Audio Distortion. Again

[TDP_Equinox]

A a little while back i posted with an audio issue ( Old thread: http://tinyurl.com/ldzkqpb ) that was fixed; for a day and a half. 
I made an audio recording last time, and the same thing is happening ( Bug: http://tinyurl.com/ljosvwb Original song: http://tinyurl.com/k39m2yd Video i made, in case the audio wasn't clear enough: http://tinyurl.com/lzldc6b ).

I have done: BIOS update, software update, tried different players (currently using the latest version of clementine), installed the sound blaster cinema 2 software (what fixed it last time) and tried different games. 

It did not happen in TF2, oddly enough. 
It happens when using my speakers, or my headphones. Neither the speakers nor headphones have this issue on other devices.

Any ideas?

^{EDIT: This is all the things i have tried with no improvement in the situation} 

 

I have increased the ASIO Buffer size with ASIO4ALL and that slightly improved my issue for a short time, and i can only assume that after a short amount of time it filled the buffer again. 

Updated BIOS to the latest version (1.7 ) and updated all drivers to the current version.
After a re install of windows 8.1 Pro X64 the issue was still present, with the exact same symptom. 

After messing around with far too many software fixes that did not work, i decided to start swapping hardware. 
I went to the shop that i work at that conveniently has another MSI Gaming 7 Z97 board that i swapped EVERYTHING over to. 
After swapping just the mobo, outside of the case, the issue was not fixed. 
I tried swapping the GPU's with an HD series card.
Trying different PICe slots, different Xfire configs.
I grabbed 8 gigs of kingston hyper X and tried it with that. one slot, every slot, different combos of ram positioning.
I grabbed an i5 4440 and swapped my i7 4790K for that; did not fix. 
I grabbed a thermaltake TR2 500W PSU; same issue. 
By now i have swapped EVERY part in my system but my drives. 

So, i grabbed a samsung 840 evo 500GB drive and installed windows 8.1 on it, and grabbed a 1 TB WD Black drive for storage; same issue.
I then wiped the drive, and installed windows 7 HP x64 and installed the latest drivers, (all still running on the new hardware; nothing from my old setup is present.), origin, and BF4 on it and the issue was sorta fixed. DPC latency checker and Latency mon still showed high latency, but i did not notice any distortion or popping while using either WMP or clementine for music.
Installing windows 8.1 again got me in the same boat as before; distortion and popping.

some looking around shows that i am not alone in this, but no one has found a fix. 
I ran (CMD) Driver verifier for 25 hours, and no BSOD or errors occurred. 
Whiling running DV, i played some BF4 and listened to some music and my FPS was way in the 20s, but the audio stutter and pops were gone. 
25 hours later, i restart and the issue remains gone. 
After another restart ( turned it off for the night ) the issue was back. 

During all this AMD released a new driver update so i downloaded and installed that (omega 14.12) and low and behold the issue got MUCH worse. 
DPC Latency was through the roof at 15000us and stuttering while watching a youtube video.  (I noticed that if i had it on my main display the stutter was less noticeable but if i had it on my side screens it was horrible. not sure what to think of that)

Uninstalling that and letting windows install my graphics driver put it back to what it was before (avg 60-140us with spikes going into as high as 1020us) and i simply cannot figure this out. 

Other things i tried: disabling intel speedstep, locking the CPU frequency at 4.2 GHz ( i noticed while running aida64 that dpc latency went down when the cpu would hit 4300Mhz), locking it at 4000 Mhz, disabling HPET, all power saving stuff in the BIOS, all power saving stuff in windows, disabling enhancements in windows, older version of the realtek HD audio drivers, safe boot, checking services and logs in event viewer (nothing i could see that was insteresting) 
I am currently installing an older version of CCC and will continue to roll as far back as possible. 

Screenshot of latencymon driver monitoring. 
http://gyazo.com/f680d033162ebb756af87b955adbdf68

I have also ordered a cheap USB soundcard online and it should be here in 17-26 days..

[xNeon]

What sounds like is happening is your computer doesn't have enough time to process the audio it's sending out. Are you using an external or card interface? Did it come with software? If so find the "buffer size" and turn it up.

 

EDIT

 

You can also try this

control panel > hardware and sound > sound > select your playback device and click properties >  enhancements tab > check "disable all enhancements" > click okay

[TDP_Equinox]

What sounds like is happening is your computer doesn't have enough time to process the audio it's sending out. Are you using an external or card interface? Did it come with software? If so find the "buffer size" and turn it up.

