DPC latency issues, micro stutters, audio problems

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zClown

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Hello, I'm having problems with my 2 years old computer, firstly I didn't pay attention, because I didn't really notice it, but now it's a headache.
I'm having sound popping everytime I open an app etc hw monitor, and also while adjusting sound via slider http://image-upload.de/image/2VCaTi/c591bbbdb7.png
I can't notice it on youtube movies or music @ using razer kraken neon pro headset.
Tried reducing sound performance to 16 bit 44.1, but it made it even worse, It added extra sound (buzzing) that's very strange, since I'm seeing much people, who told It helps them

I'm mostly playing counter strike global offensive and my game freezes for 0.1 sec once in a while. Game runs 150+ fps, but it is not as smooth as it should be in my opinion. Mouse becomes unresponsive aswell for few seconds.

I've done some latency tests:
On idle: View image: last
While gaming: http://s13.postimg.org/5m6mapfnr/rrrr.png

My full setup:

FX - 8350
ASUS RADEON HD 7850 , 2 gb newest 16.1.1 hotfix radeon drivers
Mobo - asrock 970 pro 3 r2.0 bios p2.60 newest
2 x 4 ram
ssd corsair force ls, 60 gb which helds windows 10
1 TB hdd, which helds my games
Soundblaster audigy se sound card
Cm evo 212 cooler
Cm thunder 620w psu

My temperature:
Gpu - 55
Cpu - 45

PC is set to run in high performance mode
Disabled dynamic tic
Did sfc /scannow ; dsim healthrestore

I can't find a way to solve these latency problems as they ruin the game experience for me :/


 
Hi hook ... and welcome to the forums ...

On gaming questions, I always have to add my disclaimer: I rarely see gaming computers as I generally see small business and personal use computers in my repairs. So much of my response on gaming questions has to come from general knowledge and research.

That said, do you have the latest Audigy drivers from September 23, 2015? If not, can't hurt:
Creative Worldwide Support > Sound Blaster Audigy SE

When you are gaming online, are you connecting wirelessly or wired? What network cards/chips are in your system? Curious, too, what your network speed is - on average. It seems it would affect real-time rendering of video and sound. Does your network generally perform above 20 Mbps? If you haven't looked in on your networking drivers (for greater Windows 10 compatibility), have a look.

There have been reports of latency issues with some Intel network drivers. If you have Intel for either wired or wireless - mention which drivers are in use.

Have a look at any other drivers as well, including USB drivers, to see if any have Windows 10 updates.

[P.S. ... and for the mouse lag, if you have Vsync enabled, try gaming with it off. You can cap the frame rate to a maximum setting (say, 120 fps or lower.."fps_max XXX") and see if it helps - I've heard that audio syncing can be a problem if the video frame rate is too high... Since Vsync uses buffers to smooth things, mouse movements can suffer a delay]

[P.S. #2 ... Counter Strike Global Offensive has a patch or two almost every week ... you could also try the latest batches:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive >> Updates
Unfortunately, I do not know if the patches are cumulative .... but someone else might know ...]
 
OldGrayGary, currently Im not at home, so I can't answer with details. My internet card is realtek pcle gbe family controller, has newest 2016 years driver, but Im frequently seeing it's driver on latency mon aswell ( ndis.sys ).

For audio card I've the latest driver you mentioned. My Realtek hd onboard sound is disabled in bios. But on latency mon it showed portcls.sys twice even on both bars at the same time, how is even possible..

Im playing wired, but cannot answer about actual internet speed at the moment. My ping usually 36-60 ms and it's pretty fine I think.

About fps- I'm using fps_max 150, because Im playing on 75hz@1024x1080, if I use fps_max 75 my mouse becomes les responsive, I think it's due engine how the game works. If fps_max 100, im basically seeing nighmare on my screen, which is unsmooth image rendering. Never used vsync as it add additional mouse input lag.

I don't think any windows update or cs go update will ever fix this sound issue, because It has been happening since I bought the pc with windows 8, later windows 8.1 and now 10. Haven't tried win 7. Sorry if I haven't mentioned this before.

Will report with more detailed information when I get home. I'll try doing xperf trace, which I've never done before, it may show my problem

Edit: event viewer reports these 2 erros mostly, there are more but I haven't listed them as they do not provide exact problem

1. http://s9.postimg.org/u7nqru36n/image.png
2. http://s8.postimg.org/gowmrdjtx/image.png

Can these errors be the cause of sound stutter?
 
