Audio Crackling/Popping and DPC Latency Issues

jstarton said:

I have tried a variety of solution including; upgrade/downgrading bios, updating/uninstalling/downgrading drivers for audio and gpu, disable HPET and dynamicTick,

You have really done your home work, just posting this for the future reference:

Code:

reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl" /v "Win32PrioritySeparation " /t REG_DWORD /d "38" /f
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} removememory
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} truncatememory
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} useplatformclock
bcdedit /deletevalue {default} removememory
bcdedit /deletevalue {default} truncatememory
bcdedit /deletevalue {default} useplatformclock
bcdedit /set {current} disabledynamictick yes
bcdedit /set {default} disabledynamictick yes

jstarton said:

The soundcard itself is the one onboard.

With your hardware, I would invest into a soundcard, it could be caused by EMF. I used to have that.

jstarton said:

msmpeng.exe

Microsoft Defender, it is the first thing I always disable at any computer. I do not like hardware killers.

jstarton said:

Hopefully someone here can provide some suggestion on steps I should take to help resolve this

Try Intelligent standby list cleaner. Set timer to 0.5ms and start it to purge standby memory. Comparison.

TairikuOkami said:

With your hardware, I would invest into a soundcard, it could be caused by EMF. I used to have that.

Yeah. I was considering that also, but I'm not sure which ones are good investments and have a tangible upgrade over the onboard Realtek ALC1200/1200P codec. Also, spending like ~$200 is sort of out of budget for me atm. Could you provide some options, if possible?

TairikuOkami said:

Try Intelligent standby list cleaner. Set timer to 0.5ms and start it to purge standby memory. Comparison.

I did try this, didn't quite help but I do have an update to the situation.

Prior to browsing tenforums, I had my Motherboard manufacturers;
Realtek HD Universal Driver | Version: 6.0.9102.1 | Release Date: 2021-02-05

I found this thread Determine the HDA Realtek driver needed for your Audio
Which recommended me to download Version 6.0.9116.1 via the script provided; which I then upgraded to. I also updated used DDU to clean my GPU drivers and reinstalled the latest NVidia drivers version 461.92.

Today, I uninstalled and delete drivers for the Realtek (and let windows install whatever drivers it wants High Definition Audio Device in this case version 10.0.19041.264) and used DDU to clean the GPU and Realtek drivers.

After rebooting I was checking latency and it was fine during this time and the Intelligent Standby List Cleaner did seem to keep it under 500µs

Didn't run it for very long but looked fine and worked okay. Now to test if it was the audio or GPU drivers, however this time I installed the 462.07 (beta hotfix driver). Note, I didn't reinstall the Realtek Audio drivers only the GPU drivers with everything selected.
Results:
LatencyMon Stats:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CONCLUSION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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. 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 1:13:47 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
SYSTEM INFORMATION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Computer name: DESKTOP-10PE5RG
OS version: Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware: MS-7C94, Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Logical processors: 12
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 32694 MB total


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU SPEED
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Reported CPU speed: 360 MHz

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.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 6214.0
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 4.887078

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 6206.20
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2.026143


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED ISRs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 54.360
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft
Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.003661
Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft
Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.003661

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 3465372
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED DPCs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 2050.080
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 462.07 ,
NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.119931
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 462.07 ,
NVIDIA Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.289060

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 33398758
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 2038
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 18
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 5
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the
audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: nvcontainer.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 70276
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 32761
Number of processes hit: 82


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
PER CPU DATA
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 306.098406
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 34.040
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 1.116597
CPU 0 ISR count: 1981217
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2050.080
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 144.391583
CPU 0 DPC count: 31830514
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 45.049974
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 54.360
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.374910
CPU 1 ISR count: 609026
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 617.630
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 6.469992
CPU 1 DPC count: 798445
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 29.445605
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 20.840
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.00210
CPU 2 ISR count: 2540
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 170.740
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.214241
CPU 2 DPC count: 94298
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.794981
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.080
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000005
CPU 3 ISR count: 6
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 218.660
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.187489
CPU 3 DPC count: 89707
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.019231
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): 182.670
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.122538
CPU 4 DPC count: 46365
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 29.758376
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): 169.820
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.072041
CPU 5 DPC count: 27466
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.530599
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): 218.140
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.127184
CPU 6 DPC count: 39426
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 24.433082
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): 175.230
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.081284
CPU 7 DPC count: 28178
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 29.768065
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 27.030
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0.140934
CPU 8 ISR count: 300100
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 146.290
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0.298817
CPU 8 DPC count: 99937
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.985502
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 10.670
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0.017078
CPU 9 ISR count: 30717
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 237.770
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0.120682
CPU 9 DPC count: 46252
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 34.527355
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 35.330
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0.094457
CPU 10 ISR count: 170486
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 591.450
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0.640723
CPU 10 DPC count: 141898
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 34.773366
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 30.720
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0.198692
CPU 11 ISR count: 371280
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 228.950
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0.839315
CPU 11 DPC count: 158333
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____

I ran this for about an hour and currently haven't had very many popping sounds, crackling or video playback being desynced from audio. Though, it peaks on launch of and usage duration of some program.

The weird thing is that I had already tried this tactic day 1 of the issue, but I only tried with GPU Driver version 461.72 and 461.92 with Realtek drivers version 6.0.9102.1 and the issue presisted then so I wasn't sure about the root cause.

At this point I'm guessing the main cause is NVidia Drivers conflicting with the 6.0.9102.1 and newer? I also haven't installed the Realtek drivers again yet, I want to leave it for a day or so and check how daily usage affect it's and if I haven't tested it for long enough.

Sorry about the massive wall of text, but I thought it might be important to post an update to my situation.

[UPDATE] Shortly after posting this around 09:57:11 UTC the video-audio desync return as well as more frequent popping. Guess the main cause is probably the nvidia drivers, is anyone able to recommend a version I could try?

Though I might a post an update, based on some testing and looking at the Conflicts/Sharing. The GPU is sharing with 2 different PCI-to-PCI Bridges, disabling them caused the issue to effectively stop, resulting in latency being around 20-60µs avg and spikes to about 300µs depending on a program.

That seems good but the disabled PCI-to-PCI bridge's also controls the Intel WiFi 6 AX200 integrated to the motherboard and the Realtek PCIe 2.5GbE Family Controller (LAN).

I did initially test with the wifi and lan devices disabled but that did help but it still did spike about 1000µs on some occasions but I'm guess that may be caused other things still using the pci-to-pci bridge itself.

Maybe someone here will be able to explain why the sharing works this way? Also, if there are any workarounds for this?