Audio Popping Issues on Windows 7 x64 Home Premium

guywithcomputer · 17 May 2015

This problem I have been trying to figure out for a while now and I can't really find out how to solve it. The problem I have been having is that there are minor audio pops and crackles with my computer and I first used google to help. It said something about DPC Latency and I downloaded a program called latencymon. According to the program, my system is having trouble processing real-time audio and I might experience dropouts. The program also says that the biggest problem is the interrupts, which reach about 6,000us while browsing and sometimes idle on the desktop. I tried updating drivers such as the Realtek Ethernet driver, the Realtek sound drivers, and also the Renasas usb drivers along with the nvidia drivers. I have no idea what to do to solve this does anyone have any ideas?

fireberd · 17 May 2015

First, what model Dell? (Model and number, e.g. Insprion 530S).

This problem can have many different causes. There is no "one fix" for the problem. If you scan through back postings on this forum section you will find many threads on the problem.

The Latency Mon program can help, however it floods you with information and hard to digest it all and figure out what the cause is.

Is your problem only with on-line audio? Or does ALL audio have the problem? Do you have a wired internet connection or wireless? (wi fi is one known cause). If its on-line does it do it with Internet Explorer? (since you list Chrome as your browser).

Have always had the problem? or did it work OK initially?

More questions than I can provide answers.

guywithcomputer · 17 May 2015

The Model is an Alienware Aurora R3 (late 2011) and the problem is with both online audio and with games. Most notable is when I was watching Netflix with google chrome and when I opened a new tab while a show was playing, there were small audio pops. It has always had this problem and I only just recently started looking into it. Also I have wired Ethernet and don't use WiFi.

fireberd · 17 May 2015

Sound is considered "low priority" by Windows and is on a shared Interrupt (IRQ) with some other higher priority device. Depending on the circumstances that can cause some of the problem.

One thing to try is to open the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the Realtek sound and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. Sometimes it will put the sound on a different shared IRQ and that may help the problem.

You mention the problem with games and on-line. How is the sound if just play a commercial audio CD or an audio song file stored on the PC? Don't have the browser open and no game running. Just play the audio file.

Dell has a special forum, just for Alienware owners. If you don't get it resolved here, consider posting on the Dell forum.
Alienware Club - Dell Community

guywithcomputer · 17 May 2015

Ok so I tried the thing with the IRQL and rebooted and I also tried playing audio files on the desktop without any browsers or games running. When playing without any browsers or games running, the audio files I played had no popping and played fine. It seems to be just with internet and gaming stuff that gives me some problems.

fireberd · 18 May 2015

Go to the Dell Alienware forum I linked and see if someone there has any suggestions.

guywithcomputer · 18 May 2015

I posted in the Alienware Club forum a while back about this and I got no replies. So I'm here because of that.

fireberd · 19 May 2015

Since this happens on line with Chrome, how about Internet Explorer? does it happen with I.E. too?

Can you post part of the Latency Mon listing? Don't need it all but the first part may help.

guywithcomputer · 19 May 2015

Here is what LatencyMon says:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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 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 2:08:55 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: GAMING-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: Aurora-R3, Alienware, 046MHW
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 6125 MB total

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU SPEED
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Reported CPU speed: 3392.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 316.0 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.

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 3254.910212
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 6.438904

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 228.202923
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.981289

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 186.720519
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.009807
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.018592

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 2342840
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

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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): 304.893278
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: tcpip.sys - TCP/IP Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.008597
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: rspLLL64.sys - Resplendence Latency Monitoring and Auxiliary Kernel Library, Resplendence Software Projects Sp.

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.038321

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 10277742
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 9
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
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: nvbackend.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 7281
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 5154
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 470904.840212
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.066392
Number of processes hit: 26

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 73.530389
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 186.720519
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 11.505894
CPU 0 ISR count: 2342840
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 280.06250
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 21.482577
CPU 0 DPC count: 9809650
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 46.768318
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 1 ISR count: 0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 250.679835
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.135715
CPU 1 DPC count: 12399
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 36.886314
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): 225.432783
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.346646
CPU 2 DPC count: 107499
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 59.905766
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): 279.174528
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.395317
CPU 3 DPC count: 19974
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.003546
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): 230.872642
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.347540
CPU 4 DPC count: 100997
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 75.393875
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): 259.557193
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.021441
CPU 5 DPC count: 1835
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 33.593683
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): 246.862028
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.776991
CPU 6 DPC count: 124357
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 40.928825
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): 304.893278
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.209946
CPU 7 DPC count: 101040
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____

smiths22 · 19 May 2015

I've been having this issue since day 1 when windows 7 was released.....as far as i know nothing can be done, this latency is just another windows 7 "feature". Hope Windows 10 gets better.

Now i wonder if perhaps Windows 8 and 8.1 got rid of the latency issue.... i bet they don't.