Persistant sound issue

Toadem · 6 Nov 2017 at 16:05

This may get a little long winded so my apologies in advance.

Over the last couple of years I have gradually upgraded my system as and when I could afford so my current set up is this :

OS - Windows 10 pro
Case - CM Storm Trooper
PSU - Corsair AX 760
MB - Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7
CPU - i7-4790K
Cooling - Corsair H100i GTX
GPU - GIGABYTE AORUS GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme 11Gb
SSD - OCZ Solid 3 120gb SSD
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB x2
4X4gb HyperX Beast DDR3 2400
Logitech G502 Proteus Core Mouse
Logitech C920 Webcam
ROCCAT ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard.

I had noticed a bit of an issue with my sound when watching movies or listening to music every now and then over the last year or 2 , like a little feedback crackle or shorting out crackle that would last for less than a second then would be fine again, sometimes fine for hours other times for 30 minutes or so but it was totally random.

I tried fresh installs of windows 10 fresh installs of sound drivers, updating BIOS and finally put it down to my old GPU being on its way out. I recently however purchased a new GIGABYTE AORUS GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme 11Gb and the issue is still there, once again removed all drivers from nvidea and realtec and installed new ones but still have this weird sound issue.

I got a copy of Destiny 2 free with my GPU and tried it the other night to find on the cutscenes the sound issue causes a stutter in the actual cutscene which is driving me nuts.

Im wondering if this could be caused by some kiind of conflict between the on board sound and nvidea but am now kind of stumped as iv replaced almost everything on my system now (including a new SSD for the OS), new multi plug extension (surge protected), new power cables and so on.

Any help or ideas appreciated as it really is getting on my nerves now.

EsaT · 6 Nov 2017 at 18:16

Start by monitoring DPC latencies.
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
That can give hints if its bad/buggy driver.
Woudl expect there to be some high latencies after that crackling occurs.

Toadem · 6 Nov 2017 at 21:04

I ran latencymon and it is showing an error https://imgur.com/erPow3G , I'v checked power management and it appears to be fine and my bios is F8 which from what I can see if the latest and all my drivers are up to date (have removed and installed them a few times and the issue persists). The issue was still there after a complete windows reinstall

CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:24:51 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: SERVER
OS version: Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 15063 (x64)
Hardware: Z97X-Gaming 7, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 16233 MB total

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 40 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 6883.338573
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.021638

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 6881.034569
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.610369

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 126.490
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.053949
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.081536

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 1698701
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 314.09550
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 388.13 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.032774
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 388.13 , NVIDIA Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.113559

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 6525639
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 21
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

Process with highest pagefault count: none

Total number of hard pagefaults 0
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 0
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 0.0
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.0
Number of processes hit: 0

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 37.682694
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 126.490
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 9.684103
CPU 0 ISR count: 1691848
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 300.136750
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 10.459288
CPU 0 DPC count: 5765678
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 18.060617
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 97.052250
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.040748
CPU 1 ISR count: 6627
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 314.09550
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.324858
CPU 1 DPC count: 62844
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 13.190399
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 55.8670
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000823
CPU 2 ISR count: 209
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 232.737750
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.835328
CPU 2 DPC count: 192173
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 16.603643
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 7.416250
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000068
CPU 3 ISR count: 17
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 134.49550
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.346544
CPU 3 DPC count: 84074
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 13.569195
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 140.587750
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.522430
CPU 4 DPC count: 158121
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 16.859769
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 111.74850
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.271296
CPU 5 DPC count: 57421
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 12.910850
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 145.853750
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.546212
CPU 6 DPC count: 155089
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 16.697989
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 114.327750
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.239516
CPU 7 DPC count: 50260
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

EDIT it also mentions thermal throttling but at the time I ran latency mon I had core temp 1.11 running and this was what it was showing https://imgur.com/z2tjv0S

Toadem · 4 Dec 2017 at 16:37

OK this is driving me nuts, I caved and switched to a sound card, installed a Soundblaster recon 3d which worked perfectly - for all of 3 seconds then went dead, uninstalled, reinstalled sound card comes back for a few seconds then dies again. Iv googled to try and find a solution, re downloaded the drivers, wiped them using iobit uninstaller and each time i get a few seconds of great sound then it dies. The card shows its still installed in device manager and working fine but no sound after a couple of seconds from it being installed.

Does anyone have any suggestions