Windows 10: High network usage causes stuttering/latency (Possible X99 issue?)

Hi. So this is an issue that I have been trying to deal with for the past 12 months, and I have yet to find a true solution...

First, allow me to give a little backstory to this issue: I bought my first X99 platform motherboard and CPU around this time last year. I started out with a Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 Wi-FI board paired with an Intel Core I7 5820K and 32GB DDR4 2133Mhz. I installed Windows 10 Pro x64 and everything was great. It was the fastest system I had ever used. Until ~2 months later...

Any kind of network traffic, local or otherwise, began to impact my PCs performance. It wasn't so bad at first, just minor stutters every now and then if I was watching a YouTube video, or transferring lots of files over my network. But it wasn't long before doing anything that involved network activity began to cripple my PC. Something as small as refreshing a webpage would cause my PC to struggle with even the most basic tasks, e.g. watching a video (a local video, not an online one).

I began to search for the culprit and narrowed it down to the ethernet adapter. I uninstalled/reinstalled the adapter drivers, I let Windows use it's own driver, and I even reinstalled Windows with the hope of fixing it. Re-installing the drivers did nothing. At all. Reinstalling windows made the issue disappear for maybe a week, and then it came back with a vengeance. At this point, I began to eliminate components from my system, such as hard drives, SSDs, RAM etc. I began to test each component independently until I found the culprit. I ran memtest for almost a week, hoping I had a bad RAM module. No such luck, they all passed. All of my Drives were fine too. Perhaps it's the CPU, I thought? Nope. I borrowed another 5820K and a Xeon from work, and they all had the same issue.

I knew, without a doubt, at this point that it was Ethernet Adapter related... I unplugged my network cable from the board and plugged it into the second adapter, and everything began to work as it should! I was relieved. I figured that it must have been a damaged Ethernet port, and it didn't matter because I had a spare. Nope, less than a week later, the same old symptoms arrived. I then installed a quad port Intel Ethernet PCI-e card that I had laying around, and the issue persisted. I hit up Google one last time, and I managed to find a post on another forum (that I haven't been able to find since) where several people were complaining about similar issues, and it had been narrowed down to Microsoft and Intel not working together to make a driver that works properly on the X99 platform. The solution offered there? Use a different Intel driver. I did, and the problem was still there.

I decided to RMA my board. I took it back to the retailer, and the person who I handed the board to barely even glanced at it and told me that I had several severely bent socket pins. I'm sorry, 16-year-old boy... But I have been involved in the computer industry longer than you have been alive. A small 'argument' ensued, pictures were taken of the socket as proof that no damage was present to the pins, and I signed the RMA form in the hopes that Gigabyte would figure out what my issue was and fix it. 5 weeks later I get a call from the store informing me that my board has been returned and is working again. I go to pick it up, and discover that Gigabyte had merely changed the socket. I know at this moment that I was going to have the same issue. Fast forward maybe 10 days and... stuttering.

I'd had enough now. I went out and bought another Motherboard, this time from MSI (I have had other issues with Gigabyte over the years, so them not fixing my issue was a warning sign that I should leave them behind and choose another preferred manufacturer). New CPU, new board, new SSD, new RAM... And I'm sat here struggling to even listen to spotify as I type this, because I made the mistake of trying to copy some files over to my NAS.

The only issue that I have found, that works for more than 10 days, is to use the old SpeedGuide TCP/IP optimizer program. That seems to sort my issue out for a couple of weeks. I do not believe this is solely a windows 10 issue, as all of my machines are running the same OS, 10 Pro x64, and I have never had an issue with them.

As much as I am hoping that someone can offer a solution, it would be great to hear that I am not the only person experiencing this. I have used several tools to record my latency , LatencyMon etc., and can confirm that the second I initiate any kind of network traffic, my latency goes through the roof. Process Explorer shows no problems as far as system resource usage goes. The only difference when I start a transfer or open a webpage etc. is I see the network graph moving, which is perfectly normal. But there are no CPU, RAM, GPU, or any other signs of something being amiss.

I apologize for such a lengthy post, but I wanted to eliminate as much as possible from the list of causes before people waste their time and tell me to RMA my board, or reinstall my network drivers etc. *cry

:)

 

Windows 10 very brief audio stutter/buzzing/glitching everywhere

This still happens. I've noticed that the mouse also stutters when the audio stutters. I've run a latency checker for drivers and it appears to be the NVidia graphic driver. So is this NVidia's fault? Or Microsoft's fault? I'm running the latest chipset/video
drivers I could find on the Asus X99-A motherboard.

 

Windows 10 Base Filtering Engine and Extreme DPC latency

I have been suffering from High and Extreme DPC Latency.

Manifesting as Audio Glitches, Stuttering cursor and Video Stuttering.

After much time browsing the internet and using LatencyMon. I have found where my problem is coming from.

After a few hours LatencyMon reports that the highest DPC is 10,000 - 25,000 with ndis.sys being the culprit. If my computer is left on for over 4 hours LatencyMon 100,000us+ and the computer is rendered unusable.

Something i have tried are :

Updated and tried different drives.

Updated BIOS.

Disabled any kinda CPU throttling.

uninstalled third party anti-virus.

Checked System File integrity.

(None of them helped)

The only thing that has shown any result is when the service “Base Filtering Engine” has been stopped. When it has been stopped the latency drops and ndis.sys does not show up on LatencyMon highest DPC , it is them something like the USB HUB drivers ,Directx
or Something Nvidia, at a Max of 350us (Being perfectly low) with no stuttering of any kind.

If i do re start the service “Base Filtering Engine” the stuttering comes back and ndis.sys show up as Highest DPC latency.