Hi again

When you get home, can you double-check that the onboard sound is completely disabled? .... Might be insteresting to do a search for portcis.sys in File Explorer, having select "This PC" (which will cause it to search everywhere on your computer) ... and see what folders it's living in. Might have to enable "include system directories" in File Explorer (File Explorer - View - Options - change folder and search options - Search tab - "include system directories")

Of your two Event log errors:
1) The AODDriver4.3 errors seem to be related to Amd's OverDrive - there is a manual Registry edit that has been effective for this error for a few years, as of mid-2015 some folks were still using it to eliminate the error. You basically change Device Manager to "show hidden devices", and in the hidden devices list, you'll see what version of AODDriver you have (probably not the 4.3 - since it can't be found) ... the registry edits simply remove the instance of the wrong version. Event ID 7 AODdriver4.1 error fix - Radeon - Graphics Cards
That article is quite old, but the method has been proven successful through at least mid-2015. I'm not sure that fixing this error will change the stutter issue much, but it shouldn't hurt to fix. I imagine either uninstalling Amd OverDrive or updating it might work too - but I haven't seen any proof yet.
2) The hard drive error is something you should look at. Look to see how many instances there are. You don't want to see that error happening a lot. An instance now & then might be related to a bit high heat or a bit of a jarring of the laptop, but if the error happens with a high rate of recurrence, it can sometimes mean hardware issues on a hard drive. I'm going to guess that drive 0 is the Corsair SSD. It likely has its own special diagnostics app to check its health. SSDs are so new, I'd only use the diagnostics from the manufacturer (in this case Corsair, of course).
... P.S. to quickly see a summary view of errors (much easier to read than endless scrolling), in EventViewer make sure to select "Event Viewer (Local)" at the top left-hand side navigation panel tree, collapse the "Recently Viewed Nodes" and the "Log Summary" windows by clicking the up arrow in their top-right frames, and then you can expand the "Critical" and "Error" categories in the "Summary of Administrative Events" window by clicking on the plus (+) sign in front of their categories. If you want to be extra extra thorough, you could view the "Warnings" as well.

We might have something interesting show up if portcis.sys starts out life in a particular program's folder ...

Safe journey home!
 
Late notion: after a little thought ... what do you think about removing the Amd OverDrive utility just as a test (since you can always reinstall it)? Besides, no touchy Registry editing necessary for that :)
 
Thanks, I'll check the fix of aod driver. I haven't installed amd overdrive manually, it comes auto with cataclyst or radeon display drivers, yet I didn't accept to run it yet, so it might be disabled. Yesterday I reinstalled my amd display drivers using ddu from 1.6.1.1 hotfix radeon, to 15.7.1 cataclyst hoping it to solve or reduce the latency of dxgkrnl.sys while gaming, but it didn't really help. As for hard disk error, if Im right it shows up everytime when pc is being booted up. Also I have checked my 1 TB hdd health with HD TUNER PRO but it found no errors, all bars were green. Maybe it's ssd. I downloaded an ssd firmware updater, but didn't tryed it yet, since it says, that everythin will be deleted if I perform the update. I will investigate more when I get back home, thanks for reply!

Edit: Im not sure how removed amd overdrive, since it is inside cataclyst manager, is there a program specially for removin overdrive?
 
Amd OverDrive
This might or might not have anything to do with the sound problem - but I figured it doesn't hurt to remove error conditions in Event Viewer (Sometimes it is "Much Ado About Nothing", because some errors have very little effect on system behavior).

You could check in Event Viewer again, just in case re-installing your Catalyst drivers corrected the version issue. If you are still seeing those AODDriver4.3 errors, if you like you can make a backup - and then try the Registry edits that remove the error. The method is from an old Tom's Hardware forum thread, and I put a link to it in my post #4 in this thread.

Corsair SSD Diagnostic
Since your SSD is your boot drive, it's likely the drive receiving the error from around the time Windows is starting up. It's also more likely to designated drive 0 (which is the drive number indicated in the error message from Event Viewer). You can use the Corsair SSD Toolbox to have a look at the drive's health. It can also update the firmware, if and when necessary - if one is available that applies to your exact model. But by all means, if a firmware update erases the drive, create a system image backup of it beforehand, should you decide to try such an update. You should be able to run diagnostics without disturbing the data on the SSD at all.
Downloads

By the way, when you look at the Summary View of Errors in Event Viewer for the SSD drive errors - how many errors does it show each time? Is it limited only to startup? Do you see twenty or thirty retries (same error recurring over and over very quickly - within a matter of seconds)? Or?

