[SOLVED] PC Has Random Microstutters and Audio Buzzing/Chopping

Aug 7, 2022
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  • Operating System
    • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
  • CPU
    • Intel Core i7 @ 3.70GHz
  • RAM
    • 16.0GB Dual-Channel @ 1336MHz (19-19-19-43)
    • ADATA SPECTRIX XPG D80 RGB 8GB DDR4-3000 MEMORY x 2
  • Motherboard
    • ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME Z390-P (LGA1151)
  • Power Supply
    • THERMALTAKE 600WATT GOLD 80 PLUS
  • Graphics
    • 43S421 (3840x2160@60Hz)
    • Acer S231HL (1920x1080@60Hz)
    • E205W-1600 (1600x900@60Hz)
    • 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (MSI)
  • Storage
    • 931GB Samsung SSD 980 1TB
    • 1863GB Seagate ST2000DM006-2DM164 (SATA )
    • 223GB Western Digital WDC WDS240G2G0A-00JH30 (SATA (SSD))
  • Audio
    • Realtek High Definition Audio
My PC has been having these microstutters. I don't know what is causing it. I've had the resource monitor open and the GPU temps are fine and the CPU seems okay. The only thing that I notice is that my older SSD which has my OS on it and my HDD both spike. My newest SSD has no spike. Image here: View: https://imgur.com/Oj0N1wj


Checking the event viewer I'm not seeing any warnings or errors concerning my GPU. It's not crashing.

When I'm experiencing one of these freezes the audio starts to get distorted. It might slow down and get choppy as seen in this clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxWlO0aj2JDhDDUhwUkWOe3TTnhk2eqkjq or it might just start buzzing until the freeze stops. The buzzing reminds me of how a PC might hang before inevitable going to BSOD but my PC always recovers before it crashes if it is getting to that point. I've run DDU in safe mode just to be sure it wasn't a driver issue. At this point I'm not sure. I ran memtest for like 16 hours and it found no errors with the sticks. The software for the discs show that my older SSD is still healthy; although, the lifespan is currently at 40%.

There's no trigger for it as far as I can tell. I can just be watching youtube, playing a game, or just at idle with nothing really open. The small microstutters can happen just at the desktop.
 
Solution
I didn't notice until now that its 2 drives that spike at same time.

i would be tempted to use the new Samsung as C drive and use the other WD drive that is showing 40% life as storage. See if that stops the problem.
Aug 7, 2022
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The Samsung is the newest of the drives. It's assigned as (E) currently. Samsung Magician reports everything as good.
The Western Digital SSD and the Seagate HDD were purchased at the same time.
The WD (C) says that everything is normal; however, lifespan is at 40%.
The HDD (D) also passes S.M.A.R.T with no issues.

I have installed the newest BIOS but the issue still remained after doing so.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I didn't notice until now that its 2 drives that spike at same time.

i would be tempted to use the new Samsung as C drive and use the other WD drive that is showing 40% life as storage. See if that stops the problem.
 
Solution
Aug 7, 2022
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Recent? Maybe. Just looking through logs I had with friends my first mention of it was in May. By reloading do you mean just reinstalling them?

When you say use my samsung as my C drive you mean as the drive with the OS on it right? Moving my install wouldn't mess with anything else stored on the samsung currently right?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Which realtek drivers? Audio or LAN? Both can cause spikes

newest realtek LAN drivers
download Win10 Auto Installation Program (NDIS) from under windows header here - https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...0-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software
Sound drivers can be more annoying to find.
can you look in device manager
  1. Sound, video & Game controllers
  2. Realtek (R) Audio, right click and choose properties
  3. Driver tab - can you tell me what version you have?

When you say use my samsung as my C drive you mean as the drive with the OS on it right?
Yeah

Moving my install wouldn't mess with anything else stored on the samsung currently right?
well, you would need to make space for it. So maybe. its a shuffle. Its not ideal, see if drivers fix it.
 
Aug 7, 2022
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The Realtek(R) Audio is listed as 6.0.8702.1

I'm starting to think it might be an issue with my card as well now. I just had a microstutter but this time all of my monitors went black and came back afterwards. The event viewer showed this I've never had driver errors appear before. I can try doing DDU again but I don't think it would matter since this issue came back after already doing DDU.
View: https://imgur.com/d8yHmv2


I have a new SSD on the way for delivery Saturday to replace the WD still though.
 
Aug 7, 2022
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Well my new SSD came in the mail today. Unfortunately I still had microstutters. What did change is the spike in the resource management. Now it is only occurring on the HDD. So progress maybe.
View: https://imgur.com/X7JAJZZ


I'm thinking my next test is to just unplug the HDD tomorrow and see what happens. If no microstutters plug the old WD SSD back in and see if microstutters. If none then I know it has something to do with the HDD. Maybe something conflicting on the drives. Or they both were just dying.

Edit: After two days of not having my HDD plugged in I have not experienced a single microstutter. My extra SATA cables have arrived today. I will plug my HDD back up and see if the microstutters return. If they do return I know now that something is bugging with the HDD. Either some software is being dumb or the drive is failing. After moving some of my games off the drive to one of my SSDs I will wipe it completely and test from there as well.

It was my HDD. The moment I plugged it back up I started getting microstutters again. Issue solved.
 
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