 

EDIT

 

You can also try this

control panel > hardware and sound > sound > select your playback device and click properties >  enhancements tab > check "disable all enhancements" > click okay

I am using my onboard audio config, that came with my Z97 MSI Gaming 7 board.

It has the Realtek HD Audio Manager, and the Sound Blaster Cinema 2 software.

I have disabled all Audio Enhancements in windows, and all settings are default in the two managers.

I could not find any "Buffer size" anywhere, but it sounds like if this is anywhere, it might fix my issues. 

Is there one built into windows? 

Also, I have noticed that this http://gyazo.com/8e76900ad1cac359b74cc50699071da8 Does not start. 

It is my second GPU. It was like this on my old board, and none of this happened. 

 

[TDP_Equinox]

Anyone?

[TDP_Equinox]

No one?

[hazza_ob]

check what the error codes mean in your motherboard manual or your GPU manual, My friend had the same audio problem and he told me that he changed the audio driver so you could give that a go.

Not sure i can give you any more help for the audio situation apart from that

[vlkn´]

hmm, check in realtek if you are using "stereo" and not 5.1 speaker mode

[BuntzenB]

@TDP_Equinox you can use this tool http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml to check if your system is having latency issues. If it has spikes while playing audio then its not your onboard card, but a problem with buffer size, driver, or some other issue.

Try that program out and and post results please then I can help you further.

[TDP_Equinox]

@TDP_Equinox you can use this tool http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml to check if your system is having latency issues. If it has spikes while playing audio then its not your onboard card, but a problem with buffer size, driver, or some other issue.

Try that program out and and post results please then I can help you further.

http://gyazo.com/06e244d1e835668d8b6d99e5cd49e59a

http://gyazo.com/dd823c43db1088bfa4850bf02c4af774

The parts where it tops out is when i have borderlands and my music playing.

The parts where it is in the middle, is when just the music is playing. 

and it's only slightly lower with nothing playing. 

I noticed this in the bottom 

"Some device drivers on this machine behave bad and will probably cause drop-outs in real-time audio/or video streams..."

 

[TDP_Equinox]

check what the error codes mean in your motherboard manual or your GPU manual, My friend had the same audio problem and he told me that he changed the audio driver so you could give that a go.

Not sure i can give you any more help for the audio situation apart from that

My post code readout? That tells me my system temps when i am in windows. 

 

 

hmm, check in realtek if you are using "stereo" and not 5.1 speaker mode

I only have stereo speakers. 

[vlkn´]

My post code readout? That tells me my system temps when i am in windows. 

 

 

I only have stereo speakers. 

But you can run them as 7.1 in realtek. 

 

-

 

Try this: start a game where the problems are present. Set the settings to highest and play with lowest resolution, does it happen again?

And set the sampling rate in realtek to : 24bit 48khz

[BuntzenB]

http://gyazo.com/06e244d1e835668d8b6d99e5cd49e59a

http://gyazo.com/dd823c43db1088bfa4850bf02c4af774

The parts where it tops out is when i have borderlands and my music playing.

The parts where it is in the middle, is when just the music is playing. 

and it's only slightly lower with nothing playing. 

I noticed this in the bottom 

"Some device drivers on this machine behave bad and will probably cause drop-outs in real-time audio/or video streams..."

 

 

OK thanks. First i would try to get a hold of the driver for your OB sound card. Then go into device manager and uninstall your current driver and try installing the new one. Here is a link to your audio drivers. http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/realtek_hd_audio.zip

Next if that doesn't work then dl ASIO4ALL http://www.asio4all.com/ and get that set up. You can change buffer size and lots of other tweaks through that

GoodLuck!

[Sack]

A a little while back i posted with an audio issue ( Old thread: http://tinyurl.com/ldzkqpb ) that was fixed; for a day and a half. 

I made an audio recording last time, and the same thing is happening ( Bug: http://tinyurl.com/ljosvwb Original song: http://tinyurl.com/k39m2yd Video i made, in case the audio wasn't clear enough: http://tinyurl.com/lzldc6b ).

I have done: BIOS update, software update, tried different players (currently using the latest version of clementine), installed the sound blaster cinema 2 software (what fixed it last time) and tried different games. 

It did not happen in TF2, oddly enough. 

It happens when using my speakers, or my headphones. Neither the speakers nor headphones have this issue on other devices.

Any ideas?

