Windows 10: Audio Stuttering (Not hardware)

Hi,



Since 2016, and throughout several Windows 10 versions, and even Windows 7, the problem has lingered.

Whenever I alt-tab(minimize) a game, or open a youtube video while on teamspeak, or discord, or even with just some audio playing, and some times when I turn off/on the computer, there seems to be a slight stutter in the audio, like a 1ms crack in the sound outputted.



Before I start talking more about this problem, I wanna let you know what I've already tried to fix the problem:



I replaced every single hardware part (PSU, PSU cables, motherboard, SSD/HDD, RAM sticks, GPU, CPU and even the case and cooler).

Tried using different headsets, speakers, and even phone headphones.

Already tried using a sound card, the problem still happens.



I already tried relocating the computer to a whole different house to eliminate the chance of it being caused by static or bluetooth interference, or even an electrical interference in my house/building.



The problem was still there.



It's pretty clear to me that the problem has nothing to do with anything physical or hardware related, since I've pretty much spent over 2000$ replacing parts on my computer to try and get rid of it.

I've also updated the BIOS drivers, tried turning HD Audio off and on, on the BIOS. I've tried updating and downgrading the windows audio drivers, using the soundcard like I said and it's drivers, updated it as well. Used Realtek drivers and the Windows drivers, problem happens regardless.




The hardware parts I've tried using (in different combinations, amongst others I can't even remember):



CPU's - Ryzen 7 1700 / Ryzen 1600

Motherbaords - ASUS X370 PRIME-PRO / MSI B350M Bazooka / ASRock B350 Pro4

RAM Sticks - 16GB Corsair Vengeance / 8GB Gskill Aegis
GPU's - MSI R7 370 GAMING 4G / AMD SAPPHIRE RX 480 4GB

PSU's - Corsair CX600M Bronze / Seasonic Focus Plus Platinum 750w

Coolers - AMD BOX COOLER / CORSAIR H100I AIO

Soundcard (that I tried) - CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY FX

SSD - Samsung 860 EVO 250GB / Crucial BX500 240GB

Cases - Lian Li PC O11 Dynamic / Nox Hummer White Edition



Keep in mind I've also changed all the cabling inside the cases, and the AC cable as well.


Recently, I ran out of options and tried to real-time debug the audiodg.exe service with Visual Studio 2019, and had a look at both the output debug and the dump file.



The dump file didn't have any exception code in it, but on the debug output console, everytime the stuttering happened, I was able to see the error showing up, and here it is:



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



avcore\audiocore\server\audiodg\exe\pipeinstance.cpp(4763)\AUDIODG.EXE!00007FF6C0411CC8: (caller: 00007FF6C03FB7B0) ReturnHr(22) tid(1b84) 80070490 Element not found.

Msg:[Could not find ASAR in device pipe for EndpointId: {e8c7410b-ae85-4de5-afba-ebfb7ae4a021}]

The thread 0x2ce4 has exited with code 0 (0x0).

avcore\audiocore\engine\core\pump\audiopump.cpp(1255)\audioeng.dll!00007FF980BE69E7: (caller: 00007FF6C0428E20) ReturnHr(7) tid(1b84) 887C0017 The thread 0x1bc8 has exited with code 0 (0x0).

avcore\audiocore\server\audiodg\exe\pipeinstance.cpp(4763)\AUDIODG.EXE!00007FF6C0411CC8: (caller: 00007FF6C03FB7B0) ReturnHr(23) tid(1b84) 80070490 Element not found.

Msg:[Could not find ASAR in device pipe for EndpointId: {e8c7410b-ae85-4de5-afba-ebfb7ae4a021}]



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



This is the only lead I have so far. Tried replacing the audioeng.dll on system32 and syswow64, but didn't get it to work (possibly because of the Win10 version I have). Even though I did register the .dlls with regsvr32.exe.



The only clue I have is that debug message, and the fact that I can now reproduce the stuttering by using a lot of audio bandwidth by having youtube/spotify/voice comms at the same time.


Doesn't make much sense to me since I've tried using different Win10 versions and even Win7, as I stated before, which I'm sure had different audioeng.dll versions in it, which throws me off, but I have absolutely concluded that it cannot be a hardware problem, or a static/electricity/bluetooth interference.



With all this information, I would absolutely love if someone could help me try and fix this issue that I've had for the previous 3 years and has been absolutely ruining my streaming career and getting on my nerves.



Thank you for the read, and I appreciate the time spent on it.



Would love any sort of answer,

Thank you.

:)

 

Audio driver conflict causing stuttering?

Hi Techhelper89,

Unfortunately, I did the instructions as mentioned in the thread and the stuttering persists. I used the link provided: and the steps requested

http://www.tweaking.com/files/setups/tweaking.com_windows_repair_aio_setup.exe

I also tried reinstalling the Realtek Audio drivers as suggested by the thread to no avail.

I've also added some links of how the stuttering looks and sounds like to the main post of this thread. I hope it helps identify the issue.

One more thing I noticed after the above steps is that I can boot with Nvidia HD Audio drivers disabled but the stuttering persist. Enabling then disabling "cures" the stuttering for a while. Although, when this is happening while the Nvidia Audio drivers are
disabled (as there is an enable option) the icon doesn't look like one that is normally disabled (with a small circular arrow down icon).

Cheers,

Ben

 

Random audio stuttering and mouse freezing


"High Definition Audio" suggests you only have the generic, basic function, Windows installed sound driver rather than the correct sound hardware driver. If this is the case, install the correct sound driver as step 1.

 

Random audio stuttering and mouse freezing

I installed the realtek audio driver already. Im not sure why it says that.