This is the only place that I hope can bring peace to my mind. I have a persistent problem since the Windows 10 Anniversary update that has challenged my mental capabilities each and every one of these 20 days since the update. The problem is: Sound crack and Popping occurs when playing audio/gaming/streaming videos followed by stuttering / mini stuttering when playing games. Especially bad if I switch tabs or doing both at the same time. I checked my PC's DPC latency, and it is through the roof.
I used 2 programs to check my DPC latency: Latency Mon and DPClat. The first tool brought up a detailed report as to what causes the problem and the second just informed me of my extreme latency (1500 ms). According to Latency Mon (I will include the report
below) dxkrnl.sys (DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation) is what causing the huge spikes. The first thing I did was to re install the drivers of my GPU (GTX 970). Nothing changed. I then proceeded to remove my GPU, remove the drivers using DDU and
checking again. The same thing was reported with my integrated gpu. I proceeded to do a clean install of windows 4 different times, testing from the beginning if I had issues and until I installed all the necessary drivers of my motherboard. The same problem
was reported each and every time. And the same problem with the sound occurred each and every time. I sold my 970 and got a 1070 (was planning an update anyway). Same thing. Now I am sitting here, with no GPU inside my rig, with a fresh install of windows,
trying to figure out what is wrong and what is causing the DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation to cause all these problems.
On top of that, to eliminate any problems related to audio drivers or bad integrated sound card, I used sound from my AT2020 USB+ microphone which has a dedicated sound card. Same thing happened when using sound directly from the microphone.
P.S - Before you post the usual, yes I did everything a sane person would do. Changed the power settings to be at high performance, removed from BIOS any power management related setting, Removed drivers and reinstalled them using DDU, did a fresh installation (not even reset) of windows, changed cables of each and every component, updated my GPU to a new one, completely removed my GPU and used the Integrated GPU, changed ram slots, removed any oc on CPU, GPU, RAM etc etc etc. Please, for the love of God and everything holy, help me find the issue. It's been 20 days that I cannot do anything on my PC.
P.S 2 - SPECS:
Mobo: MSI z170 m7 Gaming
CPU: i7 6700K
GPU: MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X (Prior: MSI GTX 970 Gaming)
Ram: HyperX Savage @2144 (2400 OC) 8G (1 stick, planning to purchase more in the near future)
P.S 3 - The highest reported ISR change from time to time, including different services (USB, Audio, NVM (when NVidia card is installed), network etc)
P.S 4 - Latency Mon Report (Displays Win 8 as my operating system, I suppose it's a bug as it was just updated to windows 10 compatibility)
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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 0:00:53 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
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SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: DESKTOP-4SMBROD
OS version: Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware: MS-7976, MSI, Z170A GAMING M7 (MS-7976)
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8079 MB total
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CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed: 4008 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
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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.
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.789057
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.092482
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REPORTED ISRs
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Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation
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
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REPORTED DPCs
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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.
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 201
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 2
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
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REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
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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.
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 1771
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 205116.379242
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 1.001857
Number of processes hit: 30
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PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.696737
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 104.427395
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.058574
CPU 0 ISR count: 23690
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 17630.126497
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.662355
CPU 0 DPC count: 228069
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.246965
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 95.585329
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.002375
CPU 1 ISR count: 774
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 751.155190
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.020739
CPU 1 DPC count: 1526
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.019748
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 10.030938
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000041
CPU 2 ISR count: 12
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 184.732285
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.062105
CPU 2 DPC count: 10302
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.330258
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 4.691617
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000009
CPU 3 ISR count: 4
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 83.281687
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.005475
CPU 3 DPC count: 720
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CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.942412
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): 109.556886
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.023901
CPU 4 DPC count: 2886
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CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.349997
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): 120.252994
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.009875
CPU 5 DPC count: 808
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CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.932392
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): 107.993762
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.021414
CPU 6 DPC count: 2242
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CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.344988
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): 95.588822
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.008027
CPU 7 DPC count: 975
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