I have had this issue before, your soundcard can't handle the bitrate/frequency. Right clik your speaker icon --> then the playing unit (don't know what this is called in the english windows) --> right click your devise and go to settings --> go to advanced tab and you'll see a roll dwn menu with different sampling rates etc. try to roll those back/up and see the sound improves. Hope this helps

[TDP_Equinox]

OK thanks. First i would try to get a hold of the driver for your OB sound card. Then go into device manager and uninstall your current driver and try installing the new one. Here is a link to your audio drivers. http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/realtek_hd_audio.zip

Next if that doesn't work then dl ASIO4ALL http://www.asio4all.com/ and get that set up. You can change buffer size and lots of other tweaks through that

GoodLuck!

The first fix number one seemed to reduce the issue a bit, but it is certainly still there.

http://gyazo.com/8190aacf7a1be458bf468f634d34e2b0

As for the second one, i have not finished reading the instruction manual, but from the "Basic" part of it, is should be adjusting the ASIO Buffer Size little bit by little bit until this issue goes away?

Am i correct to say that the larger the buffer, the higher the latency? How much should i adjust it, and do i need to do it on all devices, or just the realtek high definition audio one?

http://gyazo.com/c7082a70fe9d33e0de07d1a60a2aca4b

Thanks,

 

I have had this issue before, your soundcard can't handle the bitrate/frequency. Right clik your speaker icon --> then the playing unit (don't know what this is called in the english windows) --> right click your devise and go to settings --> go to advanced tab and you'll see a roll dwn menu with different sampling rates etc. try to roll those back/up and see the sound improves. Hope this helps

It's set to 48000 Hz (DVD Quality), and anything above does the same thing, and anything below sounds like a toddler came in and moved the sliders on an EQ to all max and that will never roll with me. 

[BuntzenB]

The first fix number one seemed to reduce the issue a bit, but it is certainly still there.

http://gyazo.com/8190aacf7a1be458bf468f634d34e2b0

As for the second one, i have not finished reading the instruction manual, but from the "Basic" part of it, is should be adjusting the ASIO Buffer Size little bit by little bit until this issue goes away?

Am i correct to say that the larger the buffer, the higher the latency? How much should i adjust it, and do i need to do it on all devices, or just the realtek high definition audio one?

http://gyazo.com/c7082a70fe9d33e0de07d1a60a2aca4b

 

 

Good! Even a small fix is good.

Also yeah to both of the things that you said. And the latency hopefully shouldn't make that much of a difference as long as its not too high. (BTW if you are wondering what the buffer size is, is how much the computer processes the audio before releasing it, fixing "non processed" audio sound issues. And that is why there is more latency). If your problem is truly terrible then get a cheapish sound card. I bought this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132020%C2'> on one of my mobos i shorted the onboard audio(I tried to fix a fan with the computer on(I'm a dumb ass)) and i got this card and it works fairly well. definetly better than the audio on the board (m5a99 fx pro r2.0) The card was only 17 bucks after a rebate (that deal is still happening). It's just a regular PCI card so make sure you have a lane in your MOBO if you buy it but hopefully your issue will subside.

So play around with it and tell us how it went.

[TDP_Equinox]

Good! Even a small fix is good.

Also yeah to both of the things that you said. And the latency hopefully shouldn't make that much of a difference as long as its not too high. (BTW if you are wondering what the buffer size is, is how much the computer processes the audio before releasing it, fixing "non processed" audio sound issues. And that is why there is more latency). If your problem is truly terrible then get a cheapish sound card. I bought this one on one of my mobos i shorted the onboard audio(I tried to fix a fan with the computer on(I'm a dumb ass)) and i got this card and it works fairly well. definetly better than the audio on the board (m5a99 fx pro r2.0) The card was only 17 bucks after a rebate (that deal is still happening). It's just a regular PCI card so make sure you have a lane in your MOBO if you buy it but hopefully your issue will subside.

So play around with it and tell us how it went.

(Uhg, i wrote this out and by browser somehow went back a page and lost my progress )

I went ahead and moved the sliders to 1024, and 2048. It made a difference going to 1024, but the issue is still there with popping and the occasional BPM slow down. But going to 2048 made seemingly no difference.

At one point, the warning in the monitoring software you told me to use said that "this machine should be able to handle any audio/video stream with no dropouts in realtime", but that quickly went away and never came back as soon as i launched a game.

