Audio scratching and delays, whole system freezes / hiccups

MagikGimp

MagikGimp

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2021
Posts
12
This is only a recent problem. I have some suspicions-
  1. A recent hp printer install. It uses Scan to Computer technology which I suspect is constantly pinging out over wi-fi even though the process is disabled and my adaptor is off.
  2. I recently installed WSL (Linux integration) but then I have my doubts on this as it's now uninstalled (distro install failed and I realised I wasn't as interested as I thought) and shouldn't do anything until invoked anyway. I'm also of the opinion that Linux desktop can be buggy in general (server/pro stuff is good of course. Sorry if that irritated you).
  3. Recent Windows updates. Had both the October and November 'fixes'.
  4. Nvidia drivers. Have installed the latest drivers, two times, two different versions and have seen threads about a BSOD I had today (DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION) that may have caused that.
  5. I still have at least one IDE drive on this machine. Years ago there was an issue with XP where you had to delete the drivers for the IDE interface and then Windows would reinstall them which would fix a similar problem to what I'm experiencing now. Is this still an issue? I find that hard to believe.
  6. Aging hardware in general. I've read that failing mobo chips can cause problems.
  7. P2P file transfer apps although I haven't changed anything regarding those for a while now and have only recently started having trouble.
  8. Problems also seem worse when I'm using my Bluetooth headset? It's been OK for a couple of months though. I recently updated the driver with a 3rd party app. I didn't update any other drivers.
Have followed instructions as best as I can. Any help would be very appreciated as my current experience is horrible and making me sad that I not only have to deal with this crap but cannot use my computer without huge irritation. Thank you.

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/FsPSrSB7J0MEKedCvREwlut
trace: trace (20-11-21 00.30).etl (files on my desktop are uploaded to Google Drive so I couldn't zip this before it was already uploaded unfortunately)
SysnativeFileCollectionApp: SysnativeFileCollectionApp (20-11-21).zip
  • Write a brief description of your problem. See above.
  • OS? Windows 10 Home x64 20H2 (10.0.19042.1348) OEM version (Windows 7 licence)
  • Age of system? 10+ years.
  • Age of OS installation? 9+ years. I had proof of this just the other day but I've forgotten which app was showing me this.
  • Have you re-installed the OS? No. And I don't intend to.
  • System specs? See Speccy output.
  • Is driver verifier enabled or disabled? I forget. I do have 3rd party driver apps installed that may disable this feature if I remember correctly?
  • What security software are you using? (Firewall, antivirus, antimalware, antispyware, and so forth) Windows Security.
  • Are you using proxy, vpn, ipfilters or similar software? No.
  • Are you using Disk Image tools? Yes.
  • Are you currently under/overclocking? Are there overclocking software installed on your system? No. Yes (inactive).
  • Other? I have run LatencyMon which showed problems and mentioned wi-fi and to disable CPU throttling which I'm not doing because it hasn't been an issue before. I have been having BIOS messages about CPU fan errors every time I boot for months now though. Probably because I need to clean the cooler?
 
A small update: I've read in a few places now e.g. Setting "Power management mode" from Adaptive to Maximum Performance | NVIDIA that doing this fixes things and yes, I'm seeing some improvement although I still don't think things are completely corrected.
I forgot to mention in my original post my recent problems with Opera browser that weren't solved either. This was happening before this current problem but may be related. It's why I updated my graphics drivers. Since updating to version 80, videos would cause black screens and performance issues. I had to set the renderer to D3D9 to fix this but that's old technology so that seemed like just avoiding modern hardware features like you might do in a troublesome video game or something (and that's very often not the best fix in those situations neither). And performance still wasn't as good as it used to be. I'm just wondering if everything's related and Nvidia need to fix this. Their older drivers seem fine with their slightly older cards but these new ones might be introducing new features (there's a new option under Power Management Mode now for example) and new problems.
 
No, this hasn't fixed things at all actually. YouTube videos in Edge are still stuttering. :( In fact I think it might be worse now?
 
Last edited:
MagikGimp said:
Age of OS installation? 9+ years. I had proof of this just the other day but I've forgotten which app was showing me this.
Click to expand...
Windows 10 was released in 2015. Not really relevant but we need as accurate info as possible. This is more than likely an upgrade from a version of Windows 8 or 7.


