Question New PC - Mini Stutters - Windows 11

Oct 4, 2022
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Good Morning All,

I recently purcahsed a pre-built Alienware machine running Windows 11. I know some people have reservations about Dell but I have never had an issue with any of my Alienware laptops in the past and decided to upgrade to a desktop. Anyway, I have noticed that I get mini stutters I notice this when playing games and even when watching youtube videos. It happens roughly once every 20 - 30 minutes and lasts no longer than about half a second. It's not game breaking but it is annoying.

I've noticed similar issues are affecting quite a few people. My specs are below:

Alienware Aurora R13
Intel Core i7-12700KF
32GB DDR5 RAM
Nvidia Geforce RTX3080
I have a NVME 1TB SSD and a 2tb Samsung Evo SSD

I recently removed Geforce Experience as some people say this is the culprit but it did not help. I did also update my graphics drivers but I did not use DDU however some people say completely removing the drivers using DDU does fix the issue. I'm just not confident about using it. I assume I would only need to select the option to uninstall display drivers only??

I have also tried turning off g-sync just in case but also didn't help.

I know there a few question of the same issue but I just wondered if anyone else had the same issue and was able to fix. If DDU was the fix, I would appreciate some guidance. :)

Thank you
 
Oct 4, 2022
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Were you able to solve the error? I am facing the same problem.
Not just yet, i'm currently at work so unable to try but posted to see if someone could provide some guidance. Did you try and uninstall the drivers via DDU? That's what I'm yet to try but am nervous in case I mess it up. I'm very protective as its a new pc.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
do you have latest version of win 11?
22H2 22621.608 is latest

updating LAN & Audio drivers can also help

removing Nvidia drivers isn't an answer I would take, as you left with just the basic display drivers then.
The newest version of Geforce Experience and drivers fixed the stutter problem i had from updating to 22H2

updating BIOS and chipset drivers might help as well.
 
Oct 4, 2022
10
1
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do you have latest version of win 11?
22H2 22621.608 is latest

updating LAN & Audio drivers can also help

removing Nvidia drivers isn't an answer I would take, as you left with just the basic display drivers then.
The newest version of Geforce Experience and drivers fixed the stutter problem i had from updating to 22H2

updating BIOS and chipset drivers might help as well.

Sorry I should be clearer. I mean remove and re-install the Nvidia drivers via DDU. I did recently update BIOS. I checked LAN and audio drivers via device manager and they claim to be up to date. I'll double check my Windows version but I'm certain I am on the latest version.

Thank you.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
device manager last thing I would believe. Lets see what you have:

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Please take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here
 
Oct 4, 2022
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device manager last thing I would believe. Lets see what you have:

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Please take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

Hi There, sorry for the delay, only just been able to get to my PC. So, I re-rinstalled the drivers using NV clean install but same thing happens. here are the links for my driver list.

https://ibb.co/fYs15PW

https://ibb.co/r0tbgt3
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Alienware Aurora R13
Intel Core i7-12700KF
32GB DDR5 RAM
Nvidia Geforce RTX3080
I have a NVME 1TB SSD and a 2tb Samsung Evo SSD
Something strange with drivers on your PC. You have AMD chipset drivers installed... on an Intel system. Driver viewer can't tell if they are actually running but they don't belong on this PC.
AMDSATA.sys- AMD SATA Driver
AMDSBS.sys - AMD AHCI driver
AMDXATA.sys - AMD Storage filter driver

they are part of the AMD chipset drivers.
main reason I looked is AMD actually say not to use their sata drivers even if you do have an AMD system.
I can see all the Intel drivers that should be on here as well

The only AMD drivers on here are for the GPU if you had an AMD gpu - https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ae/product-support/product/alienware-aurora-r13-desktop/drivers

go into settings/Apps/Installed Apps and remove anything that might look like
ZzfKrA4.jpg


you haven't run anything like Driver Booster or another driver updater apart from the one on https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ae/product-support/product/alienware-aurora-r13-desktop/drivers as they can sometimes put wrong drivers on.
There aren't any AMD chipset Drivers on the Dell site.
 