Would any physical layout of my wiring make a difference? I have two 3.5 to 3.5 splitters on the back port, to be able to drive both of my desk speakers, and i also have my headset plugged into the front jack.

I can take some pics, or shoot a short video showing it, if it would help. 

Also, would getting an external DAC make a difference, as i have no PCI slots on my motherboard.

Or would it do the same, as it is going over USB?

What i don't understand, is i had this exact setup working on my M5A99FX Pro R2.0 without any of these issues. 

which baffles me, as asus boasts no claims of how amazing the onboard audio solution is, whereas MSI has made it a point to show off that the onboard audio is amazing by isolating it from the rest of the mobo, and providing external power via a molex cable .

I don't really want to RMA this board, but i will also give MSI a shout, and see what they have to say.

Thanks,

 

EDIT: On the phone with MSI and when i mentioned i was running crossfire he hurried off into another room like there was a fire or something....

EDIT 2: God damned smart phone pressed a button with my ear and hung up on him.

[BuntzenB]

(Uhg, i wrote this out and by browser somehow went back a page and lost my progress )

I went ahead and moved the sliders to 1024, and 2048. It made a difference going to 1024, but the issue is still there with popping and the occasional BPM slow down. But going to 2048 made seemingly no difference.

At one point, the warning in the monitoring software you told me to use said that "this machine should be able to handle any audio/video stream with no dropouts in realtime", but that quickly went away and never came back as soon as i launched a game.

Would any physical layout of my wiring make a difference? I have two 3.5 to 3.5 splitters on the back port, to be able to drive both of my desk speakers, and i also have my headset plugged into the front jack.

I can take some pics, or shoot a short video showing it, if it would help. 

Also, would getting an external DAC make a difference, as i have no PCI slots on my motherboard.

Or would it do the same, as it is going over USB?

What i don't understand, is i had this exact setup working on my M5A99FX Pro R2.0 without any of these issues. 

which baffles me, as asus boasts no claims of how amazing the onboard audio solution is, whereas MSI has made it a point to show off that the onboard audio is amazing by isolating it from the rest of the mobo, and providing external power via a molex cable .

I don't really want to RMA this board, but i will also give MSI a shout, and see what they have to say.

Thanks,

 

Sorry abt ur lost progress.

Hmmph. Could be you just have a defective board.

What happens when you have just a game running, and your audio related things. (No steam or anything.) Plus what happens if you try it in linux? Also try restarting (I'm assuming you have but you never know). 

Also i want to say that getting a DAC will help but im not 100% sure. (because we havent necessarily ruled your sound card as the issue) Do you have a junky external USB sound card thing? you can try that out and see if it works

 

 

Also you can buy pcie sounds cards (theyre a little more pricey) if you have a slot available.

Also what happens if you use the HDMI sound port from your GPU? (This will help tell me if its your soundcard once again.) you can plug into your TV or monitor with sound to check this out. (DisplayPort should work also)

I wish you the best of luck.

[BuntzenB]

EDIT: On the phone with MSI and when i mentioned i was running crossfire he hurried off into another room like there was a fire or something....

EDIT 2: God damned smart phone pressed a button with my ear and hung up on him.

 lol the crossfire thing.

and sorry about that.

[BuntzenB]

What i don't understand, is i had this exact setup working on my M5A99FX Pro R2.0 without any of these issues. 

which baffles me, as asus boasts no claims of how amazing the onboard audio solution is, whereas MSI has made it a point to show off that the onboard audio is amazing by isolating it from the rest of the mobo, and providing external power via a molex cable .

 

I love ASUS

[TDP_Equinox]

Sorry abt ur lost progress.

Hmmph. Could be you just have a defective board.

What happens when you have just a game running, and your audio related things. (No steam or anything.) Plus what happens if you try it in linux? Also try restarting (I'm assuming you have but you never know). 

Also i want to say that getting a DAC will help but im not 100% sure. (because we havent necessarily ruled your sound card as the issue) Do you have a junky external USB sound card thing? you can try that out and see if it works

 

-snip-

 

Also you can buy pcie sounds cards (theyre a little more pricey) if you have a slot available.

Also what happens if you use the HDMI sound port from your GPU? (This will help tell me if its your soundcard once again.) you can plug into your TV or monitor with sound to check this out. (DisplayPort should work also)

I wish you the best of luck.

That is what the second MSI rep said. (defective board)

I told him i would continue to try, but i am going to call back and get a different person to see what they have to say. 

