I was checking out Donkey Kong on my main computer just to see what the emulated sound is like vrs samples since there has been quite a bit of talk re how it should sound. To my dismay the sound was full of pops and crackles that I do not get on my bartop or any of my other computers. They are all using the same setup and MAME 139. This was really a bugger because my main computer is an i5 and runs most programs very well.
Tried some other versions of MAME and it did not help. I finally deleted my sound drivers as a last resort as the sound on movies and music was fine. I let the computer load the drivers again when it discovered the sound device (on the MB) and now Donkey Kong sounds great. Wish I knew why things changed but now it is fixed.
