Audio cutting out and weird clicking/popping noise

Question

Sorry if this is the wrong tag I've never used this site before and I'm not really tech savvy, so this thinkpad is pretty new, I've had it for maybe 3 months by now. Yesterday the audio started cutting out and even when audio isn't playing there will sometimes be an odd clicking/popping noise? (the noise is mainly triggered by me playing audio but sometimes its random, happens on mute as well). I've restarted it, updated it (which seemed to make it worse but what do I know), checked the audio drivers, checked the speakers and used the troubleshooting features, nothings worked. Internet says it might be the fans/dust for the popping noise but I'm not sure if that explains why the audio is cutting out? Others say it might be the hard drive failing which I'm not sure about because people say that happens earliest of about 3 years?? Don't think it's overheating either because I left it overnight and it didn't fix the problem. If this basically brand-new laptop is broken, I'm gonna be pissed.

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Moved from: Sysinternals

Answer 1

Good day! Honestly, it sounds like your ThinkPad is just trying too hard to save battery. When the laptop thinks you aren't listening to anything, it cuts power to the sound card to save juice. The "pop" or "click" you’re hearing is the hardware literally snapping back to life when a notification or a video starts playing.

Since you've already done the basic updates, try this:

Right-click the speaker icon on your taskbar and go to Sound settings, then find More sound settings at the bottom. Double-click your Speakers, go to the Advanced tab, and uncheck the box that says "Enable audio enhancements." Hit Apply and see if that helps. Windows tries to "clean up" the audio with software, but on ThinkPads, it usually just causes lag and popping.

Another thing to check is if this happens while the laptop is plugged into the wall. If the popping disappears when you're charging, it's 100% just a power-saving setting. You can fix that by going into your Control Panel, finding Power Options, and changing your plan to "Best Performance" instead of "Balanced."

Also, don't worry about the hard drive comments you read. Your laptop uses an SSD, which is silent and has no moving parts—it physically can’t click. It’s almost certainly just a software glitch.

Does it still make the noise if you have headphones plugged in, or is it just coming from the laptop speakers?