Kinda sucks because the first guy seemed to be on to something when my ear hung up on him. 

I will try just a game running, but i'm not sure it will make a difference. 

as for linux... it's a good idea in theory, but i need to have a game running for this issue to happen and, well, linux doesn't have games that are demanding. 

I can check the shop for an external sound card on friday, and i will try that. 

I will try the HDMI to my TV to see if the issue persists. 

 

 

EDIT: This is after switching to my GPU for audio. http://gyazo.com/5e6e789fd61b84e01ac39f087d4942b8

Does this rule out my OB Audio as the problem?

[BuntzenB]

That is what the second MSI rep said. (defective board)

I told him i would continue to try, but i am going to call back and get a different person to see what they have to say. 

Kinda sucks because the first guy seemed to be on to something when my ear hung up on him. 

I will try just a game running, but i'm not sure it will make a difference. 

as for linux... it's a good idea in theory, but i need to have a game running for this issue to happen and, well, linux doesn't have games that are demanding. 

I can check the shop for an external sound card on friday, and i will try that. 

I will try the HDMI to my TV to see if the issue persists. 

 

 

EDIT: This is after switching to my GPU for audio. http://gyazo.com/5e6e789fd61b84e01ac39f087d4942b8

Does this rule out my OB Audio as the problem?

 

Hmmph.

yeah it seems kinda hopeless. So the question is - do you RMA your board or ditch ur OB sound and go with something better?

As for the linux thing.. yeah i was thinking that.

And yeah im curious to see what the sound from the GPU is like 

good luck

[TDP_Equinox]

Hmmph.

yeah it seems kinda hopeless. So the question is - do you RMA your board or ditch ur OB sound and go with something better?

As for the linux thing.. yeah i was thinking that.

And yeah im curious to see what the sound from the GPU is like 

good luck

Well see when i'm using HDMI from my GPU for audio, the same thing happens. 

So it shouldn't be the motherboard, right?

Lol, i called MSI a third time, and the guy was totally clueless. 

You really shouldn't know less about the product then the consumer if you are offering help with it

Time to call, again......

EDIT: one more post to 1000 posts. 

EDIT 2: The third and forth call told me to delete windows..... MSI saddens me. 

EDIT 3: i actually ran into the same rep twice. I'm just going to get a soundcard.........

[TDP_Equinox]

Hmmph.

yeah it seems kinda hopeless. So the question is - do you RMA your board or ditch ur OB sound and go with something better?

As for the linux thing.. yeah i was thinking that.

And yeah im curious to see what the sound from the GPU is like 

good luck

Okay, now this is strange. 

When i launched aidia 64 (all tests except discs) and play music, my system crawls, but watching the latency checker yields something weird. 

 

http://gyazo.com/f966212760b3d740d249b3c38833c28c

 

And when i stop the test, 

http://gyazo.com/b9690e657834cd0c540d5a45926f7d88

 

Huhh??

[BuntzenB]

Well see when i'm using HDMI from my GPU for audio, the same thing happens. 

So it shouldn't be the motherboard, right?

 

No-sound from GPU HDMI still comes from your OB sound.

 

Okay, now this is strange. 

When i launched aidia 64 (all tests except discs) and play music, my system crawls, but watching the latency checker yields something weird. 

 

http://gyazo.com/f966212760b3d740d249b3c38833c28c

 

And when i stop the test, 

http://gyazo.com/b9690e657834cd0c540d5a45926f7d88

 

Huhh??

 

Odd. Im not so sure as I'm not an expert in latency.. at this point I'm not sure.

how does the audio sound during testing? (I have some theories as to why theres low latency during gaming)

[TDP_Equinox]

No-sound from GPU HDMI still comes from your OB sound.

 

 

Odd. Im not so sure as I'm not an expert in latency.. at this point I'm not sure.

how does the audio sound during testing? (I have some theories as to why theres low latency during gaming)

the music sounds fine when i am running aida 64.

I have disabled intel speedstep and i am going to test again because what i found was when i am running aida64, the CPU Frequency pretty much locks at 4.2 GHz and that is when the DPC Latency checker shows green, but just idling in windows it goes up and down between 4.0 and 4.4

EDIT: even with speedstep off, while playing borderlands 2 my audio is in the same situation as before, and DPCLC pretty much pins at 16000us

I am going to try and OC it to 4.2 Ghz with speedstep off. 

http://gyazo.com/b3e34e86b8b786b5157f1ab55b2fad04