Question Bad audio, high DPC latency from dxgkrnl.sys ?

[Pepijn777]

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.

I recently build a new PC, everything is working fine except the audio. It works fine for video, streaming and music, but during certain games the audio will go bad very fast, mostly when a lot of different sounds or continues sound is being played. Stuttering, clicks, popping, tearing and delays. The game it is most notable in is Arma 3 and for some reason it gets worse when opening the map in this game.

After running LatencyMon, I found very high ISR and DPC execution times, with Wdf01000.sys being the highest for ISR and dxgkrnl.sys for DPC.

I've tried all the solutions I could find with google but none seem to be able to solve the DPC issue. The ISR issue did get fixed by using PowerSettingsExplorer to set idle demote/promote thresholds to 100%.

Eventually, after trying a lot of options, windows wouldn't boot anymore, it crashed on the login screen or soon after with 50% of the time Wdf01000.sys being responsible and the other 50% shared among a lot of others. I eventually fixed it by resetting CMOS but decided to reinstall anyway to see if the problem persisted on a clean windows install. It did.

System info:

OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Education

Version: 10.0.26100 Build 26100

Motherboard: A620M GAMING X rev 1.1

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600

GPU: ASRock Steel Legend Intel Arc B580

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL36

Storage: Samsung 990 PRO M.2 1000 GB PCI Express 4.0 V-NAND MLC NVMe

Here is a long list of everything I have tried so far with no effect:

-Latest motherboard bios version and chipset drivers were already installed. Reinstalled some anyway.

-Checked for windows updates

-Windows power plan to maximum performance.

-Reinstall audio and GPU drivers with newest drives (uninstalled using DDU)

-SFC /Scannow

-Tried older gpu/audio drivers

-Disable/uninstall all other audio drivers (monitor and AMD, realtek driver was kept)

-Disable Game mode

-Set USB drivers to not allow computer to turn them off to save power

-Disabled High precision event timer

-Disable iGPU driver

-Disabled network driver (Only one driver installed, no wifi)

-Disabled all hidden USB drivers

-USB selective suspend disabled

-Set GPU to use PCIe 3.0 in bios

-Disabled Global C states in bios

-Disabled EXPO in bios

-Used PowerSettingsExplorer to set set idle demote/promote thresholds to 100%. (Solved ISR latency, did nothing for DPC)

-Unparked all cores with UnpackCPU program (they seemed to already be unparked)

-Disabled DynamicTick

-Couldn't find AMD Cool & Quite in bios to disable (not a thing in my cpu?)

-Clean install of windows. Problem was still there with only LatencyMon, steam and arma 3 installed. Didn't get better after clean installing GPU and Motherboard drivers from intel/gigabyte.

-Some more things that I'm forgetting now I'm sure

Following is a LatencyMon log ran on a fresh windows install (all gpu/motherboard drivers installed) with no "fixes" applied except for maximum performance power plan, while playing Arma 3 with constant helicopter sound running. Only ran for a couple of minutes, but the problem is already apparent. I can make a longer run if needed.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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. Also one or more ISR 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 0:03:58 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SYSTEM INFORMATION

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Computer name: DESKTOP-SN6F7J9

OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 26100 (x64)

Hardware: A620M GAMING X, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

BIOS: FB5a

CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor

Logical processors: 12

Processor groups: 1

Processor group size: 12

RAM: 31861 MB total

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU SPEED

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reported CPU speed (WMI): 3801 MHz

Reported CPU speed (registry): 3793 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): 10971,60

Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 87,867719

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 10964,80

Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 80,605913

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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): 8392,800422

Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,012618

Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,022826

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 100832

ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0

ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 45

ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 26

ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 14

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): 9598,852096

Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,199185

Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,238162

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 460419

DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0

DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 2029

DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 172

DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 70

DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 84

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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: arma3_x64.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 2274

Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 751

Number of processes hit: 28

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PER CPU DATA

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28,992516

CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 8392,800422

CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0,651902

CPU 0 ISR count: 100932

CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 9598,852096

CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 6,609447

CPU 0 DPC count: 363076

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,814750

CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0

CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0

CPU 1 ISR count: 0

CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 37,689428

CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0,004956

CPU 1 DPC count: 2431

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,177941

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): 53,909307

CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0,030063

CPU 2 DPC count: 29296

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,079665

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): 87,160559

CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,011460

CPU 3 DPC count: 6483

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2,496798

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): 293,119958

CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0,093543

CPU 4 DPC count: 32868

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,109923

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): 110,453467

CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0,015107

CPU 5 DPC count: 12527

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,967661

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): 67,614553

CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0,010006

CPU 6 DPC count: 5582

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CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,949881

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): 243,338255

CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0,010955

CPU 7 DPC count: 5674

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CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,689170

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): 61,573425

CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0,003939

CPU 8 DPC count: 1286

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,706791

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): 29,724756

CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0,006326

CPU 9 DPC count: 2149

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CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,539523

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): 23,693646

CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0,002167

CPU 10 DPC count: 553

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,631483

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): 448,275771

CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0,003933

CPU 11 DPC count: 849

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Hardware: A620M GAMING X, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
BIOS: FB5a
I had to look through both PCB revisions for your motherboard to land on the answer that you're on PCB version 1.1;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/A620M-GAMING-X-rev-11/support#dl
but I don't see BIOS version FB5a listed on the support site. Can you look through the BIOS date(using CPU-Z)?

