Sound pops and crackles. Not DPC. Specific symptoms.

[oz555]

Hi. My audio has been suffering from pops, clicks and crackles during play. I have two sound cards and an independent USB headset. All suffer the same regardless of enhancements, enabled status or installation order Having done a lot of research and tried just about everything including fresh re-installing Windows 7 and 10 twice and tested audio at each stage in the driver install process, updated drivers , bought new GTX980TI graphics card, new sound card, new PSU, disabled components one at a time in device manager including network adapters. Disabled HPET/Speedstep, updated BIOS, changed sample rates, disabled enhancements etc etc.

This problem is most noticeable in Iracing, but can also effect streaming media and other games.

This does not appear to be a DPC issue. Latency Mon and DPC latency checker run clear. However the page fault bar in Latency Mon can spike, but not trigger a negative result.

My question is quite specific to the timing of the pops and clicks and to see if it rings any bells.

The problem occurs mostly when revving an engine whilst stationary. This produces a feint but very annoying crackle from all speakers which disappears once we get moving. Also, when a tyre touches a curb or grass on the apex of a corner. The change of road surface makes the sound pop. The same can be said sometimes for the instant I change gear.

A mouse click on a browser button can also produce pops in audio.

Any Ideas?

I also have a new Plantronics 788 USB headset. Same problem, so it's definitely not my speakers.

Asus Maximus 1V Extreme Z with newest BIOS on optimised defaults within ROG, Realtek HD onboard audio, Asus Xonar DGX sound card, MSI GTX 980TI, Itel I7 2700k, Seasonic S12G-650 650W 80+ Gold Certified Wired Power Supply, Sandisc SSD with Windows 7, Seperate HDD for files and some games,

 

[fireberd]

Other than the game and browser button, do you get any noise in audio?
Only use (have enabled) one sound card at a time. More than one and conflicts can happen. Windows only allows one default audio playback device, anyway.

Are you using a wired internet connection or Wi-Fi? Wi-Fi is a known cause of pops, clicks, etc.

 

[oz555]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

I get sound pops and crackles with You Tube streaming video also. Again, the timing of these sounds are not random. They appear often at a change of scene, change of clip in a compilation or at the start or end of speech. Tried in Explorer and Chrome. Other racing games suffer similar issues at the same specific times. Change of surface, gear etc. The pops seem to coincide with actual events. Playing music in Media Player though is fine, unless I skip forward in which case the accompanied mouse click will often result in an audio pop.

The problem persists with only one sound card enabled.

I am using a wired connection but have also tried a wireless adapter without success.

Cheers

 

[fireberd]

My thought is it is software or application caused and not an actual problem with the sound hardware.

If it was a problem with the sound, it would do it on any sound, and since it works OK playing music, it goes back to something other than the sound hardware.

 

[oz555]

Makes sense. Ok. I'll keep digging. Thanks very much for your time. Much appreciated.

Mike

 

[oz555]

It seems I am getting latency issues. Last time I tried was with Windows 10 and I think the software was incompatible. Was just wondering if anyone would be so kind as to have a quick look at these results. The driver latency looks ok to me, but I'm not really sure what I should be focusing on.

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 0:12:07 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: ASUSTeK Computer INC., Maximus IV Extreme-Z
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2700K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8089 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 3511 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 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): 7569.655822
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 5.161820

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 318.731559
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 4.041508


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 132.917972
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: storport.sys - Microsoft Storage Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.142521
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.411140

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 2479737
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
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 435.684420
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 361.43 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.481597
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: cmudaxp.sys - C-Media Audio WDM Driver, C-Media Inc

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 1.082478

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 5085488
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 15
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
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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: launcher.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 39
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 20
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 75074.285389
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.002931
Number of processes hit: 6


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 43.878628
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 132.917972
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 11.960322
CPU 0 ISR count: 2479737
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 435.684420
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 30.746508
CPU 0 DPC count: 4787199
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.194893
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): 38.818855
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.092827
CPU 1 DPC count: 56608
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.072245
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): 31.73170
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.510866
CPU 2 DPC count: 172649
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.562112
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): 25.968955
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.139784
CPU 3 DPC count: 69047
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[dingov]

i have the same exact problem described and im using a plantronics 780. driving me crazy trying to fix this.