Persistent W10 audio buzz? Latency Tester details inside!

agricola · Mar 23, 2023

Background: This may be the same root of an issue that's troubled me some time, and gotten worse. That issue is a persistent crash to boot, with no bluescreen. It sometimes is accompanied by a freeze or distorted audio...
Much like one of them there creepypasta the youths sometimes talk about! But most often it's just a pause, and then an immediate cycle to boot. I am unfortunately aware that I know nowhere near enough to solve the problem, and more then anyone else in my area, including the technical services available to me. Thus, I turn to you, dear friends, in the hope you may help me. That however, may be a separate issue. Due to having tested the HDs, with seagate's long generic, run scandisk, kept an eye on crystal disk, gotten my drivers in order, I'm pretty sure it's either the motherboard or the power supply... And I'm 99% sure it's the latter. A new PSU is coming and I'll be testing it shortly.

That doesn't address the issue of the audio buzzing/latency. I've tried all the solutions I can think of/find online, such as disabling one or both audio drivers (Nvidia High-Def/Realtek), disabling/upgrading WLAN, etc.

It is inconsistent, sometimes frequent, sometimes silent for hours. Here's latency's text report...

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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 or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. 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 2:05:32 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: COMPUTER
OS version: Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19045 (x64)
Hardware: System Product Name, System manufacturer
BIOS: 4408
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor
Logical processors: 16
Processor groups: 1
Processor group size: 16
RAM: 65449 MB total

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed (WMI): 360 MHz
Reported CPU speed (registry): 3593 MHz

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.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 18234.10
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 5.420595

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 18230.50
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.627149

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 374.949068
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.030701
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.051987

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 6261221
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 248
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 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): 18886.523796
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: storport.sys - Microsoft Storage Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.011134
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.047555

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 11187831
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 58
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 1

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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: nms.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 3872
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 2440
Number of processes hit: 19

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 224.454888
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 374.949068
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 62.531850
CPU 0 ISR count: 6137049
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 18886.523796
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 51.702524
CPU 0 DPC count: 8743096
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.213248
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 130.06290
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.056034
CPU 1 ISR count: 3682
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 273.231283
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.156709
CPU 1 DPC count: 84569
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 32.916454
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): 308.479822
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.381902
CPU 2 DPC count: 284770
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.577831
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): 70.416922
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.102414
CPU 3 DPC count: 88422
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 32.788947
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): 91.968828
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.609281
CPU 4 DPC count: 250719
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 31.470917
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): 291.486780
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.581067
CPU 5 DPC count: 247469
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 31.568711
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): 288.030058
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.719316
CPU 6 DPC count: 258351
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 30.781008
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): 272.890621
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.729037
CPU 7 DPC count: 260132
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 27.400984
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 8 ISR count: 0
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 305.894795
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0.124483
CPU 8 DPC count: 101781
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 23.568140
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 9 ISR count: 0
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 72.450877
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0.091985
CPU 9 DPC count: 55007
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.978036
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 10 ISR count: 0
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 107.619260
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0.199072
CPU 10 DPC count: 160316
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 23.475875
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR count: 0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 121.155580
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0.089436
CPU 11 DPC count: 65184
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 12 Interrupt cycle time (s): 48.706933
CPU 12 ISR highest execution time (µs): 9.458391
CPU 12 ISR total execution time (s): 0.052993
CPU 12 ISR count: 100484
CPU 12 DPC highest execution time (µs): 304.151406
CPU 12 DPC total execution time (s): 0.731670
CPU 12 DPC count: 212270
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 13 Interrupt cycle time (s): 41.303072
CPU 13 ISR highest execution time (µs): 5.701085
CPU 13 ISR total execution time (s): 0.003837
CPU 13 ISR count: 5997
CPU 13 DPC highest execution time (µs): 217.803507
CPU 13 DPC total execution time (s): 0.606640
CPU 13 DPC count: 193568
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 14 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28.010827
CPU 14 ISR highest execution time (µs): 8.656833
CPU 14 ISR total execution time (s): 0.004593
CPU 14 ISR count: 6188
CPU 14 DPC highest execution time (µs): 302.868912
CPU 14 DPC total execution time (s): 0.255371
CPU 14 DPC count: 118643
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 15 Interrupt cycle time (s): 24.178809
CPU 15 ISR highest execution time (µs): 6.843306
CPU 15 ISR total execution time (s): 0.005572
CPU 15 ISR count: 8069
CPU 15 DPC highest execution time (µs): 164.169218
CPU 15 DPC total execution time (s): 0.232611
CPU 15 DPC count: 63593
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