Audio card
Some gamers upgrade their components often - if any of your friends have an extra (compatible) sound card lying around, perhaps they'd lend it to you: you could test things with the onboard still disabled, the Audigy removed & uninstalled - and see what happens with a different sound card.

Overclocking
Since you have very capable components that are often overclocked for extra performance - if you have overclocked any of your hardware, try going back to stock speeds while testing the stuttering issue.

That's about it for the moment....
 
Hello again.


It seems, I can't find the aod driver in my hidden devices: http://s18.postimg.org/ub5jqtmo9/lll.png
And neither anymore in event viewer, very strange, both aod driver and harddisk errors didn't appear today.
Also, I succesfully updated my ssd firmware with the toolbox you provided, thanks


Here's what I found while searching for portcls.sys : http://s12.postimg.org/mtb2lsg65/port.png, I double checked bios and HD audio is disabled.

xperf trace: Microsoft services

I haven't done overclocking, everything runs on stock speeds

My internet speed: Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results
Might not be the best, but I don't get any loss or choke and I'm happy with 30-60 ping on cs go
 
Hi again

I think you probably cured the Amd OverDrive situation with your last installation of the Catalyst drivers. (Yea for that).

If the portcls.sys errors are gone, too - that's good also. The file versions you have now are all quite recent (October 30, 2015). The portcls.sys driver is generally a part of Windows that gets used by audio drivers, among a few others. Introduction to Port Class (Windows Drivers)

If the hard drive errors from around the time your system starts up are gone, too - that might be because you updated the firmware. Hopefully the error might have been something simple like a timing issue (generally a timeout ... Windows 10 got impatient for a reply, for example) - and the firmware update cured that.

Your Internet speeds look OK. I did notice that your upload speed isn't much different than your download speed -- sometimes when those numbers are closer together than usual, it's time to power-cycle your modem/router/gateway device. Generally, the download speed is a fair number of times faster than the upload speed. Not sure why modem/router/gateway devices aren't as stable as in the past ... but it's fairly common to have to do the routine: power off - wait one minute - power on - wait five minutes - retry connections. I suspect the boxes lose settings over time either due to heat, overvoltage, or just bad design - and the power cycle routine generally forces a self-test & re-authenticates and sets timings with the provider.

I can't look at your cpu.etl file at the moment, I'm on one of my Linux computer at the moment. I'll have a look a bit later on.

If you've been gaming any lately --- are things any better yer?
_______________

My wife and daughters are big movie fans, I'll be checking back after the Oscars are over :)
 
Well, while messing with my system, I found that my 2x4 gb ram sticks ( kingston blu 1333mhz) were running in single channel, they were placed in slots 1 and 2. I replaced second ram stick in slot 3 and it seems my overall game performance has increased. But the 1 second freeze and sound popping are still happening . Could it be my cpu isn't matching with mobo? I've read that fx 8350 needs 8+2 power phase and mine got 4+1 if Im right.

Thanks for helping me with the latency problems, have a nice time with your family watching oscar awards !
 
Hi - [wife & daughters enjoyed the Oscars :) ]

Since I haven't been shopping for gaming rigs, I hadn't even heard of the latest changes in power delivery on the boards. Technically, your motherboard supports your processor, and technically, you power supply has enough to get it running reasonably well. I did look around a little, since you mentioned the newer 8 + 2 power phase boards ... and found that the gamers with the higher end FX cards prefer the 8 + 2 power phase boards because they feel the design delivers "cleaner power" and overclocks better. I think I'd have to go and visit Anandtech, ExtremeTech, and Tom's Hardware to really hear all the different details, angles, and opinions. [My business customers don't see anything much faster than an i3 very often ... some of the lucky execs have i5s]...

I'm surprised that the popping didn't stop when things run at stock speeds. I'll have to look around a little more ...

Does the Audigy have several settings you can try? Seems like you could keep track of any changes (so you could put them back, if need be), and note which changes make things worse & which changes seem to equal no change or an improvement. Eventually there might be a setting you find that does the trick.

For the game one-second freeze, it might be reasonable to try some of their latest patches for the game. Who knows?

This Sunday went by too fast [I want a longer weekend :) ]
 
Hello again, I've tried every possible option in Audigy control panel, and it didn't work

http://s9.postimg.org/qpikghgen/Untitled.png

Speakers tab - you can choose from headphones 2/2.1 4/4.1 5.1 and 7.1 speaker mode, I use headphones

EAX effects - disabled, it offers tons of sound enhantments etc - royal hall or theathre

CMSS-3D - 3D surround audio also disabled

SPDIF/output output sampling rate set to 48Khz, 44,1Khz increases the buzzing which is less noticeable with 48Khz (default)

Performance tab - in picture you can choose from 16/32 bit and 44.1 48 and 96Khz

Also I have set in sb Audigy driver options to disable all enhantments

Have you tried checking xperf trace? :)
 
Hi again

It seems like you've tried most of the "usual suspects". Since the issue has persisted from your previous Windows version through your current Windows 10 version, it is a possibility that there is a hardware aspect to the trouble. [That's where it might be nice to be able to borrow a different card to test with].

