Microstuttering and sound popping

[ghostship666]

Since installing the latest feature update for Win 10, I've had an issue with frequent microstuttering. The fps drop is basically imperceptible, I need to be running an FPS counter to notice it. But the sound issue is egregious. I'm used to some microstuttering running games on laptops, depending on the game. Usually it'll occur when loading a new asset. But here, it's not just games and it impacts the sound. It can happen minutes or seconds apart, feels quite random. It does not seem to be bound to anything going on that I can see on the task manager - it can happen with very low disc, memory and CPU usage. And it can happen when I'm just watching video on VLC. So I have no idea what to do about it, any suggestions?

Nvidia GeForce 940M
Intel i3 4000M
Windows 10
8GB RAM

 

[stdragon]

Check out LatencyMon. Read through it, then download and run the utility. It should help you trace the offending application or driver causing it.

http/www.resplendence.com/latencymon

 

[ghostship666]

Thanks, I left it running for an hour and here's what it gave me.


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CONCLUSION
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Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:58:39 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: DESKTOP-0RK4DVT
OS version: Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 17134 (x64)
Hardware: W65_67SB , Notebook
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4000M CPU @ 2.40GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8076 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed: 2394 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO DPC LATENCIES
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The interrupt to DPC latency reflects the measured interval in which a DPC could execute in response to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution.

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 24158.946469
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 5.413137


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
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Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 24.558062
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.000062
Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.000063

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 2909
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
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DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 67359.166249
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.006851
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.029127

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 895731
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 24
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
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Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 736
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 201
Number of processes hit: 19


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 25.248203
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 24.558062
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.007238
CPU 0 ISR count: 2230
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 67359.166249
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 3.092433
CPU 0 DPC count: 817070
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 8.929398
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 14.601504
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001086
CPU 1 ISR count: 422
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 155.126149
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.049869
CPU 1 DPC count: 5388
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 14.419592
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 12.783626
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000197
CPU 2 ISR count: 111
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 739.736007
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.863284
CPU 2 DPC count: 65529
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 6.388506
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 13.804511
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000280
CPU 3 ISR count: 146
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 730.847118
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.094950
CPU 3 DPC count: 7772
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