Last edited:
Oct 4, 2022
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Something strange with drivers on your PC. You have AMD chipset drivers installed... on an Intel system. Driver viewer can't tell if they are actually running but they don't belong on this PC.
AMDSATA.sys- AMD SATA Driver
AMDSBS.sys - AMD AHCI driver
AMDXATA.sys - AMD Storage filter driver

they are part of the AMD chipset drivers.
main reason I looked is AMD actually say not to use their sata drivers even if you do have an AMD system.
I can see all the Intel drivers that should be on here as well

The only AMD drivers on here are for the GPU if you had an AMD gpu - https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ae/product-support/product/alienware-aurora-r13-desktop/drivers

go into settings/Apps/Installed Apps and remove anything that might look like
ZzfKrA4.jpg


you haven't run anything like Driver Booster or another driver updater apart from the one on https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ae/product-support/product/alienware-aurora-r13-desktop/drivers as they can sometimes put wrong drivers on.
There aren't any AMD chipset Drivers on the Dell site.
Good Morning Colif,

Thanks as always for your reply. I have checked this morning and oddly enough, there is nothing within Settings/Apps that show anything AMD related. I did also notice an Apple SSD driver in the list. So odd. I downloaded the new chipset drivers via Dells website and via Support Assist app that was already installed on my PC. I've never heard of Driver Booster until today.

Is there another way I could remove the unnecessary drivers?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
can you open system information application
in the left hand column, click the + next to software environment
choose system drivers
its all alphabetical order so should have those AMD drivers on first page

I have all the drivers as well but they all marked as No under Started meaning they not running
03QcAPk.jpg

I have more running as I have an AMD system
I also have that Apple ssd driver
And our PC no where near the same
So it might be fine.

I have asked others to check their PC, I see the drivers on one view but not on Driver view so could be they are running.

I wonder if its latency - this might help find cause of stutter
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
if you go into red, show me screenshot of front page and driver tab. Need to stop it to get the figures to stop changing on driver tab.
 
Last edited:

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Curious, do your show as Yes or No, as If I look at driver viewer its not showing the apple ssd driver since its not currently loaded. Same applies for the sata drivers

Need to dig further. Can you install this and run as admin (right click it in file explorer)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
it shows everything that loads with windows.
look on driver tab and see if any of the AMD drivers are listed there
if they are, they run at startup with windows
hjXrMax.jpg


Trying to figure out how to see what driver its using for sata, as the drivers won't be affecting the nvme as it doesn't use sata, but it might the ssd.
can you open device manager
under IDE ATA/ATAPI controlles
right click any controllers and choose properties
Driver tab
Should be a MIcrosoft driver and version number 10.0.22621.608
date is a lie.
 
Oct 4, 2022
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Curious, do your show as Yes or No, as If I look at driver viewer its not showing the apple ssd driver since its not currently loaded. Same applies for the sata drivers

Need to dig further. Can you install this and run as admin (right click it in file explorer)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
it shows everything that loads with windows.
look on driver tab and see if any of the AMD drivers are listed there
if they are, they run at startup with windows
hjXrMax.jpg


Trying to figure out how to see what driver its using for sata, as the drivers won't be affecting the nvme as it doesn't use sata, but it might the ssd.
can you open device manager
under IDE ATA/ATAPI controlles
right click any controllers and choose properties
Driver tab
Should be a MIcrosoft driver and version number 10.0.22621.608
date is a lie.
Hi again,

Here is the list of drivers from the auto runs application. No AMD in sight.

https://ibb.co/hYg4SSW

I am going to run latency mon now.
 
Oct 4, 2022
10
1
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can you open system information application
in the left hand column, click the + next to software environment
choose system drivers
its all alphabetical order so should have those AMD drivers on first page

I have all the drivers as well but they all marked as No under Started meaning they not running
03QcAPk.jpg

I have more running as I have an AMD system
I also have that Apple ssd driver
And our PC no where near the same
So it might be fine.

I have asked others to check their PC, I see the drivers on one view but not on Driver view so could be they are running.

