Windows 7: Network usage causes high DPC Latency

I have the same problem (and I'm not using any torrent or otherwise high network usage program). After a day or so, DPC latency creeps up and causes noise in my sound card. After system startup, latency is in the green levels, but after running a day or so, it's perpetually running in the red. If I then disable the network adapter (NIC), latency immediately drops to green levels. However, if I then enable the network adapter, it immediately spikes perpetually into the red. I have to reboot to reset the condition so that it's running in the green (so that I can listen to music without horrible crackles and stutters).

I also tried swapping the network adapter but I have exactly the same issue with both network adapters.

It took me many hours of troubleshooting just to get to the point where I can see the issue using the DPC Latency Checker (after swapping several sound cards, video cards and such). This is driving me nuts!



Thanks bundles for any suggestions!!

I've tried several NICS and clearly some are worse than others, but they all eventually show DPC latency spikes and therefore affect the audio.
What is the commonality that causes this? I've never had this problem in any other OS. Is it a problem in Windows 7? Or should I be looking at my Motherboard?

Please help! This is driving me crazy! I can't listen to music, unless I reboot first.

All I can say is, I feel your pain

What if you obtain a red bar once in a while, is that bad too?

An occasional spike might not cause noticable distortion. I usually only hear the noise when I get a group of spikes together. Then it's reboot time.

thanks for your answer you are very kind.

very popular problem without solution

I see this is not exactly a fresh thread, but even with a lot of DPC latency issues out there being documented, it seems that tracking down the cuase is a science in itself! I've never had any issues until I installed my new gigabyte GTX 460 - along with which came a new driver (1st version for this card). Now, I've been having issues when playing back music and, as it would appear, surfing the net and using keyboard. Yup, that's right - that's the only 'reproduceable' cuase... Need Foobar2000 open, along with a browser (IE, Chrome, FF, doesn't matter), and I have to be typing or clicking, and then the popping sounds start left and right. Stop typing, and it's all under control. Now, the interesting part is that nothing else changed in my system but the video card and its driver. All other stuff (hardware and software) are all the same as before and I had no issues at all - zero! Odd eh?

I've tried many drivers and swapped ALL components out of my system and I see the same issue.
Installed the Codec lite pack .
Disabled speaker effects (enhancements).
Twiddled with every imaginable setting in the Sound panel in Windows 7
Turned off Aero to use a basic theme
Uninstalled any energy saving software by the mobo manufacturer (asus)
Reset the BIOS to the factory default settings.
Flashed the system BIOS to several different versions.
Reinstalled the operating system from ground up.


swapped several different sound cards, internal and external.
swapped several different nics.
Swapped the Video Card.
I even swapped the MoBo with a similar model.

The only think I haven't swapped is the CPU and Power supply. Neither seem likely culprits for a sound problem.

The only thing that affects the popping is a reboot, which resolves it for a few hours, or disabling the network adapter, which resolves the issue 100%, but I sort of need network access.

It sure seems inherent to Windows 7.

DarrylGittins - I'm curious, what network adapter do you have (model) and which driver version do you have installed. It's pretty clear that if disabling it resolves the issue 100%, then that's what is causing the issue (sorry, I know that sounds cheeky but I'm not being a smart-a**). Anyway, give us the details about the adapter. Thanks.