Mysterious audio issues

[Juliante]

Hello, it's been a long time since I was into pc stuffs. My audio has recently mysteriously started to jerk when playing songs, games and videos. My audio is connected via a USB to the amplifier and to the pc. Here are my specs:

Mobo: asrock H77 pro4/mvp
Cpu: Intel i5-3470
Ram: G. Skill 1333mhz ddr3 8gb x2
Ssd: crucial m4 128gb
Gpu: Asus 2gb gtx 670 direct cu II ddr5
Psu: corsair hx650w Psu 80+
OS : win7 64bit
Case: xigmatek midgard II atx
Amplifier : creative sound-blaster x7
Speakers : creative ee-mu mx7

The audio works perfectly when channelled via the audio cable but it does not utilise the software. But when connected via USB to my other pc, it worked perfectly fine!

Therefore,
1. Is it highly possible that my mobo has USB issues?
2. It works perfectly fine with my mouse, keyboard and hdd connected
3. I have reformatted my pc and it still persists!
4. Is it advisable to just get a new mobo?

 

[86technie]

Change to a better USB cable like elecom cable?
Try also uninstall the SB driver than do reinstall.
If problem persist, I may suspect either the sound card
or the power supply to the sound card is faulty.

Which means you have to bring it down to Creative HQ at JE.

 

[wwenze]

Check DPC latency

 

[Juliante]

Change to a better USB cable like elecom cable?
Try also uninstall the SB driver than do reinstall.
If problem persist, I may suspect either the sound card
or the power supply to the sound card is faulty.

Which means you have to bring it down to Creative HQ at JE.

You mean the power supply to the sound card in the mobo? My sound blaster x7 is an external amp, so the power does not come from the power supply.

The same USB cable works perfectly fine on my other pc and devices though..

 

[Juliante]

Check DPC latency

Seems like there are apparently issues which i have no knowledge of

CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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. 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 0:04:59 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: JULIANTE-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: ASRock, H77 Pro4/MVP
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8087 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 3192 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)

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): 11333.233697
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.841575

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 11109.372104
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.584053


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 120.035401
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: HECIx64.sys - Intel(R) Management Engine Interface, Intel Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.072130
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.113516

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 476170
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
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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): 11226.494361
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: iaStor.sys - Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver - x64, Intel Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.402679
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: iaStor.sys - Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver - x64, Intel Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.617914

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 1924363
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 119
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
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.


Process with highest pagefault count: ccsvchst.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 79
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 20
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 1195.709273
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.001113
Number of processes hit: 10


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 7.744026
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 93.510965
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.833237
CPU 0 ISR count: 404420
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 11226.494361
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 4.928851
CPU 0 DPC count: 1769501
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 6.424841
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 120.035401
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.410106
CPU 1 ISR count: 56888
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 11214.972744
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 1.889160
CPU 1 DPC count: 100448
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.724890
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 90.978383
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.079966
CPU 2 ISR count: 10623
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 11196.454574
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.393229
CPU 2 DPC count: 30186
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.676405
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 90.897556
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.035152
CPU 3 ISR count: 4239
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 11157.932018
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.183440
CPU 3 DPC count: 24774

 

[wwenze]

Oh wow 10ms, that's gotta be in the dark red region.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 11226.494361
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: iaStor.sys - Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver - x64, Intel Corporation

Are you using RAID? If not you can remove Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and stick to Windows's default driver for disk drives.

 

[Juliante]

Oh wow 10ms, that's gotta be in the dark red region.



Are you using RAID? If not you can remove Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and stick to Windows's default driver for disk drives.

Yes apparently the audio jerks are very very bad.

Nope I'm not using raid, just a ssd and hdd. Do I need to remove Intel rapid storage technology?

 

[wwenze]

Do I need to remove Intel rapid storage technology?

Yes .

 

[Juliante]

Yes .

So far audio has been stable for now but LatencyMon still states that:

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 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 0:02:50 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

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): 145.688910
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.144911
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.299665

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 491903
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

Is there still room for concern?

 

[wwenze]

If highest is graphics then pretty ok already.

 

[Juliante]

If highest is graphics then pretty ok already.

Ok thanks a lot for your help!!! Greatly appreciated