PC Audio issues (glitchy audio) please help!

[Dom_wpc_]

My issues with audio on this PC started when I first built it and I was having issues with audio tracks not working and audio just sounding weird, after installing, re-installing and updating drivers it still didn't work even after a system restore it still didn't work, I later found out it was due to my case having defective audio jacks and being as I messed with drivers first before trying the MOBO Headphone jack (like an idiot) it gave the illusion that those didn't work too when they actually did. 

 

ANYWAY, Fast forward a few months later I noticed some adware on my PC and removed it with a program that a friend recommended to me, another program made by the same publisher was available for checking drivers and I downloaded it out of curiosity, it said some of my drivers were out of date including "Realtek sound and game driver" so I used the software to automatically update all the drivers, after my PC restarted I noticed the sound was very quiet and I went to use Realtek audio console to turn up the volume when I realised It doesn't work with the updated driver from that software, so I rolled back the driver using the software just so I could use realtek audio console, a day or two later I noticed an issue with my PC, every 10 minutes or so there would be an audible glitch with the sound and the screen would freeze for a second just like a lag spike you'd get in a game, I put up with this for a few days before going to Device Manager and uninstalling all my audio drivers and re-installing them from my motherboards website, it worked for a while but then the glitching started again which I find really concerning since I was convinced it was a corrupted driver and re-installing it would solve the problem. 

 

In the last 2 days the problem has got A LOT WORSE, as well as what I just described I am now getting other audio glitches, the audio sounds crackly as if its from a 60's documentary, and when watching video the audio will become out of sync, if someone is talking the audio will be really off from their lip movements, I have tried different headsets and different audio jacks and I've uninstalled and re-installed the drivers countless times from either the MOBO website or letting windows automatically do it, but still, Nothing! Its even doing it to the built in speakers in my monitor which receives the audio from a HDMI cable into the Graphics Card, something to keep in mind is that I upgraded my ram not too long before this started (like a week or two before) but I doubt that has anything to do with it.   

I don't know what to do, pls help. 

[The Flying Sloth]

Sounds like windows is having sample rate issues with programs, try setting everything to 24 bit 44.1khz and if that doesn't help and reinstalling drivers doesn't help it sounds like your PC may be in for a wiping. Issues like this are the reason people tend to not update once they find drivers that work well.

[Dom_wpc_]

Thank you!

I've done that and re-installed the drivers again and its ok so far, I don't think that'll last long though : / 

[Dom_wpc_]

Update: after re-installing the drivers, it lasted roughly an hour before going back to glitching again 

 

[The Flying Sloth]

4 hours ago, Hakemon said:

-snip-

I'm really not sure in what world you need 192khz for mastering, there is no measurable difference in the analogue output of a 192khz file vs 48khz or even 44.1khz at 24bit.
Besides, neither of the products you mentioned are exceedingly high end, to the point where I'd wager that even if there were a measurable difference you'd not be able to hear it.
If your buffer size is an issue I'd strongly recommend upgrading from the aged FX platform to Ryzen, I've not had a real issue with buffers since I upgraded mine.

Unfortunately OP it sounds like your drivers are borked, the only suggestions I can make are to either completely wipe the system and hope for the best or move to an external (USB) audio solution, USB headsets, Audio Interfaces and DACs all use standalone drivers and hardware that completely ignore whatever your onboard audio is doing. 

 

[The Flying Sloth]

9 hours ago, Hakemon said:

Audio engineers work with higher sampling rates and bit depths for headroom.  

 

The CPU has NOTHING to do with it here, and that's quite the ignorant blame, 

Short answer,
Kick that sample rate down and you'll have a much more enjoyable experience, windows defaults to 44.1 and running above with onboard audio has literally 0 benefit and can only serve to create problems.

Long answer.
1, I'm really not sure where you think your onboard audio 'headroom' is going to help you but it's simply impractical to do audio engineering on a budget system (like yours) at above 96khz, the amount of CPU tax you pay for that nonexistent improvement (or at least you would pay if you were using ASIO drivers but we'll get to that in a second) just isn't a worthwhile trade.

I'm a part time producer and recording engineer with time in more than a few pro studios, every single recording engineer I've worked with has used an absolute maximum sample rate of 96khz while producing, mostly because of the CPU tax vs quality improvement ratio and instability higher sample rates can cause with even moderate amounts of CPU hungry VSTs (very diminishing returns). Beyond that, I've not ever met an engineer, mastering or otherwise that would even dream of doing their work with MME, WASAPI, or WDM drivers let alone the onboard audio chip, the quality difference between onboard audio and Windows drivers vs an interface and ASIO is a much bigger deal than the difference between WDM/WASAPI/MME 44.1 and 192. 

2,It's not the "playback [of] 24-bit 192KHz without glitching" that an engineer should be concerned with, it's the ability to manipulate audio at that sample rate without compromise.

In audio engineering tasks the CPU most ABSOLUTELY controls stutter, clicks and glitching audio as these are all symptoms of buffer size being set too low for your CPU to handle, or at least that would be the case if you were using ASIO drivers like literally every modern engineer I've ever heard of..... the IPC of those FX chips is really low, to the point where upgrading to an R5 x600 CPU would net you an almost 80% single core performance boost, that's almost doubling the single core performance of your ageing chip which would most definitely increase your 'headroom' and allow you to run effectively at much higher sample rates or much lower buffer sizes (lower latency either way).

I'm sorry if this came off aggressive, I don't mean it to be but almost every single thing you've said rings as incorrect to me.
I wish you all the best for your audio engineering projects.
Sloth

[Dom_wpc_]

Update: Did a system restore, had a few problems with low audio volume and stuff after that but I installed Realtek Audio Console and that took care of them 

so far, no issues with the audio, HOWEVER the issue with the freezing is still there, I recall a few weeks ago when I had a BSOD that I thought was due to me overclocking the hell out of my GPU with afterburner, when I searched the stop code ( IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)  it said it could be a ram issue but I just thought it was the GPU, Now, I'm starting to think the 8GB stick of corsair vengeance I added a month ago is defective 

[The Flying Sloth]

1 hour ago, Dom_wpc_ said:

-snip- 

I think you might be right there.

[Dom_wpc_]

'Just did a windows ram diagnostic and it came back with nothing.. 

[The Flying Sloth]

7 minutes ago, Dom_wpc_ said:

'Just did a windows ram diagnostic and it came back with nothing.. 

It often will, I built a new rig for my friend a month or so ago, everything worked fine except that while gaming it would randomly crash, every troubleshooter and tester showed up nothing but it was just because of a dead RAM stick.

[Dom_wpc_]

Thanks for the info! I'll remove the most recent stick tomorrow and see if it makes a difference

[ShearMe]

I'm gonna drop this link here for basic LatencyMon troubleshooting: 

@Dom_wpc_, are you using a wifi connection? I personally notice lots of stutters on my rig when using wifi. The way Windows manages audio doesn't play well with my aging WAN card.

[Dom_wpc_]

On 5/22/2020 at 12:10 AM, ShearMe said:

I'm gonna drop this link here for basic LatencyMon troubleshooting: 

@Dom_wpc_, are you using a wifi connection? I personally notice lots of stutters on my rig when using wifi. The way Windows manages audio doesn't play well with my aging WAN card.

No, I use Ethernet 

[The Flying Sloth]

1 hour ago, Dom_wpc_ said:

No, I use Ethernet 

*Powerline Ethernet
Powerline Ethernet isn't the same as just using Ethernet and many of the issues people have with wifi carry over to powerline ethernet