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Bad audio, high DPC latency from dxgkrnl.sys

Anonymous
2025-06-27T01:33:16+00:00

I recently build a new PC, everything is working fine except the audio. It works fine for video, streaming and music, but during certain games the audio will go bad very fast, mostly when a lot of different sounds or continues sound is being played. Stuttering, clicks, popping, tearing and delays. The game it is most notable in is Arma 3 and for some reason it gets worse when opening the map in this game.

After running LatencyMon, I found very high ISR and DPC execution times, with Wdf01000.sys being the highest for ISR and dxgkrnl.sys for DPC.

I've tried all the solutions I could find with google but none seem to be able to solve the DPC issue. The ISR issue did get fixed by using PowerSettingsExplorer to set idle demote/promote thresholds to 100%.

Eventually, after trying a lot of options, windows wouldn't boot anymore, it crashed on the login screen or soon after with 50% of the time Wdf01000.sys being responsible and the other 50% shared among a lot of others. I eventually fixed it by resetting CMOS but decided to reinstall anyway to see if the problem persisted on a clean windows install. It did.

System info:

OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Education

Version: 10.0.26100 Build 26100

Motherboard: A620M GAMING X rev 1.1

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600

GPU: ASRock Steel Legend Intel Arc B580

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL36

Storage: Samsung 990 PRO M.2 1000 GB PCI Express 4.0 V-NAND MLC NVMe

Here is a long list of everything I have tried so far with no effect:

-Latest motherboard bios version and chipset drivers were already installed. Reinstalled some anyway.

-Checked for windows updates

-Windows power plan to maximum performance.

-Reinstall audio and GPU drivers with newest drives (uninstalled using DDU)

-SFC /Scannow

-Tried older gpu/audio drivers

-Disable/uninstall all other audio drivers (monitor and AMD, realtek driver was kept)

-Disable Game mode

-Set USB drivers to not allow computer to turn them off to save power

-Disabled High precision event timer

-Disable iGPU driver

-Disabled network driver (Only one driver installed, no wifi)

-Disabled all hidden USB drivers

-USB selective suspend disabled

-Set GPU to use PCIe 3.0 in bios

-Disabled Global C states in bios

-Disabled EXPO in bios

-Used PowerSettingsExplorer to set set idle demote/promote thresholds to 100%. (Solved ISR latency, did nothing for DPC)

-Unparked all cores with UnpackCPU program (they seemed to already be unparked)

-Disabled DynamicTick

-Couldn't find AMD Cool & Quite in bios to disable (not a thing in my cpu?)

-Clean install of windows. Problem was still there with only LatencyMon, steam and arma 3 installed. Didn't get better after clean installing GPU and Motherboard drivers from intel/gigabyte.

-Some more things that I'm forgetting now I'm sure

Following is a LatencyMon log ran on a fresh windows install (all gpu/motherboard drivers installed) with no "fixes" applied except for maximum performance power plan, while playing Arma 3 with constant helicopter sound running. Only ran for a couple of minutes, but the problem is already apparent. I can make a longer run if needed.

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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. Also one or more ISR 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 0:03:58 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SYSTEM INFORMATION

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Computer name: DESKTOP-SN6F7J9

OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 26100 (x64)

Hardware: A620M GAMING X, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

BIOS: FB5a

CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor

Logical processors: 12

Processor groups: 1

Processor group size: 12

RAM: 31861 MB total

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CPU SPEED

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Reported CPU speed (WMI): 3801 MHz

Reported CPU speed (registry): 3793 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.

