Question Audio popping / crackling sound at the start of some audio playback.

[Fastfishy2]

I'm having an issue where certain sounds can have a very slight 'pop' effect right at the beginning of the sound being played.
I started noticing it in Red Dead Redemption 2, where one or two sounds (mostly to do with mission notifications) would have a slight 'pop' or cutting-in sound when they begin playback.
Most sounds in most games are unaffected, but it crops up here and there.

Trouble is, it's bothering me. The easiest way I could reproduce it was getting the Windows sound test slider on-screen and rapidly clicking at different points on the volume slider.
Each time it tries to play a new tone at a different volume in rapid succession, there's a clear 'pop' at the start of each playback when the new sound cuts in.

I ran LatencyMon at the suggestion of some threads I saw mentioning this issue and attributing it to buffer overrun (which is something I'd never even heard of before) and got the following result:
View attachment 371531
I already have it on high-performance mode, and it's a fresh Windows 11 Reinstall as of 2 weeks ago. I have the bare minimum of background programs running, certainly nothing that should be holding up a PC of this specs range.

Playing on a windows 11 PC, Audiotechnica M30x wired headset into my motherboard 3.5mm audio jack.
R7 5800X3D
32GB DDR4-3200 (16x2)
Asus ROG B550-A Motherboard
RX 7900XT 20GB
Corsair RM750X
OS running on Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1tb NVME

What do I even do about this?

 

[Lutfij]

Your attachment doesn't work for me.

Asus ROG B550-A Motherboard
What BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard?

it's a fresh Windows 11 Reinstall as of 2 weeks ago.
Where did you source the installer for the OS? Did you recreate the installer to rule out a corruption? Did you install the OS in offline mode + installing all drivers with the latest driver versions in an elevated command while offline?

I noticed that the latest driver version for your onboard audio solution is v6.0.9700.1, is that what you're on at this moment of time?

Corsair RM750X
How old is this unit?

OS running on Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1tb NVME
Does your SSH have any firmware updates pending?

 

[Fastfishy2]

Your attachment doesn't work for me.

Asus ROG B550-A Motherboard
What BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard?

it's a fresh Windows 11 Reinstall as of 2 weeks ago.
Where did you source the installer for the OS? Did you recreate the installer to rule out a corruption? Did you install the OS in offline mode + installing all drivers with the latest driver versions in an elevated command while offline?

I noticed that the latest driver version for your onboard audio solution is v6.0.9700.1, is that what you're on at this moment of time?

Corsair RM750X
How old is this unit?

OS running on Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1tb NVME
Does your SSH have any firmware updates pending?

Hi, sorry the attachment doesn't work. It reads:
"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."
It also shows a "highest measured interrupt to process latency" of 317.80 microseconds, and "highest reported ISR routine execution time" of 274 microseconds, which is apparently far above the norm.

-BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc, 3002 23/02/2023

-Windows 11 Source: Originally I bought a Windows 10 license from the Microsoft store in early 2020, and accepted the upgrade to W11 last year. Recently I chose to do the in-built factory reset, including fully formatting all the drives, but I didn't use USB boot media to do it like I usually would. I did it like I usually would: connected to the internet, did the fresh install of windows as normal, and let it install its own drivers, then did my own updates for stuff like GPU drivers which are more finicky. I've never had audio driver issues before, and I don't really know how to go about manually installing drivers with an elevated command prompt.

-Audio drivers: 10.0.22621.1, for "Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)". Dated 6/05/2022. Where would I go about sourcing newer ones? Do I just update through device manager, or something more tailored?

-Corsair RM750X: It's about 2 years old at this point. I have aftermarket cables, but they're the official Type 4 sleeved kit from Corsair themselves and guaranteed to work on this exact PSU.

-OS Drive (970 Evo PLUS):
Samsung Magician says that I still have the most recent firmware version for all of my SSD's, which all happen to be Samsung, including the OS drive.


UPDATE: Plugging my headset into the 3.5mm jack on the back of my monitor (and therefore routing it through AMD's audio driver) removed the clicking / popping noise when playing around with the noise slider. Not sure why but I'm not going to question it too much. I'll see if things improve with gaming as well.

 

[Lutfij]

BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc, 3002 23/02/2023
You have BIOS versions pending update, I'd gradually flash until you reach the latest version. Once you've verified your BIOS is on the latest version, clear the CMOS.

Windows 11 Source: Originally I bought a Windows 10 license from the Microsoft store in early 2020, and accepted the upgrade to W11 last year. Recently I chose to do the in-built factory reset, including fully formatting all the drives, but I didn't use USB boot media to do it like I usually would. I did it like I usually would: connected to the internet, did the fresh install of windows as normal, and let it install its own drivers, then did my own updates for stuff like GPU drivers which are more finicky. I've never had audio driver issues before, and I don't really know how to go about manually installing drivers with an elevated command prompt.
This is the bulk of your problem. People who have upgrade to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade path, are advised to reinstall the OS from scratch, after recreating your bootable USB installer for Windows 11. Resetting the OS doesn't do any good when there may be corruption in the OS during the upgrade process.

You're advised to install the OS on offline mode, devoid of the www, then manually install all drivers relevant to your platform with the latest driver versions in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator. If you're met with the OOBE screen, follow this guide;

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_GuFH9KdHC0


Once all your drivers are installed, hook up to the internet and let the OS run it's updates. This way the OS doesn't download and install drivers it thought was necessary for your platform, which is usually the root of all issues with Windows after Windows 8/8.1.

 

[Fastfishy2]

BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc, 3002 23/02/2023
You have BIOS versions pending update, I'd gradually flash until you reach the latest version. Once you've verified your BIOS is on the latest version, clear the CMOS.

Windows 11 Source: Originally I bought a Windows 10 license from the Microsoft store in early 2020, and accepted the upgrade to W11 last year. Recently I chose to do the in-built factory reset, including fully formatting all the drives, but I didn't use USB boot media to do it like I usually would. I did it like I usually would: connected to the internet, did the fresh install of windows as normal, and let it install its own drivers, then did my own updates for stuff like GPU drivers which are more finicky. I've never had audio driver issues before, and I don't really know how to go about manually installing drivers with an elevated command prompt.
This is the bulk of your problem. People who have upgrade to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade path, are advised to reinstall the OS from scratch, after recreating your bootable USB installer for Windows 11. Resetting the OS doesn't do any good when there may be corruption in the OS during the upgrade process.

You're advised to install the OS on offline mode, devoid of the www, then manually install all drivers relevant to your platform with the latest driver versions in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator. If you're met with the OOBE screen, follow this guide;

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_GuFH9KdHC0


Once all your drivers are installed, hook up to the internet and let the OS run it's updates. This way the OS doesn't download and install drivers it thought was necessary for your platform, which is usually the root of all issues with Windows after Windows 8/8.1.

so, are you meaning I need another, separate USB to the one I'm using as a flash drive, to load all the drivers I want onto beforehand, so I can install them offline? If so, what drivers do I need to manually put on that USB before I go about reinstalling W11 from fresh media? And, which ones am I OK to leave to Windows to download afterward?

 

[Lutfij]

Download;
Chipset drivers from here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/chipsets/am4/b550.html

Audio and LAN drivers from Motherboard support site;

ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING | Motherboards | ROG Global

rog.asus.com

GPU drivers from here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/down...eon-rx-7000-series/amd-radeon-rx-7900-xt.html

4 folders, for 4 aspects of drivers, have them on the installer media after creating your bootable USB installer.

Once you've installed all of the above drivers in an elevated command, hook up to the www and run an update on the OS.