[SOLVED] Computer Audio crackling/skipping

[Dranu]

I am having audio trouble: All audio outputs will occasionally put out crackling and skipping for days or hours at a time, other days its perfectly fine with few hiccups. I have tried the following to no success:

1. Tried different headphones .
2. Used both direct connection to the motherboard for audio and through the case's connection.
3. Replaced and downloaded all drivers.
4. Tried different power outlets.
5. Replaced the motherboard.
   
   I'm kind of out of ideas. I might get a different PSU (I got an 850 for a 3080 but will probably go down to a 750.) Maybe there is some grounding issue?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[SteveRX4]

PC Specs?

Motherboard audio drivers up to date?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Try installing Latencymon and see if it shows up there. A good guide here with a link to the program. You'll need to have the program running while the errors occur.

Solving DPC Latency Issues | Sweetwater

Check out the Solving DPC Latency Issues page at Sweetwater — the world's leading music technology and instrument retailer!

www.sweetwater.com

 

[Dranu]

Try installing Latencymon and see if it shows up there. A good guide here with a link to the program. You'll need to have the program running while the errors occur.

Solving DPC Latency Issues | Sweetwater

Check out the Solving DPC Latency Issues page at Sweetwater — the world's leading music technology and instrument retailer!

www.sweetwater.com

I tried Latencymon too, sorry for not mentioning it. It didnt detect anything even in the middle of crackling.

PC Specs?

Motherboard audio drivers up to date?

All drivers are up to date.

Case: NZXT h210i
Motherboard: MSI MEG z490I Unify
CPU: i5-10600k
GPU: Gigabyte 1080ti
Ram: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3200
PSU: SuperNOVA 850 GA 850 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX
Storage: addlink S70 1TB SSD NVMe
Op System: Windows 64 home

 

[Dranu]

UPDATE: Interesting... latencymon finally picked up something. It suggests my "system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop out, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns." Later it also added "One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long." All I have experienced is audio problems but I wonder if there is more Im not seeing.

Any suggestions as to the issue here? I turned off CPU throttling for one.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The Sweetwater page has suggestions based on what results Latencymon comes up with. You'll need to follow up with google possibly.

 

[SteveRX4]

Did you ever have a different OS on this PC?

There's a bunch of things you can try. Not many people solve the problem. So maybe they just rebuil;d with new mobo.
One solution I saw involved updating the MEI driver - https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/67496/Intel-Management-Engine-Interface-Intel-MEI-

 

[Dranu]

Did you ever have a different OS on this PC?

Nope, just Windows 10. Its a fresh comp, and as I said I already just replaced the motherboard.

After fixing one driver, the problem drivers are not one, but a different one keeps popping up. Storpot.sys seems to be the most common. Im thinking of testing another PSU, maybe there is some power problem going on.

 

[SteveRX4]

There's some stuff on storport.sys here - https://www.minitool.com/backup-tips/storport-sys.html
Have you tried a Windows Repair?
If that doesn't work then you might need to do a Windows re-install.
See https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-10-repair-installation/

 

[Dranu]

UPDATE: Switched to yet another board, switched out PSU and case, and the problem remains.......

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Try a clean Windows install. I've never heard of that SSD before so that could be a potential weak spot.

 

[Dranu]

Try a clean Windows install. I've never heard of that SSD before so that could be a potential weak spot.

Oh Ive done that many many times now (on my 3rd MB and 3rd windows reinstall for instance... )z

If it helps dxgkrnl.sys and storport.sys are showing up high latency. Ive seen others report this with audio crackling but they found no solutions. (all I have done targeting that specifically is updating drivers and turning on prefer max performance in NVIDIA settings)

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It's down to the RAM or the SSD in my opinion. Storport.sys points to the SSD.