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MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES

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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): 10971,60

Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 87,867719

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 10964,80

Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 80,605913

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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): 8392,800422

Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,012618

Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,022826

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 100832

ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0

ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 45

ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 26

ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 14

ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

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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): 9598,852096

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

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,199185

Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,238162

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 460419

DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0

DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 2029

DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 172

DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 70

DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 84

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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: arma3_x64.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 2274

Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 751

Number of processes hit: 28

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PER CPU DATA

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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 28,992516

CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 8392,800422

CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0,651902

CPU 0 ISR count: 100932

CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 9598,852096

CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 6,609447

CPU 0 DPC count: 363076

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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,814750

CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0

CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0

CPU 1 ISR count: 0

CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 37,689428

CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0,004956

CPU 1 DPC count: 2431

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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,177941

CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0

CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0

CPU 2 ISR count: 0

CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 53,909307

CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0,030063

CPU 2 DPC count: 29296

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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,079665

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): 87,160559

CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,011460

CPU 3 DPC count: 6483

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CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2,496798

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): 293,119958

CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0,093543

CPU 4 DPC count: 32868

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CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,109923

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): 110,453467

CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0,015107

CPU 5 DPC count: 12527

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CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,967661

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): 67,614553

CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0,010006

CPU 6 DPC count: 5582

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CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,949881

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): 243,338255

CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0,010955

CPU 7 DPC count: 5674

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CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,689170

CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0

CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0

CPU 8 ISR count: 0

CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 61,573425

CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0,003939

CPU 8 DPC count: 1286

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CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,706791

CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0

CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0

CPU 9 ISR count: 0

CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 29,724756

CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0,006326

CPU 9 DPC count: 2149

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CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,539523

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): 23,693646

CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0,002167

CPU 10 DPC count: 553

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CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,631483

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): 448,275771

CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0,003933

CPU 11 DPC count: 849

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Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-27T23:11:26+00:00

    Hi Pepijn,

    Thanks for the update, and no worries at all completely understand needing to prioritize work. You're approaching this smartly and methodically, which really helps narrow things down.

    Glad to hear your connection's been stable recently. That, along with the LAN driver behavior, suggests it's likely fine to leave as-is for now.

    Looking forward to hearing how the older drivers perform when you get the chance. Just take your time, and I’ll be here when you're ready to continue.

    Warm regards,

    Cherrelyn

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-27T12:57:44+00:00

    Hello again,

    1. I will try the older graphics drivers tomorrow, I have to get some work done today sadly but I have some more time to test tomorrow.

    2.The Power Management BIOS setting changed nothing for my problem sadly.

    1. Besides the DPC latency there are no issues so I will take your advice. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling the LAN driver, but it installed the same 1168 version again, even though I could still see the installer on screen saying it's installing 11.

    My connection has been stable over the last ~2 weeks, but before that I had some issues. However I had the same issues on my previous PC and my phone. I have been in communication with my ISP for months for a solution so I suspect it was a problem on their side and they finally fixed it.

    I will post an update tomorrow when I have had time to try the older driver versions you mentioned.

    Thanks again,

    Pepijn

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-06-27T12:30:52+00:00

    Hi Pepijn,

    Thanks again for your detailed reply you're doing a great job staying on top of everything here. Let me go over each point to clarify and guide you further:

    1. Intel Arc 31.x Drivers

    You're absolutely right Intel’s site mostly lists 32.x versions now. Older 31.x drivers like 4577 or 4314 have been pulled from the official archive, so you're likely to only find them on 3rd-party sites like TechSpot, Station-Drivers, or Guru3D.

    What I suggest:

    If you do decide to test one of those drivers, only use a trusted site like TechSpot (they're widely used in the tech community). But always scan the file with Windows Defender or VirusTotal before installing. Otherwise, it may be worth sticking with the latest WHQL drivers and continue monitoring Intel's support or Discord for updates.

    1. Link State Power Management (LSPM) in BIOS

    Yes, that "PCIe Power Management Features" option in your BIOS set to Auto is likely related to LSPM.

    Try this:

    Switch it from Auto to Disabled, save and reboot. This has helped reduce latency issues for some users, especially with certain AMD boards.

    1. MSI Mode

    Good call on being cautious. You’re right MSI Utility v3 can be risky if misconfigured, especially if it led to boot issues before. If MSI is already enabled for the Arc GPU (you can see it in the utility), it’s probably not the issue now.

    Since MSI is already enabled, I’d suggest leaving it as-is and not tweaking it further for now, especially post-CMOS reset.