... And here's an image.

Unfortunately, I tried flashing the BIOS first thing, so I'm uncertain about whether it's that. (Well, and we could go back to the motherboard being bad... But I don't know how to reliably test that.)

Info:

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor
64.0GB RAM
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (Driver: 4408)
GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (Driver: 31.0.15.3129/531.29)
Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter
Two 12 TB WD HDs, one OS, one storage. Both are apparently in good health!

Hopefully, this is a good start. Best..!

agricola · Mar 23, 2023

Also, since it appears I can't edit the above post - for those wondering, I will file a separate report for the intermittent crashing.
But I want to complete memtest passes, just in case. So, probably in a day or two!

agricola · Mar 23, 2023

Sorry, I meant recurring rather then persistent. The audio buzzing occurs randomly, with no predictable pattern. I'm terribly sorry, I wish I knew how to edit posts instead of multi-post like this.

agricola · Apr 2, 2023

So, having been left to my own devices to pursue this one so far, the best I can find is that storport.sys sometimes led to some users having similar latency issues.
The advices in question tend to be:

'just re-install windows 10 bro' - Never works, I have done this procedure with probably twenty PCs, and it's the equivalent of taking a jackhammer to an uneven floor; furthermore, I want to know precisely why/what is going on, and this doesn't help with that;

'switch from RAID to AHCI' - I don't know enough about the fundamental differences these make to know, and I'm constantly scared of screwing up anything that affects hard drives. I've got two drives, both SATA, one OS and one storage. I could test this? Would appreciate thoughts. For one, I don't know which I've got running!

'bios/chipset updates' - done. No effect.

'microsoft update' - done. No effect.

'sfc/dism' - done. No effect.

This, the crashing, the constant tearing, it's just so - exhausting. And I've got years of data on this PC, so getting a new PC isn't it either.
I guess my next line of inquiry is replacing the PSU (got the power supply unit) but I want to wait until it crashes/bluescreens so I've got a good point-from-crash to see if it effects time at all if it DOES crash after.

agricola · Apr 2, 2023

I am terribly sorry that I've bumped my own thread four times, now, but here's the weird part.
So, in the past, I'd already switched my drives to AHCI; no difference when on RAID.
HOWEVER...
On a stroke of luck, while thumbing through content-farm results, I found this.

The user in question, Sellis, not only embodies my hatred of 'just install windows bro losing all your setup is only a month's progress you can play games bro' guys, they MIGHT have found a solution.
But thing is, I never, never in a million years would've thought of it. Quoting...

This guy is a joke. He has no idea what he is talking about. The issue is caused by a faulty storage driver. Open Device Manager and scan for updates. The buzzing sound happens and your dpc latency skyrockets. You can do this multiple times and it happens everytime.

How to fix:

Click on IDE/ATAPI controllers tab

Now change the AMD Sata driver to SATA AHCI which is by Microsoft. And voila. No more stutters when Windows scans for driver updates. I had this problem too and it was driving me insane.

In essence, I was being asked to switch from specific drivers to generic drivers, something you should in theory rarely if ever do. Right?
But I was desperate, no one cares, no one helps. I figured I'd try anything... And...

