Question PC freezes for a split-second and audio cuts out randomly when using headset audio ?

[KosaSosa]

Hello,
I have encountered an issue in the last week that has made it very difficult for me to use my headset when I am gaming. At random intervals when I play games that use my microphone, enter Discord voice lobbies, and change sound outputs in Discord, I am met with a split-second freeze and interruption of audio. I've recently built a new PC and i've never encountered this issue on any previous desktops, so this issue seems very odd to me. Does anyone have a fix for this issue?

Mobo: Aorus X570 Elite Wifi (Bios version F31)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
GPU: Zotac Geforce RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z F4-3600C18D-32GTZR (2x16gb)
PSU: Gigabyte P750SM 750W 80+ Gold
SSD: Sabrent 1TB Rocket Q4
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Download this latency monitor app. Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks Run it in background while you use computer and during the problems you are experiencing. Then check the results to see if it can give you an idea what is causing problems.

 

[KosaSosa]

Download this latency monitor app. Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks Run it in background while you use computer and during the problems you are experiencing. Then check the results to see if it can give you an idea what is causing problems.

Thank you for the assistance. I ran this software and I was given this message: "Conclusion: your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks, or pops due to buffer underrruns. 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", so I now have a better understanding of what I need to address. I know there have been a few BIOS updates that have been released since I updated to version F31, so if addressing power management and CPU throttling doesn't solve it then i'll move on to updating that BIOS.
Thank you very much, I appreciate it!

 

[KosaSosa]

Thank you for the assistance. I ran this software and I was given this message: "Conclusion: your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks, or pops due to buffer underrruns. 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", so I now have a better understanding of what I need to address. I know there have been a few BIOS updates that have been released since I updated to version F31, so if addressing power management and CPU throttling doesn't solve it then i'll move on to updating that BIOS.
Thank you very much, I appreciate it!

After setting power settings to best performance and successfully updating my BIOS to the most recent version (F34), I still encounter this issue. I'm not sure how to fix this issue, as it has now persisted between two different headsets: a Corsair Void RGB Elite USB and my current Razer Blackshark V2. All of my drivers are up to date

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

After setting power settings to best performance and successfully updating my BIOS to the most recent version (F34), I still encounter this issue. I'm not sure how to fix this issue, as it has now persisted between two different headsets: a Corsair Void RGB Elite USB and my current Razer Blackshark V2. All of my drivers are up to date

what power setting are you using in windows i.e. power saving, high performance?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

what power setting are you using in windows i.e. power saving, high performance?

Sorry I see you turned to High performance. Did you go in to device manager and check for any warning messages or a yellow diamond with an exclamation point next to a system? I would also go line by line in device manager and manually click to see if it will update driver. Also when it showed you the graph on problems what drivers/s did it name as a problem if any?

 

[KosaSosa]

Sorry I see you turned to High performance. Did you go in to device manager and check for any warning messages or a yellow diamond with an exclamation point next to a system? I would also go line by line in device manager and manually click to see if it will update driver. Also when it showed you the graph on problems what drivers/s did it name as a problem if any?

So I went through and tried to see if there are any outdated drivers, and everything seems to be up to date. When I run the test again through LatencyMon, the most notable drivers that appear to be problematic are the Nvidia Windows Kernel Mode Driver ver. 471.11 and the Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime. My Nvidia Geforce driver is updated to its latest version (471,11), so perhaps I should attempt to rollback into a previous version? Also, I did not mess with any of CPU throttling settings in either BIOS or Control Panel, so that might also be a variable but I am hesitant to tamper with those settings as I have never needed to change them.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Try installing their latest hotfix driver see if it helps at all. GeForce 471.22 Hotfix driver download (guru3d.com)

 

[KosaSosa]

Try installing their latest hotfix driver see if it helps at all. GeForce 471.22 Hotfix driver download (guru3d.com)

I've updated my driver to the version you provided and I have uninstalled Razer Synapse, as it was listed under stats as producing large amounts of pagefaults. When entering Discord I still encounter a brief stutter when I enter a voice channel and I have to adjust my voice settings for my mic to function, but my system does not seem to produce the same ongoing clicks, pops, and stutters when I run online games that use my microphone, or when I use Discord in tandem with such titles. A half hour of Destiny 2 running while also in a Discord lobby would have certainly produced this issue prior to attempting to fix it, so fingers crossed that I have finally eliminated it. I'll update if I find any persisting issues

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

While we're at it, what if any programs are running in the background while using games and discord?

 

[KosaSosa]

While we're at it, what if any programs are running in the background while using games and discord?

The main ones I can point out are Corsair ICUE, NZXT CAM software (I use an NZXT AIO for CPU cooling), Trident Z lighting control software, MSI Afterburner and the RTSS software that accompanies it (although I havent updated in a while and I believe new updates have come out since I last updated to ver. 4.6.3), Malwarebytes (recently switched from Spyhunter5 and RegHunter), EA Origin or EA Desktop software (depending on what title I run, as I have some that are exclusive to each app, but generally Origin), and the Xbox gaming service software (listed as Gaming Services and XboxAppServices.exe).