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High DPC due to Nvidia Kernel Driver?

Tephnos

Tephnos

Tephnos

Soldato
Joined
20 May 2011
Posts
6,077
Location
Aberdeen, Scotland
Hi,

Trying to isolate an audio DAC popping issue here.

Running latencymon, I'm sometimes seeing high spikes above 1ms, and always due to the nvidia kernel drivers. Running win10, fresh OS, and a 980Ti.

Is this the same with anyone else, and are nvidia GPUs just crap for DPC latency, or is it the sign of some fault, likely the GPU?
 
I once had an issue with a conflict between the soundcard and the gfx audio. If not using it, try disabling the gfx card audio.
 
DPC latency issues can be a real pain to fix.
For example couple years ago when I was trying to fix mine. My USB headset and sound card was showing to be having high latency and making audio stutter.
After a lot hours trying different drivers for audio I went and re-installed windows and one by one tested each bit of software I was putting back onto the system.

To my shock the issue was Intel Smart Response and my SSD as a caching drive.

So my advice just because the Nvidia kernel is showing high latency it doesn't always mean that is whats giving you the stutter.

Make sure you running the latest drivers for all system hardware and if worst comes to worst a re-install and do what I did.
 
Hi,

Don't use a soundcard, USB audio to a DAC only. Don't have the Nvidia audio drivers installed either.

Also I've done multiple re-installations, and the issue has persisted through a G45 chipset and a X99. The only thing I can remember is it starting around Win10 time or somewhere there about, but I've been on Win8.1 since then as well.

Before that I had just gotten the GPU from that Zotac 980 deal. I've also had it happen on a total barebones system with only the necessary drivers installed. Its such a pain.
 
Done, done, done.

Latest chipset driver doesn't touch X99 USB, Nvidia drivers haven't done anything new, made sure USB ports weren't being turned off to to save power, turned off all power saving states in the mobo as they normally cause high DPC.

:(
 
Tephnos said:
Done, done, done.

Latest chipset driver doesn't touch X99 USB, Nvidia drivers haven't done anything new, made sure USB ports weren't being turned off to to save power, turned off all power saving states in the mobo as they normally cause high DPC.

:(
Click to expand...

Not much more I can offer then sorry. Like I said DPC latency is horrible at tracking down.
 
Try disabling stuff in device manager one by one to try and narrow it down.

Last time I had crackling audio due to high latency it turned out to be the ide/sata controller drivers. An update of those fixed it.
 
Seems to be a common occurrence with that.

Didn't install any specific controller drivers for this mobo, as I didn't need them, and got all the latest from the mobo site. Problem is this issue is very infrequent, just annoying in its persistence so disabling stuff one by one will take forever.
 
Do you have a Gigabyte motherboard by and chance?, if so uninstall any gigabyte software as that used to be a big cause of DPC latency not sure it if was called EasyTune or something, some crap ECO software which interfered with your CPU behind the scenes. I had it latency "popping "issues myself with Cubase 6 and my TC Electronic audio interface. Other than that it is a damn pain in the arse to lock down. Sometimes I think it was just blind luck i fixed mine.
 
Heres my bet, You never turned off HPET because you have no HPET toggle. And if you emailed any of the big board vendors you would get the same generic what is HPET, Oh we dont do HPET or my favourite from Gigabyte that HPET is already off.


Whenever i do not have a toggle specifically, MY kernel for Nvidia spikes and i get a warning. Whenever i am given a custom bios (Gigabyte) and i can turn this ****e off my DPC plummets to 3us. Quick test after a fresh format is there a high precision event timer in your device manager? I had one even when these people were stamping thier feet and claming it was off. The only way it is off is a manual disable so the damm timer is removed from device manager.
 
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Yeah, there is actually.

Not sure what it really does and if I can toggle it off or on on the ASUS bios. Probably not.
 
It sets a weird hybrid timer for servers if on or not disabled right. HPET off is 100% the correct settings for going forwards (Windows 8.1 Windows 10) but Asus claim otherwise and do not allow any toggle. Infact the only people who allow the toggle of HPET is Gigabyte and you have to request a custom bios.


Its either that or a rusty Nvidia driver, My max us on the Win 8.1 RGB driver was 45us. Before this i had errors and the only things i did was change driver and pester the Gigabyte reps to give me a HPET Z87 bios. I do not like to say 100% it is HPET becuase you are trapped with all of the major vendors now but thats my experience with HPET. One last thing, It could be the DAC i had a USB microphone that was nuking my DPC also through USB too. I removed all USB devices and convinced myself that for gaming and latency do not use a USB DAC. PCI-E is there for a reason imo for sound.
 
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Yeah - I can't disable HPET from the looks of it in the BIOS. Unless ASUS have it off by default I'm totally buggered here in regards to that.
 
Yup like i said no major vendor on any current chipset bar the older ones. It does worry me going forwards now Microsoft moved to a proper timer. Run wintimer tester and see what it says i think mine is 3.4mhz which is correct.

Others can be different and even be a combination of timers. I reckon it is either your usb or dac or hpet becuase i had issues with both before removing both and getting my system lower than most people get idle. A lot of bios tosh needs to be removed also it might be worth experimenting because with DPC it is time consuming.


So i think your only bet is looking at the dac to be honest considering it existed before.
 
I have the DAC currently away to repair because of this.

They've had the thing playing on itunes for a week and haven't found anything, so the DAC isn't the issue here.

Looking at my timings in latencymon right now:

Interrupt is anywhere from 30-120.
Highest measured (in 2 minutes) is 126
Highest reported ISR is 129
Highrest DPC routine execution time is 762 (nvlddkm.sys).
 
Apparently HPET is disabled by default on windows 10, so can't be that.

Within 20 minutes the nvidia kernel driver spikes to 2.5ms. Urgh.
 
Tephnos said:
Apparently HPET is disabled by default on windows 10, so can't be that.

Within 20 minutes the nvidia kernel driver spikes to 2.5ms. Urgh.
Click to expand...

No red errors though just a audio pop right? What happens when you just watch it while playing Youtube or a game? When i would watch Youtube HD i would have around 46us tops but mostly around 28-46us.

I never had popping i just had a warning errors, But i wouldnt look at it and say oh yea Nvidia spike to xxx because everyone gets those. What matters is the red errors, popping or the realtime reading when doing something.


DPC is a downright cow to sort, And Nvidia half the time are 50% to blame too.
 
Rofflay said:
No red errors though just a audio pop right? What happens when you just watch it while playing Youtube or a game? When i would watch Youtube HD i would have around 46us tops but mostly around 28-46us.

I never had popping i just had a warning errors, But i wouldnt look at it and say oh yea Nvidia spike to xxx because everyone gets those. What matters is the red errors, popping or the realtime reading when doing something.


DPC is a downright cow to sort, And Nvidia half the time are 50% to blame too.
Click to expand...

It's on and off. Sometimes it'll stay in the green, other times like with a 2.5ms spike, that's so far in the red it's unbelievable. >1ms is very bad.

Playing a game or youtube is around 30-120 as mentioned. :p

And since I have popping at infrequent times it infuriates me. X99 has been annoying me way too much and its hard to blame it on that since I've switched CPUs/Mobos already.
 
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