MagikGimp said:
Is driver verifier enabled or disabled? I forget. I do have 3rd party driver apps installed that may disable this feature if I remember correctly?
Click to expand...
This could definitely cause stuttering and the BSOD you experienced. Did you turn driver verifier on in the past?


You can check by opening an elevated command prompt and typing verifier /query.

It should say "No drivers are currently verified"


Or verifier /querysettings

It should look like this if off:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>verifier /querysettings

Code: 
Verifier Flags: 0x00000000

  Standard Flags:

    [ ] 0x00000001 Special pool.
    [ ] 0x00000002 Force IRQL checking.
    [ ] 0x00000008 Pool tracking.
    [ ] 0x00000010 I/O verification.
    [ ] 0x00000020 Deadlock detection.
    [ ] 0x00000080 DMA checking.
    [ ] 0x00000100 Security checks.
    [ ] 0x00000800 Miscellaneous checks.
    [ ] 0x00020000 DDI compliance checking.

  Additional Flags:

    [ ] 0x00000004 Randomized low resources simulation.
    [ ] 0x00000200 Force pending I/O requests.
    [ ] 0x00000400 IRP logging.
    [ ] 0x00002000 Invariant MDL checking for stack.
    [ ] 0x00004000 Invariant MDL checking for driver.
    [ ] 0x00008000 Power framework delay fuzzing.
    [ ] 0x00010000 Port/miniport interface checking.
    [ ] 0x00040000 Systematic low resources simulation.
    [ ] 0x00080000 DDI compliance checking (additional).
    [ ] 0x00200000 NDIS/WIFI verification.
    [ ] 0x00800000 Kernel synchronization delay fuzzing.
    [ ] 0x01000000 VM switch verification.
    [ ] 0x02000000 Code integrity checks.

    [X] Indicates flag is enabled.

  Boot Mode:

    Persistent

  Rules:

    All rules are using default settings

  Verified Drivers:

    None


If any of those "boxes" have an X, you can run verifier /reset then Enter, to disable it. Reboot.

To open an elevated command prompt:

Hit the Start Button, type cmd, then- CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
An elevated command prompt should open.
 
xrobwx71 said:
Windows 10 was released in 2015. Not really relevant but we need as accurate info as possible. This is more than likely an upgrade from a version of Windows 8 or 7.



This could definitely cause stuttering and the BSOD you experienced. Did you turn driver verifier on in the past?


You can check by opening an elevated command prompt and typing verifier /query.

It should say "No drivers are currently verified"


Or verifier /querysettings

It should look like this if off:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>verifier /querysettings

Code: 
Verifier Flags: 0x00000000

  Standard Flags:

    [ ] 0x00000001 Special pool.
    [ ] 0x00000002 Force IRQL checking.
    [ ] 0x00000008 Pool tracking.
    [ ] 0x00000010 I/O verification.
    [ ] 0x00000020 Deadlock detection.
    [ ] 0x00000080 DMA checking.
    [ ] 0x00000100 Security checks.
    [ ] 0x00000800 Miscellaneous checks.
    [ ] 0x00020000 DDI compliance checking.

  Additional Flags:

    [ ] 0x00000004 Randomized low resources simulation.
    [ ] 0x00000200 Force pending I/O requests.
    [ ] 0x00000400 IRP logging.
    [ ] 0x00002000 Invariant MDL checking for stack.
    [ ] 0x00004000 Invariant MDL checking for driver.
    [ ] 0x00008000 Power framework delay fuzzing.
    [ ] 0x00010000 Port/miniport interface checking.
    [ ] 0x00040000 Systematic low resources simulation.
    [ ] 0x00080000 DDI compliance checking (additional).
    [ ] 0x00200000 NDIS/WIFI verification.
    [ ] 0x00800000 Kernel synchronization delay fuzzing.
    [ ] 0x01000000 VM switch verification.
    [ ] 0x02000000 Code integrity checks.

    [X] Indicates flag is enabled.

  Boot Mode:

    Persistent

  Rules:

    All rules are using default settings

  Verified Drivers:

    None


If any of those "boxes" have an X, you can run verifier /reset then Enter, to disable it. Reboot.

To open an elevated command prompt:

Hit the Start Button, type cmd, then- CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
An elevated command prompt should open.
Click to expand...

