Issues with sound in games, sounds like it's on the radio

Question Asker · 18 Feb 2018

For some reason some games I play will start screwing up.

Recently I played Stellaris and the sound would just fade and rise in volume. Sometimes audio might dip by 90% of decibels and then other times it sounds like I'm listening to the radio inside a tunnel.

Youtube is fine, and mp3 files are fine, but a number of intensive games are not.

Oddly enough Battlefront 2 is fine, but (I think?) CIV 5 is not.
This varies from game to game but it's horrendously strange.

Perhaps this is also related to battery issues; on battery, my computer struggles to keep up consistent performance.

Playing games like DOTA or League of Legends on battery should be no problem for me, but the fact that I'm on battery power introduces very small stutters. My FPS is high, however the game is in no way smooth. It feels in some way that my computer is itself adding maybe 120ms ping onto the game in some strange kind of stuttering I can't really describe. The game is in no way unplayable, but to me feels very irregular.

The reason this is strange is that I once used an earlier model of my current laptop, I think an Asus K501L and these problems didn't exist at all. And that just because I'm on battery shouldn't mean that my game starts having micro-micro stutters.

Issues with sound in games, sounds like it's on the radio-image.png

I have a NVIDIA 950m

I have a few audio-related programs which are installed. I have tried killing them with task manager, wondering if they would do anything, but I don't believe that they do much.
Conexant HD audio
ICEpower audio wizard

And I also have EarTrumpet.
Your request appears to be from an automated process

Device manager...

Would very much appreciate solutions to either of the problems mentioned

dalchina · 19 Feb 2018

Hi, if you're experiencing stutter, then the tool you need to start with is Resplendence's LatencyMon (free). Download, install and run and you'll get a report which will indicate if your system has a (probably driver-related) problem.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

However going from that to a resolution is not straightforward.

Searching the forum for Latency Mon (there are more results) offers e.g.
Audio crackling due to nvlddmkm.sys Nvidia driver latency issue - Windows 10 Forums
Random Stuttering / DPC Latency Nightmare - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums
DPC Latency with Storport.sys and Wdf0 1000.sys - Windows 10 Forums
Troublesome drivers causeing latency issues Solved - Windows 10 Forums

Helmut · 19 Feb 2018

You have an issue of what hardware you have and how to configure it within limits.

Laptops like those are physically very slim, thus power dissipation is very limited in comparison with say a Desktop tower.

As you can see from the specs a U series CPU processor and an M series Graphics chipset is used. The reason those are used is that they take many power saving measures.

Those power saving measures increase when using battery only.
That is your clue, you experience a difference when using battery only.

Along with those Power saving features performance takes a hit of some sort.

The areas to look at are the Advanced Power Options. Sections of that like Graphics, Processor power management, Multimedia settings.
You need to do that for plugged in use and battery.

Manufacturers like ASUS like to bung in extras like Audio addons and sometimes another section in the Power Saving functionality, causing further complications and duplications.

If you have no knowledge of these areas then it is likely you make things worse and/or increase power dissipation causing overheating. You have to be very careful what you do.

The solution will not be easy, a lot of options and you have to understand how Laptops work in order to save power.

Games are basically designed for Desktop PCs, Desktop processors, and Video chipsets.

Question Asker · 19 Feb 2018

Thanks I will try suggestions but I think you are not accounting for the issue that a previous laptop of mine had no problems which I mentioned.

Well this is what the program says for me

Helmut · 19 Feb 2018

Perhaps you had better read what that says in red. That mentions at least 3 things that I do.

Your description of sound issues is not anything particularly unusual it's reproduceable on almost any modern laptop, with popular audio chipsets, in games and other scenarios, including my Laptop with a common Realtek chipset.

Games sound is particularly a synthetic production and on top of that is piled audio chipset effects and even additional stuff from various addons. Quite a nightmare of complications.
You said yourself.
"I have a few audio-related programs which are installed."
That complicates things, how about you uninstall every fancy add-on leaving the basic essentials for your Audio Chipset.

Obviously I don't have your old Laptop so I can't take unknown hardware in to account.

dalchina · 19 Feb 2018

Hi, here's my collection of posts and info on stutter from posts on this forum (attached):

Please research and use these for guidance. There may not be one simple immediately evident answer.

Question Asker · 22 Feb 2018

Helmut said:

Perhaps you had better read what that says in red. That mentions at least 3 things that I do.

Your description of sound issues is not anything particularly unusual it's reproduceable on almost any modern laptop, with popular audio chipsets, in games and other scenarios, including my Laptop with a common Realtek chipset.

Games sound is particularly a synthetic production and on top of that is piled audio chipset effects and even additional stuff from various addons. Quite a nightmare of complications.
You said yourself.
"I have a few audio-related programs which are installed."
That complicates things, how about you uninstall every fancy add-on leaving the basic essentials for your Audio Chipset.

Obviously I don't have your old Laptop so I can't take unknown hardware in to account.

Thank you, but that's not supposed to be fancy, they are rather default programs that came in the laptop. That would be why I am not up to uninstall them.

dalchina · 22 Feb 2018

Please read thru the document I posted. People in those threads have found some solutions. It's not as straightforward as your sentence above. There is not one single straightfoward solution.