    1. Chipset & LAN Drivers

    For the chipset, if your system is otherwise stable, it's fine to skip unless you're seeing issues. As for the LAN driver, version mismatches can be normal if Windows Update installs a slightly newer or vendor-modified version.

    What you can do:

    If you're unsure, you can right-click the LAN adapter in Device Manager > Properties > Driver tab, and match the version/date with the one from Gigabyte’s site.

    If they're close and your connection is stable, it's probably not a concern. But if you want to try the official one:

    -Download the LAN driver from Gigabyte

    -Run the setup if it doesn’t downgrade or prompt, it may already be up-to-date

    -If needed:

    -Uninstall from Device Manager (don’t tick “Delete the driver software”)

    -Then install the one from Gigabyte

    Before uninstalling, download the offline installer for Intel LAN or make sure your phone can USB-tether for backup Internet access just in case.

    Let me know how it goes after trying these steps, I'll be here to guide you.

    Warm regards,

    Cherrelyn

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-06-27T12:26:06+00:00

    Hi Cherrelyn,

    Thanks for the quick responses.

    1. I tried to download these drivers, but on Intel's download page ( https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/785597/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-windows.html ) I can only select 32.x.xxx.xxxx versions. There seem to be no 31.x.xxx.xxxx versions available? I can find them on 3th party sites, but I'm not sure that's a smart idea? (Like techspot.com)
    2. Link State Power Management seems to be disabled by default in windows. In my BIOS I see no such option. There is an option for PCIe Power Management Features that is set to auto, could that be it? These are the options that contain the word power in my BIOS:

    1. MSI also seems to be enabled by default for my GPU. I forgot to mention this in my opening post, but I did mess with this program before to try and fix this issue, which I suspect was responsible for blue-screens during windows startup. I wasn't even able to boot into windows recovery or do a fresh install, what finally fixed it was resetting CMOS, I then reinstalled windows anyway to be safe and continue testing the DPC problems on a fresh install.

    1. According to the Gigabyte Control Center, I have all the latest BIOS version and drivers. Except that it wants me to install norton, which is not going to happen. I manually checked my drivers versus what is available from the gigabyte website for my motherboard ( https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/A620M-GAMING-X-rev-11/support#dl ). The BIOS version I'm running is FB5 which is the latest. Concerning the drivers, I'm not really sure where the chipset drivers should go. The audio driver is the correct version, but the LAN driver shows up not quite the same, 1168 instead of 11 and the date is off:

    I was a little hesitant to uninstall this driver in case I end up with no internet because windows update can't bail me out without internet. I tried just installing the downloaded file but it did not change anything in the driver details. Is it the same driver just slightly mislabled, or should I try uninstalling the current version first?

    Thanks!

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-06-27T11:36:07+00:00

    Hi Pepijn,

    Thanks for the detailed follow-up and for sharing the LatencyMon log. I really appreciate the time and effort you've put into testing this thoroughly. Based on your results, it’s clear that the issue is strongly tied to the Intel Arc GPU driver especially since the latency only spikes after it's installed, even on a clean Windows 10 setup. The dxgkrnl.sys and HDAudBus.sys components showing up in the report are known to be affected by driver-level timing issues, particularly under load.

    Here are a few things you could still try while waiting for a fix from Intel:

    1.Try these specific older drivers:

    -Version 31.0.101.4577 (often reported as more stable)

    -Version 31.0.101.4314

    Clean install them using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode to fully remove previous driver traces.

    2.Disable Link State Power Management (LSPM) in BIOS and Windows this sometimes helps with latency spikes related to GPU activity.

    3.Enable MSI (Message Signaled Interrupts) for the Arc GPU via the registry using tools like MSI Utility v3 (use with caution, backup first).

    4.Check for firmware or BIOS updates from your motherboard vendor, especially for AMD platforms.

    You're right to escalate this with Intel, and hopefully their Discord thread gains traction. The official Intel support site can be flaky at times, but keep trying when you can.

    Let me know if you’d like help walking through the DDU or MSI tweak steps. I’ll be here to help you sort this out.

    Warmly,

    Cherrelyn

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