[SOLVED] Capture Card Audio Crackling

Lemmy

New member
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
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Hi! I've already contacted Elgato for this issue, but they haven't found a solution yet so here we go:

A few weeks ago my pc automatically updated to Windows 10 1903, and somehow I didn't think of any potential audio issues that might come with it, so now I'm stuck with a very weird audio issue. Ever since the update my audio starts to crackle and desync when I use a video capture card for my consoles (Avermedia LGX and now an Elgato HD60 Pro). None of the other audio has any issues whatsoever when this crackling occurs in OBS and Elgato Game Capture HD. I can't rollback to a previous version because I tried to do a clean install of Windows 10 and didn't keep the old files.

I've noticed that the following driver files tend to show high on the ISR and DPC count in LatencyMon: Wfg01000.sys - nvlddkmk.sys - dxgkrnl.sys. These also show up when I'm not using the capture card, but don't tend to spike as high with an average measured interrupt to process latency of ~80-105us

Here's a recorded video of the crackling:

The severity of the crackling differs each time; Sometimes it occurs right when I startup either Game Capture HD or OBS with the capture card active and sometimes it can take up to an hour for the crackling to show up.

I've updated my BIOS and lots of drivers and also rolled back several of them to see if it affected anything, but so far I've had no succes.

Here's the report log from the last time I ran LatencyMon with the capture card running:


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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 underruns. 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.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:23:30 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: DESKTOP-I7242RK
OS version: Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 18363 (x64)
Hardware: MS-7B45, Micro-Star International Co., Ltd., Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (MS-7B45)
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Logical processors: 12
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 32710 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 3696 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.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 1118,0
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 3,523004

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1084,90
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1,279260


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 971,969697
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,059785
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,064398

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 1142053
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 73
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
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 1009,542208
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,062771
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,124444

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 4389321
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 113
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
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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: gamecapture.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 11972
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 3079
Number of processes hit: 59


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 85,122267
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 971,969697
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 10,822036
CPU 0 ISR count: 1046723
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 1009,542208
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 20,392958
CPU 0 DPC count: 4290965
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 45,750984
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 146,223485
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,017912
CPU 1 ISR count: 11416
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 855,331710
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0,278043
CPU 1 DPC count: 15818
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 39,381046
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 21,529221
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0,000565
CPU 2 ISR count: 523
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 681,210498
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0,117806
CPU 2 DPC count: 27362
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 44,598853
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 101,922619
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,007029
CPU 3 DPC count: 1808
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 37,888164
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 208,489719
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0,070946
CPU 4 DPC count: 14517
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 42,625685
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 155,088745
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0,020367
CPU 5 DPC count: 4095
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 34,406056
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 104,467532
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0,042263
CPU 6 DPC count: 7507
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 40,216058
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 55,536255
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0,012109
CPU 7 DPC count: 2858
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 34,291374
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 57,945887
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0,007179
CPU 8 ISR count: 8747
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 208,574675
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0,039694
CPU 8 DPC count: 7325
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 43,103611
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 102,252706
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0,052346
CPU 9 ISR count: 74717
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 128,452922
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0,047265
CPU 9 DPC count: 9854
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 32,853326
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 10 ISR count: 0
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 135,692641
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0,028997
CPU 10 DPC count: 5981
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 39,546519
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 11 ISR count: 0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 110,409632
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0,006187
CPU 11 DPC count: 1345
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Sorry, but I have nothing to offer you here as you've already done what I would have suggested starting with the BIOS update followed by trying various versions of your audio driver.

Wfg01000.sys - nvlddkmk.sys - dxgkrnl.sys
Wfg01000.sys - not sure what this is
nvlddkmk.sys - NVIDIA video driver
dxgkrnl.sys - Microsoft DirectX Graphics Kernel driver

Again - apologies that I cannot help here.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2
 
Try re-installing the latest Nvidia driver from Nvidia, not the studio version.

Choose Nvidia driver without Experience, then Custom (Advanced), uncheck everything except Driver and PhysX, also choose clean installation. You don't need the Nvidia HD Audio component and I have seen it cause problems in the past.
The clean installation will reset any Nvidia driver personal settings you may have.
 
Hey I have no idea if you were ever able to resolve this problem. I had been having the same issue and FINALLY found a fix for it.

It was dumb, but I had the GPU plugged into the PCIe 3 slot that's lower on my motherboard. I switched it to the upper PCIe 1 slot and BAM, everything is working. I also had ram channels mixed up, but I don't think that was playing a big role in the capture problems.

Since the upper PCIe slot has more bandwidth, I imagine it was able to use more of the GPU and alleviate the CPU error codes that were being shown in latencymon. It worked for me so I hope it works for others as well.
 
Hey I have no idea if you were ever able to resolve this problem. I had been having the same issue and FINALLY found a fix for it.

It was dumb, but I had the GPU plugged into the PCIe 3 slot that's lower on my motherboard. I switched it to the upper PCIe 1 slot and BAM, everything is working. I also had ram channels mixed up, but I don't think that was playing a big role in the capture problems.

Since the upper PCIe slot has more bandwidth, I imagine it was able to use more of the GPU and alleviate the CPU error codes that were being shown in latencymon. It worked for me so I hope it works for others as well.
Thanks for sharing this, it will help others in the future with the same issues!
 
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