Heh, whoops! Turn that 9 upside-down. ;P I installed 10 fresh on the very day it stopped being free with a Windows 7 or 8 licence (but then became free again later of course).

I did what you said and got what you said so "no drivers are currently verified" on my system. Thanks for your suggestion though.

I'm really stumped. I wish I had the ability to read the system logs as you guys can. My newest hunch is that it's GPU related but I don't know how. Were any of the drivers for Nvidia mentioned in the dumps at all? Thanks.
 
Update! So I ran LatencyMon again for longer this time and really paid attention to the fact that network traffic through the Windows network driver was spiking in the red hard. This provoked me to quit my torrenting client and I did notice an improvement. I wouldn't say things were fixed but I then decided to install WireShark to take this avenue further. Now that I have rebooted an update for my client appeared. Having installed that things do seem OK. I'm reserving judgement if it was the problem just yet because no settings that might be responsible had been changed in a long time. I'm running it again on the new version and things seem fine. I can't see any high amounts traffic from any other app so it's possible this update fixed things. I will update should I still get problems. If it's OK with admin, might it be possible to keep this thread active while I'm still checking? Thank you.
 
With regards to the Stop 0x133, it appears that your Qualcomm ethernet driver is causing issues and will need to be updated.

Rich (BB code): 
0: kd> lmvm L1C63x64
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff804`1ccd0000 fffff804`1ccf9000   L1C63x64 T (no symbols)          
    Loaded symbol image file: L1C63x64.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\L1C63x64.sys
    Image name: L1C63x64.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Mon Sep 18 21:32:11 2017 (59C02D4B)
    CheckSum:         0002943A
    ImageSize:        00029000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:

There was a Stop 0x9F from an earlier date which due to your Realtek network driver. The official support page for Realtek isn't the most reliable unfortunately.

Rich (BB code): 
0: kd> lmvm RTL8192su
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff800`1d5c0000 fffff800`1d683000   RTL8192su   (pdb symbols)          C:\ProgramData\dbg\sym\rtl8192su.pdb\8A421FCD9C8F4E6FB7B7F8FEB5B249581\rtl8192su.pdb
    Loaded symbol image file: RTL8192su.sys
    Mapped memory image file: C:\ProgramData\dbg\sym\RTL8192su.sys\5153F42Cc3000\RTL8192su.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\RTL8192su.sys
    Image name: RTL8192su.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Thu Mar 28 07:41:32 2013 (5153F42C)
    CheckSum:         000ADE8E
    ImageSize:        000C3000
    File version:     1086.51.328.2013
    Product version:  1086.51.328.2013
    File flags:       8 (Mask 3F) Private
    File OS:          40004 NT Win32
    File type:        3.6 Driver
    File date:        00000000.00000000
    Translations:     0409.04b0
    Information from resource tables:
        CompanyName:      Realtek Semiconductor Corporation                          
        ProductName:      Realtek RTL8192S Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter                                       
        InternalName:     Rtl8192su.sys
        OriginalFilename: Rtl8192su.sys
        ProductVersion:   1086.51.0328.2013
        FileVersion:      1086.51.0328.2013 built by: WinDDK
        FileDescription:  Realtek RTL8192S USB NDIS Driver
        LegalCopyright:   Copyright (C) 2013 Realtek Semiconductor Corporation

I couldn't find your exact motherboard model on ASUS, however, I've managed to find a very similar one and I assume the main difference is simply the form factor. It seems unfortunately that ASUS only support Windows 8.1 for that board. Unfortunately, Qualcomm no longer provide driver support for end-users and I can't find your model on the Realtek support page
 
x BlueRobot said:
With regards to the Stop 0x133, it appears that your Qualcomm ethernet driver is causing issues and will need to be updated.

Rich (BB code): 
0: kd> lmvm L1C63x64
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff804`1ccd0000 fffff804`1ccf9000   L1C63x64 T (no symbols)         
    Loaded symbol image file: L1C63x64.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\L1C63x64.sys
    Image name: L1C63x64.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Mon Sep 18 21:32:11 2017 (59C02D4B)
    CheckSum:         0002943A
    ImageSize:        00029000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:

There was a Stop 0x9F from an earlier date which due to your Realtek network driver. The official support page for Realtek isn't the most reliable unfortunately.

