Sound Crack / pop with Windows 10Anniversary

[Zathel]

Hello,

This is the only place that I hope can bring peace to my mind. I have a persistent problem since the Windows 10 Anniversary update that has challenged my mental capabilities each and every one of these 20 days since the update. The problem is: Sound crack and Popping occurs when playing audio/gaming/streaming videos followed by stuttering / mini stuttering when playing game. Especially bad if I switch tabs or doing both at the same time. I checked my PC's  DPC latency, and it is through the roof.

 

I used 2 programs to check my DPC latency: Latency Mon and DPClat. The first tool brought up a detailed report as to what causes the problem and the second just informed me of my extreme latency (1500 ms). According to Latency Mon (I will include the report below) dxkrnl.sys (DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation) is what causing the huge spikes. The first thing I did was to re install the drivers of my GPU (GTX 970). Nothing changed. I then proceeded to remove my GPU, remove the drivers using DDU and checking again. The same thing was reported with my integrated gpu. I proceeded to do a clean install of windows 4 different times, testing from the beginning if I had issues and until I installed all the necessary drivers of my motherboard. The same problem was reported each and every time. And the same problem with the sound occurred each and every time. I sold my 970 and got a 1070 (was planning an update anyway). Same thing. Now I am sitting here, with no GPU inside my rig, with a fresh install of windows, trying to figure out what is wrong and what is causing the DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation to cause all these problems.
On top of that, to eliminate any problems related to audio drivers or bad integrated sound card, I used sound from my AT2020 USB+ microphone which has a dedicated sound card. Same thing happened when using sound directly from the microphone.

 

P.S - Before you post the usual, yes I did everything a sane person would do. Changed the power settings to be at high performance, removed from BIOS any power management related setting, Removed drivers and reinstalled them using DDU, did a fresh installation (not even reset) of windows, changed cables of each and every component, updated my GPU to a new one, changed ram slots, removed any oc on CPU, GPU, RAM etc etc etc. Please, for the love of God and everything holy, help me find the issue. It's been 20 days that I cannot do anything on my PC.

 

P.S 2 - SPECS:

Mobo: MSI z170 m7 Gaming
CPU: i7 6700K
GPU: MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X (Prior: MSI GTX 970 Gaming)
Ram: HyperX Savage @2144 (2400 OC) 8G (1 stick, planning to purchase more in the near future)

P.S 3 - Latency Mon Report (Displays Win 8 as my operating system, I suppose it's a bug as it was just updated to windows 10 compatibility)

Spoiler

 

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 or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. 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  0:00:53  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        DESKTOP-4SMBROD
OS version:                                           Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware:                                             MS-7976, MSI, Z170A GAMING M7 (MS-7976)
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  8079 MB total

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   4008 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):   16272.856039
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   2.789057

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       16269.279194
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       1.092482

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 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):              104.427395
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.007282
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.014382

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   24480
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):              17630.126497
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.067926
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.191897

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   247321
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                201
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              2
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.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 microsoftedge.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       3881
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          1771
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          205116.379242
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              1.001857
Number of processes hit:                              30

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.696737
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                104.427395
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.058574
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      23690
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                17630.126497
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.662355
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      228069
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.246965
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                95.585329
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.002375
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      774
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                751.155190
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.020739
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      1526
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.019748
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                10.030938
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.000041
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      12
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                184.732285
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.062105
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      10302
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.330258
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                4.691617
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.000009
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      4
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                83.281687
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.005475
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      720
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.942412
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):                109.556886
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.023901
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      2886
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.349997
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):                120.252994
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.009875
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      808
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.932392
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):                107.993762
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.021414
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      2242
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1.344988
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):                95.588822
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.008027
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      975
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

[zMeul]

update you sound drivers mate, from what I'm seeing there you're running with the default MS generic drivers

 

ps: LatencyMon is the only one that corectly supports W8 and up

[Zathel]

4 different versions of audio drivers updated. Also, I used an external sound card (my microphone)to eliminate driver - integrated sound card related problems - the same problem occured.

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, Zathel said:

4 different versions of audio drivers updated. Also, I used an external sound card (my microphone)to eliminate driver - integrated sound card related problems - the same problem occured.

you should reinstall all mobo drivers, search for the newest ones

W10 A.U. has created some weird ass issues - my sound card didn't even worked after the update, had to reinstall the drivers

[Zathel]

I reinstalled each and every driver, used the tools to monitor my dpc latency from the start (no drivers) till I finished installing everything again (from the site, all the updated drivers) still even with no drivers, problem showed up. Please read the description, I explain my steps in detail.

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, Zathel said:

Please read the description, I explain my steps in extreme detail.

sorry, it's 4:30 - I need to sleep

maybe someone else has other ideas in the meantime 

[Zathel]

2 minutes ago, zMeul said:

sorry, it's 4:30 - I need to sleep

maybe someone else has other ideas in the meantime 

I hope so. This is my last resort. Windows done goofed big time with this update... 

 

[2dvh]

I'm having the same problem after the update.

 

Checked the usual culprits (sound drivers,nvidia drivers). Disabled unused devices and what not.

 

I think we're just going to have to wait until microsoft fixes it

[Zathel]

27 minutes ago, 2dvh said:

I'm having the same problem after the update.

 

Checked the usual culprits (sound drivers,nvidia drivers). Disabled unused devices and what not.

 

I think we're just going to have to wait until microsoft fixes it

Do you get dxkrnl.sys as the culprit?

[2dvh]

1 hour ago, Zathel said:

Do you get dxkrnl.sys as the culprit?

I get both dxkrnl.sys and nvlddmkm.sys as the things giving me the highest latency. 

 

I've tried everything to fix it but nothing works.

 

Nvidia drivers have always had problems with high latency, but I think the anniversary edition update broke it even more and made crackling appear for people that didnt have it before.

[owaru]

hey so I have nearly the same identical issue that you have with your audio including the high dcp latency using latencymon and haven't been able to fix it yet. earlier tonight i did a full wipe and installed 8.1 pro on my c drive and the audio issue persists so that is possibly a no go for you if you decide that course of action. i haven't been able to find any solutions yet but if i do, i will let you know. i tried contacting gigabyte since i have a z170x gigabyte gaming 7 mobo and they haven't come up with a solution yet, said their team is working on it with creative. contacting microsoft was pretty much useless because all they kept telling me was either reboot or reset windows. anyway if you find a fix please let me know as will i.

[Zathel]

On ‎8‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 8:51 AM, owaru said:

hey so I have nearly the same identical issue that you have with your audio including the high dcp latency using latencymon and haven't been able to fix it yet. earlier tonight i did a full wipe and installed 8.1 pro on my c drive and the audio issue persists so that is possibly a no go for you if you decide that course of action. i haven't been able to find any solutions yet but if i do, i will let you know. i tried contacting gigabyte since i have a z170x gigabyte gaming 7 mobo and they haven't come up with a solution yet, said their team is working on it with creative. contacting microsoft was pretty much useless because all they kept telling me was either reboot or reset windows. anyway if you find a fix please let me know as will i.

Exactly the same responses from Windows. I have the MSI Z170 m7. Maybe it has to do with the Skylake platform? I was thinking of reverting back to windows 7 for a test try. Maybe Microsoft made changes to W8 as well. Who knows?

[Zathel]

I have an update though. Setting my Game Boost (automatic OC from a button of my MOBO) to any OC setting, reduces the latency to 500 and sometimes to 1-2 ms. The spikes still occur though, with Directx kernel being behind it still. Without this function my ms sits at ~1000ms idle.