Question PC audio buzzing/stuttering every several seconds on all output devices

[OctaviusNeon]

Specs:
MB: ASUS Aorus Elite
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 (EVGA)
Ram: 16GB DDR4
OS: Windows 10 64bit
A few months ago I started having an issue of an intermittent buzz/stutter in my PC audio. It's not enough to ruin the experience entirely, but it's annoying and it often comes with a quick stutter of the audio and video (as well as my mouse's movement, it seems). It happens on all my output devices: headphones, monitor speakers, external speakers, and with games, YouTube, anything that has audio, really.

Thus far I have tried everything I've been able to find. I've reinstalled my audio drivers. I've made sure my gpu drivers were up to date. I rolled back to an older gpu driver (based on some info I found in another forum, reverted back when it didn't work). I've tried messing with my sound settings, running audio troubleshooters (reports everything working fine). I'd never had a problem with this hardware on Windows 10 up until this started happening and I'm pretty much out of ideas.

Does anyone have a fix for this?

 

[cwsink]

AGESA 1.2.0.7 included a fix for an intermittent stutter. Are you using a motherboard BIOS version with AGESA 1.2.0.7 or higher?

 

[OctaviusNeon]

AGESA 1.2.0.7 included a fix for an intermittent stutter. Are you using a motherboard BIOS version with AGESA 1.2.0.7 or higher?

I took a look in Speccy and it says my BIOS version is F13a.

 

[cwsink]

What does the motherboard product support page say about that BIOS version? I'm assuming you mean a Gigabyte Aorus Elite (rather than ASUS) but I have no idea what chipset your motherboard is using. A B550 Aorus Elite or a X570 Aorus Elite, for example.

 

[OctaviusNeon]

What does the motherboard product support page say about that BIOS version? I'm assuming you mean a Gigabyte Aorus Elite (rather than ASUS) but I have no idea what chipset your motherboard is using.

Yes, sorry. My old mb was an ASUS and sometimes I refer to this one as ASUS lol

The chipset is AMD A520 it says. I am unsure of which Aorus A520 Elite I have. It says there's rev. 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. I'm not even sure if that matters. I'm still learning a lot about PC hardware.

Either way, I looked on all three and there is nothing below F15 for 1.1 and 1.2. There's no F13a listed for the 1.0, but F13 says "Update AMD AGESA ComboV2 1.2.0.3 B for Ryzen 5000 G-Series processors support".

 

[cwsink]

So, F13a would have an AGESA version older than 1.2.0.7. BIOS version F15 was the first version to include the AGESA 1.2.0.7 firmware. I'd recommend updating your BIOS version to the latest (version F19) on this page as it will include the stutter fix and all other BIOS bug fixes, as well.

 

[OctaviusNeon]

So, F13a would have an AGESA version older than 1.2.0.7. BIOS version F15 was the first version to include the AGESA 1.2.0.7 firmware. I'd recommend updating your BIOS version to the latest (version F19) on this page as it will include the stutter fix and all other BIOS bug fixes, as well.

I updated my BIOS to F19 (a first for me) and unfortunately the problem still persists.

Thanks for the advice, though. At least I learned to update the BIOS lol

 

[cwsink]

You only hear the buzzing while trying to play audio, correct? It's not a mechanical noise like a fan noise or electronic equipment coil whine, for example. Audio buzzing/crackling/stuttering is often caused by excessive DPC latency. That can be caused by many things, really, but probably the easiest way to see if your system is having such problems is by using LatencyMon to see what it reports. Is that something you've already looked into?

 

[OctaviusNeon]

You only hear the buzzing while trying to play audio, correct? It's not a mechanical noise like a fan noise or electronic equipment coil whine, for example. Audio buzzing/crackling/stuttering is often caused by excessive DPC latency. That can be caused by many things, really, but probably the easiest way to see if your system is having such problems is by using LatencyMon to see what it reports. Is that something you've already looked into?

It is definitely only audible in the actual media, not anything mechanical.

I read a bit about latencymon while looking for solutions. I have not looked into it yet, but I will.

 

[OctaviusNeon]

You only hear the buzzing while trying to play audio, correct? It's not a mechanical noise like a fan noise or electronic equipment coil whine, for example. Audio buzzing/crackling/stuttering is often caused by excessive DPC latency. That can be caused by many things, really, but probably the easiest way to see if your system is having such problems is by using LatencyMon to see what it reports. Is that something you've already looked into?

I downloaded LatencyMon and ran it and there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. It said my equipment was suitable for real time audio.

Here's the odd thing, though: the buzzing has disappeared. It did not initially go away after the firmware update, but I've gone through a few YouTube videos and games and it's nowhere to be found. I'm going to call this problem solved. Thanks for all the help.

 

[cwsink]

I'd recommend uninstalling LatencyMon once you're finished using it. Unless things have changed in more recent versions, the last time I installed it a driver was installed that would stress test a system's ability to handle media playback. It's not something I'd want running on my system when not actually performing DPC diagnostics/tests.