Rich (BB code): 
0: kd> lmvm RTL8192su
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff800`1d5c0000 fffff800`1d683000   RTL8192su   (pdb symbols)          C:\ProgramData\dbg\sym\rtl8192su.pdb\8A421FCD9C8F4E6FB7B7F8FEB5B249581\rtl8192su.pdb
    Loaded symbol image file: RTL8192su.sys
    Mapped memory image file: C:\ProgramData\dbg\sym\RTL8192su.sys\5153F42Cc3000\RTL8192su.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\RTL8192su.sys
    Image name: RTL8192su.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Thu Mar 28 07:41:32 2013 (5153F42C)
    CheckSum:         000ADE8E
    ImageSize:        000C3000
    File version:     1086.51.328.2013
    Product version:  1086.51.328.2013
    File flags:       8 (Mask 3F) Private
    File OS:          40004 NT Win32
    File type:        3.6 Driver
    File date:        00000000.00000000
    Translations:     0409.04b0
    Information from resource tables:
        CompanyName:      Realtek Semiconductor Corporation                         
        ProductName:      Realtek RTL8192S Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter                                      
        InternalName:     Rtl8192su.sys
        OriginalFilename: Rtl8192su.sys
        ProductVersion:   1086.51.0328.2013
        FileVersion:      1086.51.0328.2013 built by: WinDDK
        FileDescription:  Realtek RTL8192S USB NDIS Driver
        LegalCopyright:   Copyright (C) 2013 Realtek Semiconductor Corporation

I couldn't find your exact motherboard model on ASUS, however, I've managed to find a very similar one and I assume the main difference is simply the form factor. It seems unfortunately that ASUS only support Windows 8.1 for that board. Unfortunately, Qualcomm no longer provide driver support for end-users and I can't find your model on the Realtek support page
Click to expand...
Thank you for your report.
Things did seem to get somewhat better after the update but I've had three hard locks (frozen screens, two as BSODs that didn't reboot) since. My 3rd-party driver apps say there are no updates to either of those devices but I believe these were updates suggested by Windows if I was having trouble. I may have been having a different problem entirely at the time and just clicked OK to these; I forget now.
I can roll back the drivers of course. Is this a good idea? Or are my problems indicative of physical hardware failure? Is it time to get a new computer? I say this because I updated those drivers some months ago and haven't had any problems until now.
 
To be honest, your hardware doesn't appear to be compatible with Windows 10, and if you were to continue to use your current machine then I would suggest that you purchase a valid licence for Windows 8.1. That is the latest operating system which ASUS supports.
 
EDIT- I've been trying to post this for the last two hours. Fixing Linux took some time but we're mostly there now.
Wow. So just as I submitted my last post I hard-locked again. I should have waited for the others to go to BSODs as this one did as presumably they would have eventually had I been more patient.
I'm typing this from an old Linux partition on another drive which I've just updated after it needed fixing. No hard-locks yet but I'm currently in the process of installing video drivers and my network activity is low (apart from updates of course). Once I get tired of Linux I'll try downgrading the Windows network drivers as that's all I can think to do. I just don't understand why Windows updates (and it has to be those that are the culprit) have made the new ones so unstable. And when Windows suggested them to me too...
 
x BlueRobot said:
To be honest, your hardware doesn't appear to be compatible with Windows 10, and if you were to continue to use your current machine then I would suggest that you purchase a valid licence for Windows 8.1. That is the latest operating system which ASUS supports.
Click to expand...
:ROFLMAO: Now you're just being silly! Actually I loved Windows 8, but I was using a laptop with a touchscreen at the time. I'm going to try downgrading (my drivers, not Windows!) tomorrow and play around with Linux for a bit instead tonight.
 
MagikGimp said:
Once I get tired of Linux I'll try downgrading the Windows network drivers as that's all I can think to do. I just don't understand why Windows updates (and it has to be those that are the culprit) have made the new ones so unstable. And when Windows suggested them to me too...
Click to expand...
You're running Windows 10 on hardware which isn't officially supported by the manufacturer as far as I can tell. And you mentioned earlier, that your 3rd-party driver update applications haven't suggested you no additional updates. I presume that you've been updating your drivers through said application? If so, then that is likely also part of the problem; you should only ever download and install updates directly from either the device's support page or Windows Update. The former being preferable.