I was going to look at the trace tonight (I had rather forgotten about it!) ... and then I remembered that I don't have the Windows 10 DAK installed on this Windows 10 laptop. I'll have to see if I can get my other Windows 10 tester out tomorrow, and try the trace log on it.
 
It can't be my sound card, the issue first appeared on realtek onboard sound ( tryed all drivers, didn't help ). Then bought the creative sound card and It didn't fix the issue aswell, sorry If I forgot to mention this :) . That's why my last hope is that xperf will show something, if not I will try to take my pc to service center for hardware check
 
Busy day (doctor's appointments..& work) ... got the Windows 10 ADK installed on one of the Windows 10 laptops finally. I'll move the file over from the other laptop & have a look in the morning (later in the morning, actually, it's 2 o'clock in the morning already here in So. California) ... Sorry I didn't find enough time for it today.
 
Hi hook

The instructions for the Windows 10 ADK are pretty amusing. Looks like they didn't quite finish updating their help files, because the menus and screens in the instructions don't always match what appears in the latest version of the Performance Analyzer.

I've used a lot of testing programs, but I've never gotten around to using Window's WPA before. I thought it would be straightforward & simple (& it might be, if I end up finding the right instructions...) ... but it's taking a bit longer than I expected.

It sure as heck saves a ton of information, though. That part is impressive.

I'll be back as soon as I can tell if the trace shows anything. I believe I'll pop a message to some of the other techs, too, to see if they find anything ... some will be more experienced with that WPA tool.
 
Update .... Here are the modules with the highest values for DPC latencies, consistently, in most of the graphs I've viewed in your trace:
1) USBPORT.sys
2) dxgkrnl.sys
3) portcls.sys
4) P17.sys
5) ntoskrnl.sys
6) ndis.sys

Most other drivers have no noticeable latency issues at all. The USBPORT.sys driver seems to top nearly all charts when using WPA, I noticed. Not sure whether the USB is a true suspect or not, considering that most USB peripherals are mice and keyboards. I imagine you've already upgraded your drivers for any gaming mice and keyboards. I suppose you could double-check, just in case something really recent has appeared.

I'm going to paste in a link here, which is to an interesting thread from a few years ago: different operating system (7), but same types of issues, and interestingly, some similar drivers showing up in the DPC charts. One interesting thing that factored in his rig was an HD Audio function in his video card driver settings that would cause the issue whenever enabled.... I'm not sure we've looked in there for that yet.... Here's the link:
https://www.sysnative.com/forums/wi...-high-dpc-latency-issue-sound-distortion.html

Oh - by the way, if you are wondering what the P17.sys driver is - I believe it is from your Audigy driver.
 
Hm, I have two keyboard entries in device manager, but Im using simple acme keyboard that has no specific drivers I believe. My mouse is legacy razer lachesis, it's pretty old.
Im using win 7 only driver, because there's no newer driver for win 10. I can use the mouse without driver, but then I can't adjust dpi/polling rate. I'll try deleting the driver.

I'll take a look in the thread you posted, thanks!
 
I hope some clue helps things get past the stuttering. I've looked at a lot of threads for stuttering issues of many sorts, and there seems to be a lot of variety in the causes, and a whole lot of work going on trying to pin things down. There was even one system that had a crazy wayward Dell app that was "dialing home" so often it's latency was off the charts - that was a weird one for sure - (I'll assume that at some point Dell released a non-buggy version - the poster, though, simply deleted the app - in that case, that's all that was necessary for the fix).

If you'd like to have the freedom to inspect your performance traces - I'll paste the link to download the Windows 10 version of the Assessment and Deployment Kit. It doesn't take up that much room, and it's learning curve isn't as bad as it seemed first time around.... Just remember that the help files weren't perfectly updated - so that some of the menus are actually named something just a little different, and might have moved over a bit here and there - but things are reasonably easy to find if you keep checking around. Oh - and there is a lot more in the way of information available on the Microsoft sites, you aren't limited to only the instructions built-into the kit. Here's the link:
Download the Windows ADK – Windows 1 Hardware Dev Center

Good luck!
 

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