Sound issues after a system rebuild & reset

I decided to "upgrade" my PC after 5 years. It started with just a graphics card change, but when I couldn't figure it out - I sent it to the shop. The guy told me my power supply was bad & I needed a new case so I decided why not change the processor, RAM, & motherboard while I was at it? At the end of the day pretty much the only thing left was my hard drive, plus they added my old hard drive from my 2009 PC in it, so I could get my old files off. Now I'm left with this Frankenstein machine that doesn't run very smoothly, & the sound started out decent, but it began to crackle randomly & eventually stopped working off & on. I tried various troubleshooting methods, reinstalling the drivers, uninstalling the whole thing then reinstalling, searching for the drivers online, installing from my hard drive, upgrading Windows with the updates, Resetting my PC, using aftermarket amplifiers, etc. Basically, everything that I was able to find from every tech forum I could find. It seems no one has my exact situation. They also don't have 2 hard drives either. After the reset I have 90% sound with a slight static, but it's annoying. The sound was perfect before the rebuild which leads me to think that it's a hardware issue. I've tried different head sets & plugging into different USB slots, & even using the male ends of the jacks. I get the same results. This makes me think it's a software issue since I get different results depending on how much I mess with the drivers (but it just goes from bad to worse). What I don't understand is how changing the chip set would do this? The sound was perfect on this same hard drive before the rebuild. Could a new GPU, CPU, motherboard, etc cause this issue? If so... how can I troubleshoot such a thing? I don't have the ability to take it apart again, nor the funds. Please help.

Thanks.

Windows 10 Ver 20H2 (OS Build 19042.928)

Old Build:
Motherboard - ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+
CPU - A6-6400 APU
Ram: 8 GB
Graphics Card - Nvidia GT 740

New Build:
Motherboard: MSI B365M Pro-VDH
CPU - Pentium Gold G5500
Ram: Samsung 16 GB DDR4 PC4-21300 2666 MHz UDIMM
Graphics Card - Gigabyte RX 570 4 GB

I've mentioned this before on other sound problem threads. Every PC I've had or worked on with an NVIDIA video card has had latency problems (crackles/pops/dropouts, etc). I have a recording studio and was never able to tame the NVIDIA's so I now only use AMD video (and recommend that to my clients). I've seen a few posts on recording forums of users using NVIDIA but mostly its AMD.

fireberd said:

I've mentioned this before on other sound problem threads. Every PC I've had or worked on with an NVIDIA video card has had latency problems (crackles/pops/dropouts, etc). I have a recording studio and was never able to tame the NVIDIA's so I now only use AMD video (and recommend that to my clients). I've seen a few posts on recording forums of users using NVIDIA but mostly its AMD.

As noted - I changed from NVDIA to AMD RX 570. That is where the problems began. I noticed after updating my Windows or reinstalling it will work for a day or so (slight crackle) & then (like today) it lags or crackles. Today it was a distinct lag. The first time I noticed it actually lagging. This is the first time anyone has mentioned "latency" to me before with the sound. It makes sense since when I play a youtube video the voices are slowed down. When it first started the sound was at full speed, but it was fuzzy. I've never ran an AMD before so it seems all my problems are with the AMD. I also noticed that it is the first time my computer shows 2 drivers for sound (the AMD & the Realtek HD Audio). However I did try disabling the AMD & vice versa to resolve the issue obviously. Neither worked. The AMD will not work without the Realtek. Realtek is the big boy here.

- - - Updated - - -

I ran latency mon & this is what I got: Could someone explain this in English please? It seems to confirm that Realtek is the issue. It's telling me to do something with power throttling but when I google that, it shows for laptops. This is a desktop. All of my power throttling options show disabled. (Note to self & others: I'm going to leave this here & go to the next app on the list & also check the BIOS settings to see if there is something to be done there. Will update if so).

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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. Also one or more ISR 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 0:06:04 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


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SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: PC
OS version: Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware: MS-7C39, Micro-Star International Co., Ltd., B365M PRO-VDH(MS-7C39)
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) Gold G5500 CPU @ 3.80GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 16326 MB total


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CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed: 3792 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.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



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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): 3061.80
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 7.231047

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2604.30
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.985233


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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): 3057.904008
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.010917
Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.011974

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 12221
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): 14
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): 8488.567511
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.115744
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.226680

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 348365
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 24
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 16
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 18
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.

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: chrome.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 664
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 281
Number of processes hit: 24


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PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 10.249185
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3057.904008
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.170324
CPU 0 ISR count: 10369
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3103.871835
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 2.965192
CPU 0 DPC count: 313914
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.824411
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 139.896624
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.004156
CPU 1 ISR count: 1866
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2297.635549
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.107874
CPU 1 DPC count: 10825
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.153153
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): 8488.567511
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.158756
CPU 2 DPC count: 15665
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.256402
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): 2243.531646
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.071191
CPU 3 DPC count: 8021
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