My audio is choppy. It stops and starts. It seems to like and work on some sources and throws a fit on others.

On YouTube the audio does well on car crash channels. I think because there is little talking. If a dashcam has the sound on, it works continuously. No starts and stops. I can hear what the dashcam hears. Some of my favorite channels are "Off Road Recovery" channels. They usually work well with a few stops and starts. Most times I get sound through the whole video. I view 5 or 6 of those types of channels and they usually they work well. Channels that have "Talking Heads" are the worst. I constantly have to press the "Space Bar" to reset the sound or press the "Left or Right Arrow" keys to back up the video 5 seconds or move the video forward 5 seconds. Oh, and if I watch a "Talking Head" video before my "Off Road Recovery" channels, then all bets are off with the "Off Road Recovery" videos. Some days I just have to punch the "Space Bar" every 8 to 10 seconds to hear the audio. Irritating!

When I say "Choppy" I mean that if I'm watching a "YouTube" video and the sound stops and I do nothing, the sound will come back on within 5 minutes or less sometimes. I never really timed it. The sound will start and stop through out the video. I doesn't just stop forever. It is like a buffering issue. Whatever is wrong with my PC's audio drivers, some files types on YouTube and others seem to work better than others. I watched the last 5 episodes of Amazon's "Prime Video" of "Reacher" without a pause. I was amazed.

I had this problem the last couple of years for about a year. My computer expert friend doesn't believe me but I had a "work around" for the sound problem then. A sure fix every time. He is a professional computer and network specialist and he didn't believe me when I told him about my "work around". The "work around" was that after I started up my PC and it had completely loaded, I would play a .MP4 video that I had downloaded. It was a video of a rescued elephant in an elephant sanctuary, scratching herself on some trees that are commonly used by the elephants for that purpose. It never failed.

Then in June of last year my friend visited his father in the house that he grew up in and came over and reloaded my Window 10 Pro OS. After that my PC worked without the elephant video. Then a few months ago, I don't remember the date, it was about last Fall, I was doing maintenance on my PC. I launched the AMD/Radeon control panel and placed my mouse arrow over the "Update" button and a bubble/ information balloon appeared over the "Update" button.

It was a message from AMD/Radeon. It said that Microsoft had downloaded the wrong software in the last update and the video software was wrong. (I’m paraphrasing) The bubble also had a URL that I spent over 30 minutes trying to write down before just doing a screen shot.

The URL was an AMD/Radeon website. It advised that I should reload my GPU software because of the MS Update issue.

The video and the sound was working great since my PC expert reloaded my OS on June 30, 2022. Now a few months later I get this warning from AMD/Radeon to reinstall the GPU software.

So, I thought to myself that I should use AMD’s Uninstall tool to uninstall everything sound related and start over with a clean slate.

So, I ran the uninstaller and messed up my sound. The sound is choppy. It goes off and on. I press the space bar to get the sound to work again. Sometime just for a second and sometimes for 10 minutes. I also press the left and right arrow keys to move the video back and forth.

When my PC expert reloaded my OS in June of last year, I created a folder on C:/ drive and labeled it “X_all drivers used to reload OS”. So, I reloaded the AMD Sound, video, and game controllers’ drivers and then the AMD/Radeon Display adapter driver. But, right away, the sound was choppy. My PC expert moved to Nevada, so I don’t have him to help me.

I found a “How To” 15 minute video about solar panels on a website and played the video. Perfect sound and video.

I don’t know if the YouTube channels I have trouble with are somehow different from the channels I don’t have trouble with. Like they use different signal/file types so that the videos have different file extensions because you don’t see the file extensions on YouTube.

I even have choppy sound on dictionary.com by Farlex. You press the speaker icon and there is no telling what you will hear. Mostly bits and pieces unless you persevere.

Here is the info of my PC: Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H2, Build 19044.2846 desktop pc since last October of 2022.

The original build was in 2016. All original parts. No replacements since then.

Motherboard: ASRock X99 Professional Gaming i7.  New in 2016. 1st OS 10 installed in 2016. OS reloaded 3 or 4 times. Last reload on June 30, 2022.

Processor: Intel Core i7-6850K. 6 cores

Corsair 1200-Watt Premium Power Supply

Memory: 32 GB of DDR4 Ram. 4 - 8 GB RAM Sticks

C:// drive is a Samsung SSD 960 PRO 512GB                          Used Space = 118 GB / Free Space 358 GB

Video Card: Radeon RX-480

AMD-Software-Adrenalin-Edition-23.4.3-MinimalSetup-230427_web

Stereo sound through a Samsung TV’s stereo speakers.

I’m thinking about just reloading the OS. The MS Media Creation Tool has 22H2 on it. So, I’m thinking about just reloading the OS and hope for the best. 22H2 wasn’t there last June. That way I’ll have all of the software Versions.

I have the video driver from the ASRock MB website, but I think I’m missing a sound driver.

If anyone has an easier way to correct my sound issue, I’m all ears.

I ran a “Playing Audio” troubleshooter on the sound system. The “Problem Found” was a “Generic Audio Driver” “Detected” with a yellow triangle sign with a black exclamation point in the center.

I opened “Device Manager”, clicked on “Sound, video and game controllers”. Then I clicked on the “View” drop down menu and clicked “Show hidden devices”. Well sir, six faded grayed speaker cones appeared with “Microsoft” on the label, etc. of each one.

AMD High Definition Audio Device         (Solid Gray)

AMD Streaming Audio Device                (Solid Gray)

Microsoft Streaming Clock Proxy           (Faded Gray)

Microsoft Streaming Quality Manager Proxy   (Faded Gray)

Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy                (Faded Gray)

Microsoft Streaming Tea/Sink-to-Sink Converter    (Faded Gray) #1 Same driver in both

Microsoft Streaming Tea/Sink-to-Sink Converter    (Faded Gray) #2 Same driver in both

Microsoft Trusted Audio Drivers             (Faded Gray)

Realtek High Definition Audio                 (Solid Gray)

End of trying to show all drivers under “Sound, video and game controllers. Returning to text.

So, I’m thinking that the sound is using a Faded Out Microsoft driver. At least that is what the troubleshooter is saying I think.

I can send follow up .png files of screen shots of Device Manager. And anything else that is requested.

I can also, one by one, make screen shots of each driver’s Properties. You would see the Provider, date, version, signer, and name.

If I disabled and deleted the 6 Microsoft Faded Gray drivers, would the PC then be forced to use the AMD and Realtek sound Drivers?

That’s all I got. I hope this will fit. It did! 2:30AM PST- I can go to bed.