MagikGimp said:
I'm going to try downgrading (my drivers, not Windows!) tomorrow and play around with Linux for a bit instead tonight.
Click to expand...
That'll be a good idea, the latest updates appear to be from 2012.
 
x BlueRobot said:
You're running Windows 10 on hardware which isn't officially supported by the manufacturer as far as I can tell. And you mentioned earlier, that your 3rd-party driver update applications haven't suggested you no additional updates. I presume that you've been updating your drivers through said application? If so, then that is likely also part of the problem; you should only ever download and install updates directly from either the device's support page or Windows Update. The former being preferable.


That'll be a good idea, the latest updates appear to be from 2012.
Click to expand...
If they weren't supported they wouldn't work; Windows installed these itself. The 3rd-party apps are the easiest way to see if there are updates that the Windows labs haven't gotten around to testing yet. I agree with you about not using them generally. I used to some years back but then got stung by Wi-Fi cards dropping out for no reason and after reading an article gave up on bothering with them. Like I said, I use them just to see if there are newer versions. I did use one to update my Bluetooth driver as I thought it might have been causing my problems. I don't think updating that made anything better or worse.

The network drivers I had were from 2017. Downgraded they're now from 2015. Both seem connected somehow as downgrading one did the other one too. Or maybe there was nothing to downgrade with the RealTek? Anyway, no problems... yet...
 
Supported does not always mean "it won't work". It simply means they won't stand behind them if you have issues, or there will be no more updates for the drivers regarding a particular piece of hardware. It may still work but with issues.
 
It's worked for 9 6 years. Lots of slowdowns and freezes right now including one that I thought was going to BSOD.

Looking at Reliability Monitor I can see now that the problems most certainly started after installing updates. On the 16th I had a Driver Installation Module crash. It was waiting on spoolsv.exe which is to do with networking, right? I've seen that name mentioned in LatencyMon at least. I realise this can be causation and not cause and I don't know what driver Windows was attempting to update that day but having gone from a score of 7 down to 4s and under since there has to be a link. That was the same day I installed WSL but that's gone now (and I don't think it's the culprit anyway) and the next day was the printer driver install. Incidentally I can't see a successful Driver Installation Module install since but maybe I'm just missing it.
Ugh, maybe I've got this all the wrong way around but it does seem to be network related and to do with that update IMHO. But what do I know?
EDIT- Forgot to say I installed a new version of quite a big app and that download created plenty of slowdown. It's all very strange for something that's never been such a problem before.
 
Here's another thing though and this might be WSL related. Hyper-V. I've seen this mentioned a lot recently and I don't know if I had it before, if I need it, what it is in detail (I've read about it briefly) or if it's causing problems. I think it's needed for WSL v2 (but not 1?) and perhaps my aging hardware isn't very compatible hence the failure to install Ubuntu after WSL. This app I'm updating is VMware and now it's querying me about it. I wonder if I should just disable Hyper-V now and see if that helps. I'll take a further look.
 
Yeah, I think that was it. WSL uses Hyper-V (it's a bit of a complaint apparently because it interferes with VirtualBox among other things) which must be incompatible with my hardware and was causing my BSODs. What confuses me was the timing. I'd have about 45 minutes using the computer normally before they would happen. I had a theory that it was being triggered by the crowdsourced computing software I use (BOINC) which kicks in after a period of inactivity. As BOINC uses a virtual machine through VirtualBox to do its calculations I theorised that this was the trigger but I was still using it the whole time (I think) so now I'm not so sure. Perhaps it just tries for a bit and then crashes? Anyway, I followed this guide to completely disable Hyper-V if anyone's in the same boat: virtualbox.org • View topic - VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED: What do I do?. I may need to reinstall the .NET framework apparently too but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I still am having audio latency problems, but not video interestingly so it's better than how it was. I think Windows updates are gradually making my computer a less usable machine in general which has always been par for the course with Windows or I need to tweak my torrent client's settings or something. Eh.
Moral of the story: stay away from Hyper-V, especially on Windows 10 Home where it's not even supposed to work? It's really for professionals and the learned who know what they're doing and anyway virtual machines and containers do a good enough job. Thanks for your input guys. Hopefully this thread will be there for others with similar issues.
 

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