DPC Latency causing audio pops and crackles

[jasonmdylan]

I'm really hoping someone can help me. I'm pulling my hair out over this. I've done many things but can't seem to find a fix. (My apologies if this is in the wrong forum or I write too much, it's my first time posting here.)

 

So, I recently made a mini-itx gaming build, and I purchased an ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming-itx/ac board. So, the first one I bought had audio pops and crackling. I use the green line out jack. It can happen immediately after it boots into Windows, 10-15 mins after, or sometimes not at all until I restart or turn it on the next day. (Which is why I thought I'd fixed it a few times.) After talking with ASRock support, they said it sounded like a hardware issue and to replace it. So I did an RMA through Newegg and the new board is doing the exact same thing. I have tried other speakers. Speakers using the line out jack always do the crackling. I tried my tv's soundbar with the optical digital and no problems. Disable that and re-enable the line out, it immediately starts up again. Now, if this helps, I put a cheap Gigabyte board in while the RMA was going on so I wouldn't be without a computer and with that board I had no sound problems whatsoever. (I no longer have the Gigabyte board). It's only with the ASRock boards in. I'm not sure if this could be a motherboard specific issue or not?

 

Now doing further research, this appears to be a DPC Latency issue. I don't believe it to be a hardware issue as the same thing happened on two exact boards, but not on another brand?

 

Here are the computers specs:

 

ASRock Fatal1ty gaming-itx/ac

Windows 10 64bit

i7 7700k

16GB Gskill Ripjaw V ram

ASUS Strix 980ti

850w Thermaltake PSU

OS installed on Toshiba SSD

 

Below are pics from two instances I ran of LatencyMon. (First ran Oct 17th and longer runtime on October 18th.)

Here is a dropbox link to the results of running Windows Performance Analyzer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jib8p58zdb1y85/DESKTOP-8EL01F8.10-17-2017.20-17-27.etl?dl=0

 

I'll list everything I've done thus far: (These are not necessarily in the order they were done)

 

Updated bios to P2.30

Downgraded to P2.20

Disabled Wifi in bios

Disabled Wifi in Windows

Disabled Speed Step and other speed options in bios

Disabled other things in bios like PS2 to USB, internal gpu

Uninstalled Intel Rapid Storage Technology

Ran LatencyMon and WPA

Uninstalled/Reinstalled Nvidia Drivers using DDU

Disabled/enabled each item in device manager to try and isolate a particular device driver issue

Removed and replaced each USB device plugged in (leaving only mouse or keyboard at any given time for input)

Unistalled and reinstalled Realtek audio driver

Uninstalled Realtek and just used default Windows audio driver

Turned off audio enhancements in windows sound properties and disabled Creative Labs Sound Blaster Cinema 3

Tried multiple speakers via line out

Made registry edits to supposedly decrease LAN latency, and to disable Nvidia PowerMizer (if that was needed)

Set power option to High Performace, turned HDD Sleep off, Min. Processor State to 100%, Disabled USB Suspend

Did a clean install on Windows 10 and installed no drivers other than Windows default installs (last thing I did)

 

I think this is everything I did. I might be missing one or two things. I've been trying things for weeks.

 

As it stands now, the bios is still on P2.20, all Windows default device drivers installed save for Realtek (none from ASRock site), audio enhancements off in Sound profile, power settings on Balanced profile set to defaults, GPU up to date Nvidia drivers, Wifi still disabled in bios. It seemed to be good for a day and a half, but it's happening again. Makes it such that playing games or listening to music/movies is a pain.

 

I would be soooo grateful for any help.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[JohnMLTX]

Update your DirectX libraries, and run the latest Windows updates.

 

If that doesn't fix it, I'd look at getting a USB DAC or a PCIe sound card.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

enable hpet in windows

 

cmd admin

 

bcdedit /set useplatformclock true

 

reboot

 

and make sure its enabled in bios

[jasonmdylan]

Ok, I updated the directX libraries and enabled hpet via cmd prompt (it was already enabled in bios). After I restarted, sound is good. Granted, it sometimes is anyway, so I'll post back in a day or so with an update as to whether or not it fixed it. Thanks for your help guys.