Well, take a look at this:

Running five times as long, with SIGNIFICANTLY better results. So far, no awful audio distortions.
However, I'm pretty concerned that it's still not as good as it could be, and I don't want to declare it solved until I get rid of the audio buzzing for certain, and preferably the crashes, too.
My goal at the moment is to leave latmon running for... A week? Is a week a goodly amount of time?

Or until the next crash, at least.

Now, I just need to figure out a way to remove all the windows bloat context menu program open suggestions other then painstakingly editing the registry, ahaha, life is awful...
Anyway, so long as it's not a problem, I want to continue updating this - even if it's at odd intervals - in the chance I help someone else with similar issues.
Please let me know if I'm breaking some hidden rule! I still can't find the edit button, sorry!

agricola · Apr 2, 2023

Oh, and for those curious: To roll your HD drivers to windows generic:

> Control Panel

> Device Manager

> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

> Right click drive/s

> Properties

> Driver

> Update Driver

> Browse my computer for drivers

> Let me pick from a list of drivers

> Select Standard SATA AHCI controller

> Install on any/all drives THEN reboot

> Wait for installation to finish

> Run LatencyMon

> Pray, to whatever Gods you worship

> Laugh until your eyes bleed as windows decides to install a random driver borking everything, and people tell you it's a good thing

> Repeat process?

> Live... Laugh... Love...

agricola · Apr 4, 2023

So, update; this appears to have fixed my sound issue, but unfortunately, LatencyMon reported bighuge numbers again. I'd been going through a list of potential offenders to try to push it - but seeing those 18K latencies again was just incredibly disheartening. I don't feel comfortable randomly reseating my drives, I don't feel comfortable doing a 'repair install' that'll undo everything I've spent so long customising, and I surely don't want to do a full reinstall. Is what it is. Maybe this will help someone with similar issues, though.

agricola · Apr 4, 2023

Gonna try following the steps here.

I noticed that Nvidia wasn't set to automatically use GPU, so that might be something.

agricola · Apr 5, 2023

After feeling incredibly depressed and defeated, I decided to give this another go. Checked to see if there was a new BIOS update (there was; flashed), turned off prefetch and superfetch, restarted.
At first, only dxkrnl.sys seemed to be a problem, but then we had storport 2 revenge of the storport.
How bad we talking..? This bad:

Honestly - I don't know where to go from here.

I keep finding long-dead internet forums about people disabling obscure service x here, enabling obscure registry edit here.
Plenty of people talk about 'oh, bruv, it's your w-lan! Just use PRECISELY THIS Windows XP wireless driver and it'll stop the problem, which apparently is known by both Wifi-Services and Microsoft.'
And then they don't even have the decency to provide a link to precisely which of five hundred revisions of driver it's worth installing.

What do I do next? Uninstall drivers one by one? I just don't know.

Here's what I did as of this update;

- Disabled Superfetch & Prefetch via regedit;
- Installed new BIOS update.
- Turned NVIDIA to 'max performance' in the NVIDIA control panel, and told it to prefer the GPU over CPU explicitly.

Edit - oh, woah, I can edit again? Weird.
Editing to add that the issue does seem to be pretty common, and a lot of people who have similar issues don't seem to benefit from rolling back/repair installing. I do think it's driver related, and not hardware related. I feel like I'm so close, I'm just too dumb to understand what it is I'm missing. And I know that all the people in my area have far less tech skill then I do, and my internet is slow, so - downloading creation media on my internet, which is worse then what I had in the 90s, will take a few days if I even wanted to go that route.

agricola · Apr 5, 2023

See title!

[Sorry for the newbie question; how to run Driver Verifier for 24-hours?]

I've decided I'm not getting anywhere with my current approach, and want to try having Driver Verifier do the work for me. Booted into it fine, no crash, no lockout, /querysettings returns what it should - so far as I understand it.
But the instructions say to leave it on for '24 hours at a minimum' and A: nothing seems to be happening, how do I know it's working B: sometimes, my BSOD happens daily, is that going to impact results negatively?
Am I missing something obvious..?

