Problem with the operation of any external audio interfaces using WIN11 Laptop (Cracks, clicks, audio-drops)

Question

Problem with the operation of external audio interfaces (Motu M2, Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen, Behringer) on the Colorful Evol P15 TA 24 laptop!

Good afternoon! I am the owner of a Colorful Evol P15 TA 24 laptop (configuration: RTX 4070, Intel Core i7-13650HX). The operating system is Windows 11 Home. I ran into a problem when working with external USB audio interfaces.
When connecting and trying to use any of the following sound cards:

• Motu M2
• Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Gen)
• Behringer (I will specify the model if necessary)

The following problems occur:

1. Sound delays (latency). 2. Periodic "clicks" and artifacts in the sound. 3. The sound disappears completely after some time of operation.
   What has already been done:
   – Drivers: All official drivers for the laptop (including those provided on your website) and for each of the listed audio cards have been installed and updated to the latest versions (official drivers from Motu, Focusrite, and Behringer are used).
   – OS and Software settings: All possible settings have been tried in Windows (sound settings, USB power saving) and in the software supplied with audio cards (buffer size, sampling rate).
   – Checking on other devices: The same audio cards, with the same drivers and settings, function correctly on other laptops and desktop PCs without causing the described problems.
   This suggests that the problem is not with the audio interfaces themselves or their drivers, but with my Colorful Evol P15 TA 24 laptop. I assume that the reason may be related to the operation of the USB controller, system interrupts, power management, or other hardware/software features of the laptop. I ask you to assist in the diagnosis and solution of this problem.

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This is the result using LatencyMon:
(h: mm: ss) : 0:12:53 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 problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. Current measured interrupt to process latency : 172,40

Also, the highest by "highest execution" - ACPI.sys (1.093093)

Now I tried to use Windows Performance Analyzer, and this is result (link to download trace file):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7vvm3c27pvu4nyeorc8lp/trace.zip?rlkey=cq9jti0h4jwein5ef426f55dh&st=k3orqkn7&dl=0
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**I really hope that someone can help me analyze this dump and identify the cause of such an annoying problem.

Answer 1

Hi MrFLuXed,

Thank you for sharing the detailed LatencyMon report, that was very helpful. I understand how frustrating it can be to experience audio dropouts, clicks, and pops, especially when you’ve already invested time updating drivers and adjusting settings.

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Your report confirms that the main issue now is with the NVIDIA graphics driver (nvlddmkm.sys), which is causing high DPC latency. There’s also a note about network-related latency and power management, which can further impact audio performance. Additionally, the report shows a large number of hard pagefaults from antivirus software, which can cause audio glitches when the system is under load.

The reason why this annoying problem happens is that modern laptops like yours (with a high-performance CPU and RTX GPU) use aggressive power-saving and GPU scheduling features, these are great for battery life and gaming but can interfere with the precise timing that professional audio interfaces require.

Here’s a prioritized plan to improve the audio stability on your machine:

1. Optimize NVIDIA Settings

• Switch to the Studio Driver (or roll back to a previous stable version if you already have it).
• In NVIDIA Control Panel:
  • Set Power Management Mode to Prefer Maximum Performance.
  • Turn Low Latency Mode off.
  • Disable Vertical Sync.
• Turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows settings.

2. Adjust Power and BIOS Settings

• Use the Ultimate Performance power plan in Windows.
• Disable USB selective suspend and PCI Express Link State Power Management.
• In BIOS, if available, disable Intel SpeedStep and C-States to prevent CPU throttling.

3. Reduce Other Latency Sources

• Temporarily disable Wi-Fi during recording sessions or update the WLAN driver.
• Pause or uninstall antivirus software during testing, or add exclusions for your DAW and audio drivers.

4. USB Audio Best Practices

• Connect your audio interface directly to a main USB port (avoid hubs if possible).
• Use a short, high-quality USB cable.
• Set the ASIO buffer size to 256 or 512 samples for stability.

You’re doing all the right things by checking drivers and sharing detailed logs. We’ll keep working through this together until your system runs smoothly for audio work. Just let me know what would be most helpful!

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Answer 2

It Cannot be fixed, Its a bug within windows, changed some years ago and has stopped ALL windows 10/11 PC's from handling realtime audio. Its not your hardware neither or Drivers. As Every possible driver or even windows sonic does this.

Microsoft will not fix popping crackling and clicking despite it being present on every install.