hello, i'm new here. i'm sorry if i do something wrong, i don't know what i'm doing and i'm not the best at technology. sorry if i don't make sense, i'm trying my best but i don't speak english well and don't really know what i'm talking about. i'm trying my best please be patient with me
- Write a brief description of your problem.
You can also include the steps you tried.
my audio is stuttering horribly, it is uncommon when i'm using my pc normally, but when i open any game (especially when i'm also using voice chat on discord, specifically when i'm speaking too) it's almost constant and i can't understand anything anyone says. it seems to be when i'm transmitting data online, like voice chats +gaming like i mentioned, sometimes seeding torrents makes it stutter a bit but i don't know if it's a coincidence or not. youtube makes it stutter very badly sometimes. i also use blender and have done a lot of renders since (usually maxes out my cpu) and it doesn't seem to stutter from high cpu use. i also have issues with holding mouse buttons that don't carry over when i'm using a stylus on my drawing tablet usually (i've checked, it's not the mouse that's the issue). sometimes my pc freezes for a few seconds at a time but i don't know what triggers this or why. it also seems to "forget" settings sometimes, like the power plan i set it to, but i don't know if that's related because it's been doing that since i bought this pc and it was fine for the past 6 years.
this all started when i got a virus that made my pc temporarily unusable, it limited the amount of ram i could use to 4gb somehow (i fixed it later with windows memory diagnostic, but don't know exactly what the virus did. it also corrupted some files i think. i don't know if the issue started here because i didn't use my pc in the ways that make it stutter. then after a while i reset it (stupidly not a full factory reset) and my pc came preinstalled with mcaffee and i accidentally corrupted a lot of windows files trying to remove it a stupid way. i didn't go long enough without resetting to see if the dpc issue started here or not. i reset again, (not a factory reset again, i'm stupid and have a lot of files to transfer because my pc is old) and after that i noticed that ndis.sys has had very high dpc and my pc was stuttering.
i've done everything i can find to try to fix it, nothing's helped.
- reinstalled my OS a lot in all of the different ways i can (dell OS recovery, windows built in reset tool, from a usb, and a in-place upgrade (from windows 10 to windows 10 still) none have been factory resets and i'm not going to factory reset unless i'm 100% certain that it'll fix it
- reset bios settings to default (i'm not sure if it was successful or not, honestly i'm scared to mess with bios at all)
- updated bios with dell's tool that does it for you
- updated windows
- updated drivers
- changed driver settings
- i bought a usb network adapter (my main issue used to be with ndis.sys and i'm running out of options), it fixed the ndis.sys issue when i use it and have my original card disabled, but it causes dpc issues with a lot of other system files instead and all of my problems are still there. (all of my logs should be from when it's turned off, let me know if i accidentally had it on while doing logs.)
- disabled dynamic ticking and a few other settings that i got told to disable
- sfc and dism
- removed a few apps, including malwarebytes, which seemed to help a little bit, but not much
- switched out ndis.sys for one from a clean, working pc (that i checked and made sure it was compatible with) when it was just ndis.sys that was an issue
- messing with audio drivers, changing audio formats(?) and restarting audio service. these work sometimes as a VERY very temporary solution. the fix only lasts a few minutes at most.
- probably a lot more that i've forgotten, i've really tried everything i could find to fix it
- OS ? (Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista)
windows 10
- x86 (32bit) or x64 (64bit)?
x64
- What was original installed OS on system?
windows 10
- Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)?
it came pre-installed
- Age of system? (hardware)
~6-7 years, some parts like the gpu and a few ram are a bit newer, maybe 4-5 years old or so. i know that's very old, but i don't have the money for new parts and it was working perfectly until a couple of months ago
since purchase, so ~7 years. i've reinstalled a few times, last one was about a month ago.
- Have you re-installed the OS?
6 times, yes
dell
desktop
- Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom)
XPS8930
- MotherBoard - (if NOT a laptop)
Dell Inc. 0DF42J (U3E1)
Intel Core i7 @ 3.20GHz
- RAM (brand, EXACT model, what slots are you using?)
i ran wmic memorychip get devicelocator, manufacturer, partnumber in cmd and it said
XMM3 009C36160000 KHX2666C13/8GX
XMM1 009C36160000 KHX2666C13/8GX
XMM4 009C36160000 KHX2666C13/8GX
XMM2 009C36160000 KHX2666C13/8GX
bing ai says this means i have 8gb kingston's hyperx in all 4 slots.
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Dell)
- Power Supply - brand & wattage (if laptop, skip this one)
just the usual power supply for an xps8930, which i looked up and it seems to be a dell with 460W
- Is driver verifier enabled or disabled?
disabled
- What security software are you using? (Firewall, antivirus, antimalware, antispyware, and so forth)
malwarebytes (currently uninstalled, but i installed it around when the problems started) and bitdefender
- Are you using proxy, vpn, ipfilters or similar software?
yes, expressvpn, but the issue is there whether i have it on or not and it was there before i installed it
- Are you using Disk Image tools? (like daemon tools, alcohol 52% or 120%, virtual CloneDrive, roxio software)
no
- Are you currently under/overclocking? Are there overclocking software installed on your system?
no
speccy link:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/C8ykEegCu8PFR6wqBMAGKQT
sysnativefilecollection:
Proton Drive
trace:
Proton Drive