 

By the way, I don't know if it matters, but I forgot to mention in my original post. As well as trying the digital out, which worked fine, my monitor has built in speakers, and I tested them (mini displayport) via the GPU, and that worked fine as well. So I really do believe it to be isolated to the line out.

 

At any rate, thanks again and I'll update the results soon. 

[jasonmdylan]

Sorry. Those things didn't work. I put the computer to sleep for a few hours. Shortly after I came back to it for some work, the audio issues started again. 

 

Any other ideas?

[jasonmdylan]

Ok, so another update. As I said before, those two things didn't fix the issue. The computer now seems to have lag performing normal tasks though. Opening File Explorer, opening Google Chrome, navigating to websites, etc, which wasn't there prior. I'm getting tremendous CPU spikes for seemingly no reason. I don't have to be doing anything that would put it under load. I just open task manager to monitor, open or navigate through one of the aforementioned programs (and others. It doesn't seem to matter which) and it'll go from 3%-15% (which is usual) up to 80%-100% while just sitting there. I ran LatencyMon while I was asleep, and the results are below:

 

[CrippledROBOT]

On 10/25/2017 at 10:59 AM, jasonmdylan said:

Ok, so another update. As I said before, those two things didn't fix the issue. The computer now seems to have lag performing normal tasks though. Opening File Explorer, opening Google Chrome, navigating to websites, etc, which wasn't there prior. I'm getting tremendous CPU spikes for seemingly no reason. I don't have to be doing anything that would put it under load. I just open task manager to monitor, open or navigate through one of the aforementioned programs (and others. It doesn't seem to matter which) and it'll go from 3%-15% (which is usual) up to 80%-100% while just sitting there. I ran LatencyMon while I was asleep, and the results are below:

 

Did you seem to find a fix yet? I have similar issues. Check motherboard website for new BIOS update. Run Memtest86+ to ensure that the RAM is actually good. I hear that this may be an issue (and will check myself ASAP). Turn off XMP profile on RAM. Update chipset drivers again. If all else continues to fail, do a full, CLEAN windows 10 install. 

 

I REALLY hope that this is NOT the case, but if the issue persists, we may (both) have some weird sort of hardware incompatibility issue that cannot be remedied very easily. In regards to one other individual who suggested purchasing an external DAC, if the audio issues are indeed caused by some weird latency issue, I personally do not believe that a DAC would actually improve anything. If all those suggestions fail, it seems to be and based on my searching that your only options are to do a fresh PC build. I too have tried basically all that you have done and am still encountering these issues. 

[heethoofd27]

I've had these exact same problems ever since the fall creators update. Have you guys experienced this too? Otherwise it might just be a driver/windows issue.

[Betta]

Out of curiosity, try disabling your wireless card in Device Manager. Wireless cards are notorious for causing this issue in the audio world, although looking at your DPC latency values, they are quite a bit higher than what I've seen typically. 

[CrippledROBOT]

1 hour ago, Betta said:

Out of curiosity, try disabling your wireless card in Device Manager. Wireless cards are notorious for causing this issue in the audio world, although looking at your DPC latency values, they are quite a bit higher than what I've seen typically. 

I have similar symptoms and that didn't work unfortunately

I think it's just subpar motherboard manufacturing at this point and the drivers simply not communicating with the board 

[Betta]

What about switching PCIe slots/re-seating the GPU? Sometimes redoing a physical connection can fix these sorts of issues. I've had other types of issues where just reseating the GPU fixed it. 

 

[CrippledROBOT]

47 minutes ago, Betta said:

What about switching PCIe slots/re-seating the GPU? Sometimes redoing a physical connection can fix these sorts of issues. I've had other types of issues where just reseating the GPU fixed it. 

 

Both of us are on itx boards where switching the slot is not possible. Otherwise I'd personally try it! As for the reseating, I will give that a try. Here is a link to some other people with similar issues: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97220-Maximus-X-Audio-Popping/page5

[jasonmdylan]

Now that this thread has picked up again, I'll say that I was able to get my DPC latency under control about two weeks ago. (Don't ask me to remember all the things I did). The crackling still persisted even with the normal latency, though. So I got a DAC which led me to post another thread. So I made one step forward, two steps back. lol