Slow Laptop - Must be Hardware, not infected

The crackling is consistent with headphones, without headphones, in both audio jacks,… It begins even when the laptop starts up. I had this same problem before I rebuilt the machine. It went away for a while and then recently returned. I didn't understand Jimbo's suggestions about driver's above and below…

The crackling is consistent with headphones, without headphones, in both audio jacks,…
It begins even when the laptop starts up.
I had this same problem before I rebuilt the machine.
It went away for a while and then recently returned.

I didn't understand Jimbo's suggestions about driver's above and below…

The crackling is consistent with headphones, without headphones, in both audio jacks,…
It begins even when the laptop starts up.
I had this same problem before I rebuilt the machine.
It went away for a while and then recently returned.

I had this same problem before I rebuilt the machine. - - To me you just answered your problems and making me wonder if you have failing hardware or short in the system. When you said that you rebuilt the machine, meaning motherboard replacement ? or reformatting the hard drive? or replacing bad parts ?

I didn't understand Jimbo's suggestions about driver's above and below… - what I meant about that was the driver listing for your make and model, current - the one above is for the next model up or ones below is listed below your machine. This may or may not be the problem but something I tryed in the past to clear up some problems.

Sorry - I meant reinstalling all the application software.

Sorry for not replying. For some reason I'm not getting e-mail alerts anymore. Anyway, I think Jimbo is absolutely right. Considering the sort of work that's been done in this machine, it can only be something hardware related. The only other option, unfortunately, is that you did end up copying a virus from your documents. This was a concern at the time, so it is possible. I think in this case, my advice would be to take the laptop to your local PC repair shop and get them to check over the motherboard. If they can't find anything wrong at all, then I think it's an idea to go back to the malware forum.

I'm not sure how this fixed itself. I was also having a problem with the Intel ProSet Wireless Driver….So I removed it, using RevoUninstaller…and also removed some lines in the registry…and when I rebooted…I couldn't. So I ran in Recovery - with chkdsk /r and …the sound is now working…though I had to reinstall the Intel wireless driver. I think we can close this…