Let me know if I'm doing this right so I don't waste anyone's time here when I get results.

Moderator note: added title (I've merged two threads).

xilolee · Apr 5, 2023

Hi!

Post the result of querysettings.

You can use your PC normally for 24-48 hours, by the way.

agricola · Apr 5, 2023

Hullo! Thanks for stopping by! Sorry if this is messy, but here you go -

I have Malwarebytes installed (I feel like this was a mistake) and am running a scan. Basically, I'm at the 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' phase, ahaha.
I'm assuming the real meat is me running querysettings in roughly two days, and posting that - assuming no crashes?

xilolee · Apr 5, 2023

If there is a brat driver, a bsod will be forced.

Did you change the psu?
Did the buzz disappear?
Are there other problems?

Because if your problem is to see latencymon bad results, that is not a problem: just uninstall latencymon in that case.

agricola · Apr 5, 2023

xilolee said:
If there is a brat driver, a bsod will be forced.

Did you change the psu?
Did the buzz disappear?
Are there other problems?

Because if your problem is to see latencymon bad results, that is not a problem: just uninstall latencymon in that case.

Awesome, so far nothing forced; it's just testing in the background, then..?

I've waited on changing the PSU because I wanted to try to isolate if it was a storage/driver/windows issue first. No luck with that, unfortunately.

However! I can give it a try. Let me summarise what I've done and where I'm at so far.
(Assume all Drivers/BIOS are latest with the exception of IDE/ATAPI drivers, as mentioned below.)

______________________________________________________________________

Currently, I've had momentary stutters/stops/audio tears.
I seem to have completely stopped the audio tears by switching from the usual AMD IDE/ATAPI drivers to Windows Generics.
This is awesome!

However, it is replaced by occasional 'pauses' where things lock up. I tried solving that by disabling prefetch/superfetch.
No dice, and I am worried about trying so many 'small' fixes and forgetting what to re-enable.

The latency is not the only problem as my computer still crashes once in 1-10 days, seemingly at random.

And I would post in the BSOD forum, but not only is there no bluesceen, I think it might simply be my drivers/drives locking up or a PSU halt that causes the computer to lock and instantly reset in panic.
I feel so close to finding out what it is, but also so far!
So, alas, I can't just uninstall LatencyMon and have peace of mind, but maybe I'm closer then I think, fingers crossed...

_________________________________________________________________________

This might be a long one, I'm assuming it's okay to post progress here when I've tried something new?
And thanks, not just for the reply, but the good humour and support. Both are always appreciated.

agricola · Apr 6, 2023

Not a huge update, but this sure got my interest.

To quote it for the forum:

Desktop systems based on AMD 6-Series, 7-Series, 8-Series, 9-Series, Socket AM4, and Socket TR4 chipsets running Windows® 10 should use the Microsoft provided Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver that comes installed with Windows® by default. This configuration ensures compatibility and offers the best experience with most types of mass storage devices.

Only, Microsoft detects the AMD-branded drivers, attempts to re-update them unless blocked from doing so, and AMD still suggests you use their branded drivers everywhere else but this hidden-away page.
I know my 7 3700 is 'ancient' by Gamez Masterz standards, but it works just fine for my purposes. And the 9-series, aha, no way they're saying they can't even make their own modern devices work... Except, that's exactly what they're saying.
Just rubbish.

The idea that there's tacitly been this problem, and both parties just threw their hands up and went 'not my problem mate' is - whew.

I guess that means my problem could be the CPU? Maybe?
I've noticed that my computer will get 'micro-lags' now, though, having switched from the AMD drivers. Or possibly because of superfetch. Or possibly because of power settings.
So many things I've tried, and I can hardly remember them all.

agricola · Apr 6, 2023

Sorry if this is kind of kludged together; I'm sure there's a better way of grabbing this then prt-screening and piecing them together, but I surely don't know it.

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Persistent W10 audio buzz? Latency Tester details inside!

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