Leaving “Base Filtering Engine” disabled is a very bad idea, I like having a working Anti-Virus with a network Firewall.

I will be very greatfull if anyone could help me find a solution to my problem, Reinstalling windows each month has become tiresome.

Computer hardware

CPU : 5960X @ 4.4Ghz (Checked Stable)

RAM : 64 GB of RAM

GPU : GTX 1080

MOBO : Asus sabertooth x99

Running Windows 10 ver 1607

 

It could be your router/gateway, could be the server you are trying to connect to that there is an issue between you and it. You are best to run a SmokePing. smokeping tool - packet loss test | DSLReports, ISP Information

 

Thanks, but it's absolutely not my router. As I said, I still have problems even when using my local network. If I remove the router, and the switch, the issue persists. Of course, there is always a chance of there being an issue between my end and an external address, but not between everyone single site that is visited by me.

I'm suffering no packet loss either locally or externally, not on this PC or any others that are on my network.

 

Update:I have also tried disabling any security software, as well as running scans to ensure that I am not infected with anything. Neither of these things were an issue.

 

You have no way of knowing what the problem is, without running the SmokePing. It runs even while you are using your computer. If you have the latest bios and drivers installed, go through ASUS's forums to see if anyone else is experiencing the same issues. If not and you still believe it to be a Motherboard issue, get a RMA and have ASUS send you a new motherboard.

 

I'm aware of what what smokeping does. This has nothing to do with Asus. The issue has persisted across boards from multiple vendors, with the only common trait being that they are Intel Ethernet and X99 chipset. I have been through all kinds of forums, and have yet to find a definitive solution.

 

Your dual Ethernet states it is teaming capable. Is that option turned off in the Bios? Are the two Ethernet adapters the same device or different models?

Does the system have built-in Wi-Fi or just the M.2 slot for a card?

If you watch Task Manager, or even better Resource Monitor, do you notice anything sucking up resources during problem times? Does the Processor stay close to full speed and does it show high utilization?

I assume you are using the correct processor. Sometimes certain processors may have extra performance enhancers, such as PCIe lanes which can help with data transfer and networking.

I have an older X99 ASUS board and have not noticed anything in particular with it and the latest Win 10.

Whenever something works for a while and then starts to have problems, there is a possibility something is being loaded. Possibly a driver update or some software or even Windows updates could be affecting the system.

And I am not saying this should be a cause, but over the years I have seen situations where 32 GB of memory has been the source of problems. Just something to think about if you can't find another cause.

 

I only had dual Ethernet capability on the Gigabyte board. It's been a while since I got rid of those boards and I am now on and MSI board. When I first went through troubleshooting my gigabyte board, I tried a PCIe network adapter, and it made no difference. Resource monitor never showed anything out of the ordinary, besides the network adapter being utilised. No spikes in memory or processor usage.

I don't have WiFi on this current board, but the gigabyte one did have WiFi. It was an included m.2 wireless card, which was removed from the board at the time.

Yes, I am using the correct processor. On the consumer side of the X99 platform there are what... 6 processors that can be used in a 2011-3 socket. Both of these motherboards that I am talking about fully support all Haswell-E processors. I started with a 5820k and moved up to a 5960x, changing processors made no difference in the end.

I manually keep all my driver's up to date, with backups of previous drivers in case something doesn't work correctly. I am 99% sure that this is a driver issue rather than a hardware one, as I have seen similar posts before without a definitive solution.

I started my X99 build with 16gb RAM, and still had this issue. The issue persisted through my upgrade to 32gb, and then again through my upgrade to 64gb. I don't believe it's a memory issue as every single memory module in my PC has been put through memtest several times in a separate PC.

I have a ivy bridge processor in an old Asus board that's been running without a hitch for over 12 months now. Not had a single issue with it. Aside from from different hardware, the two computers are virtually the same. Same operating system, same version, same software etc. I'm even using the quad port Ethernet card that I had trouble with in my X99 build in the older machine. No issues. It's some combination of Intel network drivers, the X99 platform as a whole, and windows 10 not playing nicely. I went into the X99 platform with my eyes open, and I was expecting issues from the start, USB and SATA issues mostly, based on what I had read about at the time. But honestly, other than this network problem there have been no other issues whatsoever.

Out of curiousity, is your Asus board using an Intel adapter? If so, what drivers are you using?

Thanks for your ideas

 

Yes, the ASUS board has one Intel Ethernet I218-V and built-in Wi-Fi Broadcom. All drivers are from the ASUS site. Ethernet shows as 1 GB and I have ISP IPv6 capability.

If you want me to check something, let me know. I have had this board for about 4 years now. The only problem I have ever had was during the Preview builds before Win 10 was released, it had problems with my SLI Nvidia GTX 980 cards.

Intel i7-5930K processor. I am running an M.2 PCIe drive so I made sure the get the processor with all lanes available.

 

I believe the Gigabyte x99-ud5 that this problem started with had 1218v adapters, and I used drivers from both the Intel and Gigabyte websites. I almost wish I still had the board so that I could test whatever drivers are on Asus' site.

I'm going to double check what adapter is on my MSI board. I'm actually hoping that it's another 1218v, because it opens another avenue for me to explore with the Asus site drivers.

I only ever used the Preview build a couple of times in the z77 and z97 platforms. My first install of the full release 10 was when I bought my X99 setup. I've never experimented with windows 7 or 8.1 on X99, and it's entirely possible that the issue I'm having isn't on those OSes.

Are you using whatever the latest driver from Asus for your network adapter?

Thanks.

 

The driver I am currently showing is 12.15.22.6 4/5/16.

The latest ASUS driver is 20.1.2019.0 from 8/2015