high DPC latency and audio distortion (crackling and popping sounds)

Hi guys,

Yesterday evening I was watching some youtube videos when suddenly the sound cut out. I turned the volume back up only to find there was a loud staticky crackling pop as the only audio output. Audio output is fine on headphones.

I have a Lenovo Yoga 920 (with highest specs) with Windows 10 home 64x bit. Since the issue arose, I have tried several things:

- disable/enable drivers by REALTEK related to sound, and Qualcomm Wifi Network Adapter

-Reinstall drivers via windows and directly via REALTEK website

- Update Windows 10 OS as well as BIOS

- Messed around with several battery plan settings

- Restored PC to previous backup, then messed around with audio mixer. This helped, as there was no distortion until volume 20, but beyond that it was the exact same issue.

- Lastly, I resorted to just resetting my computer (deleting all files, etc.)

My next step would be to do a clean install of windows 10 but I need to be using my computer and was wondering if there is a better way.

I believe this is a software/driver related issue as I was partially able to fix it by messing with the mixer settings (even when not having restored my PC). However, this "fix" doesn't work since I reset my PC...

I installed LatencyMon, and the results are below:

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CONCLUSION
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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. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. 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 0:00:37 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


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SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: DESKTOP-LGEOIBC
OS version: Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware: 80Y7, LENOVO, LNVNB161216
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 16225 MB total


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CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed: 1992.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 3593.0 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.


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MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
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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): 929.927472
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 8.979495

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 447.742857
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2.455677


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REPORTED ISRs
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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): 111.240964
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.009347
Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.011471

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 3448
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


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REPORTED DPCs
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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): 2023.446285
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 1.553956
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 1.770268

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 85746
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 4786
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 104
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


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REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
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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.


Process with highest pagefault count: none

Total number of hard pagefaults 0
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 0
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 0.0
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.0
Number of processes hit: 0


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PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.591193
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 111.240964
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.034046
CPU 0 ISR count: 3422
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 718.909639
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.306354
CPU 0 DPC count: 27570
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.245845
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 13.325301
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000238
CPU 1 ISR count: 26
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 727.685241
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.039950
CPU 1 DPC count: 4244
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.614998
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 2 ISR count: 0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2023.446285
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 4.680427
CPU 2 DPC count: 32869
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.239530
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 674.337349
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.042118
CPU 3 DPC count: 4638
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CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.173858
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): 873.683735
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.024456
CPU 4 DPC count: 3729
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CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.231268
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): 820.943775
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.084043
CPU 5 DPC count: 6057
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CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.156598
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): 554.286647
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.024860
CPU 6 DPC count: 4525
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CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.198202
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): 653.330321
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.088627
CPU 7 DPC count: 7005
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Thank you in advance for your help!