I wonder if its latency - this might help find cause of stutter
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
if you go into red, show me screenshot of front page and driver tab. Need to stop it to get the figures to stop changing on driver tab.
Got the latency Monitor results for you too. I was playing a game (Cue Club 2) when it happened, was green and when stuttering occurred it jumped straight into red.

Front Page
https://ibb.co/zbb7d4j

Drivers Tab:
https://ibb.co/9TdpNsg
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Realtek Audio drivers maybe. You have version 6.0.9285.1
its also newest Dell have on their website
I have 6.0.9325.1 but it came from Gigabyte and its still from 2021

and yet 6.0.9395.1 is on this windows catalog link... it really depends how you search
if you look for driver number you get https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=6.0.9285.1
if you search for this you get more: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=Realtek Semiconductor Corp MEDIA 2022

funny I downloaded the latest, go through the steps of extracting driver, go to install and windows goes...nah, I lke the version I have now and ignored me

but no reason you can't try - https://pureinfotech.com/install-cab-file-windows-11/

realtek audio can be a pain to install though. I had hassles last time. I generally try to leave audio alone.
 
Oct 4, 2022
10
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Realtek Audio drivers maybe. You have version 6.0.9285.1
its also newest Dell have on their website
I have 6.0.9325.1 but it came from Gigabyte and its still from 2021

and yet 6.0.9395.1 is on this windows catalog link... it really depends how you search
if you look for driver number you get https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=6.0.9285.1
if you search for this you get more: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=Realtek Semiconductor Corp MEDIA 2022

funny I downloaded the latest, go through the steps of extracting driver, go to install and windows goes...nah, I lke the version I have now and ignored me

but no reason you can't try - https://pureinfotech.com/install-cab-file-windows-11/

realtek audio can be a pain to install though. I had hassles last time. I generally try to leave audio alone.
Thank you for this. I have tried but I get the same results where it tells me the latest version is installed. I really think this is a dead end. I have looked at other forums for people having very similar issues but they all lead to dead ends. It's clearly a common issue and probably one I'll have to live with until it either magically goes away or if I rebuild the PC. It's just frustrating seeing as the PC is less than 4 months old and cost £2.6k....this is why I prefer console gaming. :(
 
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Oct 4, 2022
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Ok. I may have had some progress. So, I did a search for PC stutter every 15 minutes as the stuttering literally occurred every 15 minutes on the dot and found a thread about someone with a Dell PC experiencing the exact same issues. It turns out he removed the Dell Support Assist app and the issue went away. Well, I have done the exact same thing and have been able to play a game of Cue Club 2 for 20+ minutes without any noticeable stutters. However, there are portions of the game where the stutters may not be obvious. It's a lot more obvious when i'm playing a game like Two Point Hospital. So hopefully some good news here. I'll monitor and confirm back.
 
Oct 4, 2022
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There you have it, the answer was in fact Dell Support Assist causing the issue. I am so relieved. Colif, thank you for you all your assistance and your time. I really appreciate it.
 
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Dec 26, 2022
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Ok. I may have had some progress. So, I did a search for PC stutter every 15 minutes as the stuttering literally occurred every 15 minutes on the dot and found a thread about someone with a Dell PC experiencing the exact same issues. It turns out he removed the Dell Support Assist app and the issue went away. Well, I have done the exact same thing and have been able to play a game of Cue Club 2 for 20+ minutes without any noticeable stutters. However, there are portions of the game where the stutters may not be obvious. It's a lot more obvious when i'm playing a game like Two Point Hospital. So hopefully some good news here. I'll monitor and confirm back.

Hey buddy, just registered an account to give a big thanks to you! I just bought a Dell desktop recently and had exactly the same issue. Luckily I found your post and uninstalling supportassist solved the problem. For anyone finding this post later. before uninstalling, I also tried disabling all the settings related to reporting information to Dell in the setting page of supportassist. Because I suspect that auto report may be set to report every 15 minutes, which creates a task that suddenly eats some resources (although this may not be true since I didn't see any spike in task manager). Anyways, that didn't work. So, just go ahead and uninstall it.