about this......redicoulous how many users have these issues! Asobo need to take action I think.

Marcus

Yes, I have been doing exactly that when the problem arose. It arose about the time of a new Windows version, one or two years ago. But from time to time, if I use other sound drivers, the issue comes back and I have to reset the settings in msfs sound settings. If you fly in VR, then you probably are using another sound driver than when flying in 2D. And msfs sometimes changes things around in sound settings. 

There is a choice called "default" in msfs sound settings. That option was not there when 2020 was first released. And sound popping did not happen.

20 minutes ago, mpo910 said:

Are you able to install different drivers from the motherboard manufacturer non realtek ones? 

Thanks for trying to help. 

Yes, they are the motherboard ones, and they are listed as audio drivers from the Asus motherboard drivers site, but they then show as Realtek in windows and MSFS.
I have never installed any drivers direct from Realtek, only from the Asus motherboard drivers page.