 

[Pepijn777]

Date is 05/05/2025

It is indeed rev 1.1. Strange, I'm sure that's the page where I downloaded the bios version from only a week or 2 ago. Do you think I should flash the FB5 version?

 

[johnbl]

have you updated the real tek motherboard audio driver from the motherboard vendor site. (should be dated after oct of 2022.
Some old versions would respond to other audio request and overflow the buffers.

best to update the driver, then disable all sound and mic sources that are not actively being used.

 

[Pepijn777]

have you updated the real tek motherboard audio driver from the motherboard vendor site. (should be dated after oct of 2022.
Some old versions would respond to other audio request and overflow the buffers.

best to update the driver, then disable all sound and mic sources that are not actively being used.

I have, see image. Also tried disabling all audio drivers except realtek.

 

[johnbl]

take a look at this, look at step 11 and see if you can select a different audio format (like 16 bit rather than 24 bit, or a different (slower sample rate))

 

[drivinfast247]

For s&g go ahead and download and run memtest86.

 

[Pepijn777]

take a look at this, look at step 11 and see if you can select a different audio format (like 16 bit rather than 24 bit, or a different (slower sample rate))

I don't see anything linked in your post. But I have tried all different sample/bitrates with the same results.

 

[Pepijn777]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Hardware: A620M GAMING X, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
BIOS: FB5a
I had to look through both PCB revisions for your motherboard to land on the answer that you're on PCB version 1.1;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/A620M-GAMING-X-rev-11/support#dl
but I don't see BIOS version FB5a listed on the support site. Can you look through the BIOS date(using CPU-Z)?

Flashing to FB5 has not made a difference to my problem sadly.

 

[Pepijn777]

For s&g go ahead and download and run memtest86.

I had to cancel the test after 1 pass because I need my Pc for work right now. I can run more passes later but it had 0 errors on the first one.

 

[Pepijn777]

Windows support suggested I DDU my Gpu drivers again and reinstall without the support assistant. While I did that I thought I'd check what happens if I try and recreate the problem before reinstalling the Arc drivers.
I booted up Arma 3 and Latencymon, and beside the obviously terrible frame rate and graphics, the sound was great. LatencyMon confirmed the latency was much lower without the driver installed.
This leads me to believe it's an issue with the intel drivers? I will paste a log below of LatencyMon and Arma running WITHOUT the GPU drivers:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:02:21 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: DESKTOP-SN6F7J9
OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 26100 (x64)
Hardware: A620M GAMING X, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
BIOS: FB5
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor
Logical processors: 12
Processor groups: 1
Processor group size: 12
RAM: 31861 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed (WMI): 3801 MHz
Reported CPU speed (registry): 3793 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): 324,60
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 6,726224

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 285,70
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0,980787


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 239,390983
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,010489
Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,012644

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 47747
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 0
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): 468,182441
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,009738
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,035837

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 176532
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 3
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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: arma3_x64.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 2230
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 1442
Number of processes hit: 17


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,880573
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 239,390983
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0,214809
CPU 0 ISR count: 47747
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 468,182441
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0,419706
CPU 0 DPC count: 109485
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,574434
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 1 ISR count: 0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 37,418930
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0,008952
CPU 1 DPC count: 2813
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,635614
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): 45,453731
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0,010567
CPU 2 DPC count: 8149
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,939961
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): 211,128922
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,044630
CPU 3 DPC count: 13323
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,953383
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): 198,876351
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0,020580
CPU 4 DPC count: 8221
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,949671
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): 238,138677
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0,062777
CPU 5 DPC count: 21656
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,521921
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): 181,243870
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0,005455
CPU 6 DPC count: 2600
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,608739
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): 211,820195
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0,023906
CPU 7 DPC count: 7460
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,418411
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): 222,099130
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0,002319
CPU 8 DPC count: 562
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,405587
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): 183,147377
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0,006126
CPU 9 DPC count: 1471
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,265839
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): 201,861851
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0,001204
CPU 10 DPC count: 274
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,267556
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): 198,675982
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0,002622
CPU 11 DPC count: 521
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[Pepijn777]

I have just finished testing on Windows 10. The same exact issue happens there too.

I let windows install all updates except the arc drivers and installed the motherboard drivers. Installed steam, Arma 3 and LatencyMon. No issues with DPC or audio yet. I then installed the Arc driver, and immediately it shows high DPC latency again.

 

[johnbl]

I don't see anything linked in your post. But I have tried all different sample/bitrates with the same results.

sorry here is the link:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-73025246-b61c-40fb-671a-2535c7cd56c8

the last time I had a problem with my audio, the problem was with the audio enhancement software. there was some bug in it related to sleep states, there were 12 copies running 11 were suspended) so it worked but had a big delay.