Audio Losing Sync In Videos  

OS: v1809, build 17763.973

Within the last week, videos I was watching with the program MPC-HC started losing sync fairly quickly in videos. Then, today, while simply watching a 5 minute YouTube video, as the video progressed it started losing sync.

Other symptom: when playing audio files in the last few weeks, I'm hearing some pops, dropouts, and yesterday, audio left entirely. First I thought cable, but with the rest of the above going on, maybe my motherboard is dying?

With pops and dropouts I would suspect the free (and popular) Resplendence Latency Mon will help with trying to find the problem.
Download, install and run the program. I have a recording studio and those of us that do a lot of audio work use this program when troubleshooting audio problems.

Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

fireberd said:

With pops and dropouts I would suspect the free (and popular) Resplendence Latency Mon will help with trying to find the problem. Download, install and run the program. I have a recording studio and those of us that do a lot of audio work use this program when troubleshooting audio problems. Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

Thx, fireberd, will do. I realize now I'm experiencing the issues with BOTH:

1. Onboard sound - sync issues AND dropouts, pops
2. My Focusrite Scarlett 18i8

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As the latency report says, my system is having trouble handling real-time audio. Since this is a new issue, what might be the source?

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Hi all, using task monitor to see what's going on with CPU usage and power usage, here's what I found:

1. Memory stays steady at 5.3/15.9 GB
2. CPU Usage:

• When at rest with a music player, Thunderbird and Firefox open, a, CPU usage is around 2-7%
• When watching online video, CPU usage usually runs around 10-12% with spikes up to 18% once in a while, with Firefox being the spiker.
• When my DAW software runs with Focusrite Recording Interface engaged, CPU usage is around 4-7%

3. Power usage is generally very low across the board

• Firefox is Low. When video plays it can momentarily be moderate
• DAW software is Low

QUESTIONS:
A. What can cause this to all of a sudden start happening? And given that this is recently occuring;
B. What to try next?

I would first look at what you have in startup and what apps you have running when you ran latency mon. Many can be interferring and causing system problems.

I only have minimum in start up on my recording system and do not use Chrome and only Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes. I also disable the Internet when recording. Some antivirus software has been known to be too invasive.

Look at the Latency Mon "Stats" and "Processes" as that gives you much more info on what is the potential problem.

Thanks, fireberd. As I was doing my morning tasks I had a YouTube video on...hmm...it was in sync. "What's wrong? It's right!" Hmm... Then, as you suggested I re-ran LatencyMon right now. Results are all green. Stats and Processes look okay. I do keep startup at a minimum. Played an audio track. No pops, dropouts. No problem with a basic audio player or Cakewalk with plugins running.

Hmm... If I trusted that it would stay this way, I'd be celebrating but I'm wondering both when the other shoe will drop, and what makes it drop.

Will track throughout the day. IF it reverts to its latent laden state, I'll re-run and look at stats and processes.

Grateful for your guidance!

Keep an eye on what is running (or not running). By the way I'm an old time Sonar user and still have Sonar Platinum along with the BandLab Cakewalk and also Studio One 4.6 Pro.

fireberd said:

Keep an eye on what is running (or not running). By the way I'm an old time Sonar user and still have Sonar Platinum along with the BandLab Cakewalk and also Studio One 4.6 Pro.

fireberd, glad to see you're a Platinum guy. It's still it resident on my PC to access all the old stuff. So grateful for Bandlab! I've been with Cakewalk since the early Cakewalk (pre-Sonar) days. That said...

My PC makers at SilentPC are amazing. Even though my system is 7 years old (still has fine specs) instead of trying to sell me a new system, they've been helping me troubleshoot this alongside you. That's just cool of them. Results: 1. Memory test - passed. 2. Hard drive integrity - passed.
Sent them the Latency Monitor results and they said that at this point:
"The last thing to do before calling this a core component such as the Motherboard, we need to rule out if it is related to Windows or the installed software. Unfortunately, the best way to do this is a fresh load of Windows. If the fresh load resolves the issue you know the hardware is good. I would recommend getting a drive you can use to do this rather than erase one of the drives that has your current load on it. Alternatively you can stop processes and hopefully track down the one causing the problem assuming it is a software problem."

While I do have a spare drive in my system I'm not savvy enough to know how to install Win10 on a separate drive while having the rest of my system disengaged. I've also tried to watch Latency Monitor for processes that I can disable but I can't tell which of the processes to disable and which will cripple my system if I do. I've uninstalled software that was recent. No change. Hell, I even updated Windows today from 1809 to 1909 (with great trepidation) but the update seems fine though the issue persists.

At this point I'd order a new system but I'm a bit concerned I'd load stuff in and get the same problem. Ideas???

I started with Sonar in version 6.

I once installed Chrome and immediately had dropout problems. I uninstalled Chrome but still had the dropouts. Turned out to be the Google updater program. I uninstalled that but still had fragments left over. I had to manually edit the registry and remove all traces of Google. That stopped the dropouts. Thats been back in the Win 7 days and to this day I don't install any Google programs. Some antivirus programs were on the "no no" list back in the Sonar days. Some can be very invasive and cause problems. I find the free Windows Defender does not cause audio problelms and only use that. That said, a clean install is a very good suggestion.

One other issue that may help in isolating is to disable the NIC (network) and then run Latency Mon. I still go back to the old (Sonar and Win 7) days where disabling the internet was a must to avoid problems.

Another example, I bought a new Dell laptop (a gaming laptop as it has more cooling) to use in my studio for off site recordings. I couldn't tame the Dell installation and after doing what I could to Windows I still got a dropout about every 10 minutes during recordings. The laptop came with an M.2 SSD for OS and programs. It had space to install a laptop hard drive or a full size SSD. I had a spare SSD and installed that and installed another Windows 10 as dual boot. The new install only has Win 10, needed drivers and my recording software and recording interface drivers. It runs clean and the first time I used it I recorded a 3 hour concert for a band and no problems. That is another reason to do a "clean" install.

According to the DPC Latency screenshot there is some mention of USBPort.sys driver. Do yo have any external USB attached when watching videos? Try unplugging it.

In the interim, take a look at this post by Dalchina here.