While I wait for RMA I noticed something
When I fixed this issue in the past - which I cant figure out how I did.
I had 2 Digital Audio SPDIF entries in my sound control panel - 1 for Optical (Tritton Dolby headset) and 1 for COAX (pioneer receiver)
I notice that now with the popping , I have 2 entries but one is for ATAPI Internal ATAPI Jack and the other is for combo SPDIF and that the combo one outputs to BOTH my optical and my coax. Not sure if this is the problem.
But it may be a symptom of the problem