Curious Audio Glitch

[Stuart]

Ever since my last Windows 10 update (which I didn't intend to happen!) I've been having problems with audio glitches in spite of checking most of the usual Windows settings...still working on that. But, the curious thing is that I have also been recording a mix-down of three stereo channels and surprisingly the audio glitches do not show up in the recordings. Does anyone know what might cause this to happen? I'm glad it does while I'm trying to deal with the glitches that are heard through the speakers, but found this to be totally unexpected.

The audio unit is a USB M-Audio 8-Track with 3 stereo channels, and 1 stereo channel used as the mix-down.

[Tweedle_Dee]

Same problem here. Last (unintentional!) update started glitches where I never had them before. Yes, superfetch is disabled. Been too busy to look into very much yet. Sorry, I can't help, but just wanted to say I'm experiencing the same thing. Interface is a MOTU Mk4 Ultralite.

[IainStinson]

Have a look at http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17436
This might have some ideas which could help.
Iain

[engrssc]

Interface is a MOTU Mk4 Ultralite.

The latest (Windows) MOTU Pro Audio Installer (Release Date 2019-03-21) from MOTU is here:

http://motu.com/techsupport/technotes/driverlog Go down near the bottom of the list for UltraLite-mk4

Don't know if that would do anything for the glitches. IMO the MOTU Mk4 Ultralite is an excellent audio box.

BTW, I notice MOTU site comes up as Not Secure, referring to a thread (again) discussing that situation with the HW Forum.

http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17481

Rgds,
Ed]

[Tweedle_Dee]

Thanks. I probably don't have the very latest driver/firmware then. After Easter I'll try it...

[dhm]

I'm fairly sure this won't be an audio device driver problem.
Search the Forum and you'll see that large numbers of people have had problems with audio glitches in Windows 10, even when stripped down to a "bare-bones" state.
Something in Win 10 is causing intermittent CPU spikes.
One interesting thing I have noticed is that I *don't* get glitches on PCs which started life with Win 7 and then took the free upgrade to Win 10 a couple of years ago.
Until a fix can be found for this problem I'm reverting to using Win 7 for all the HW PCs I build in the foreseeable future. (Yes, I know M$ are withdrawing support in January 2020, but if these PCs are never connected to the Internet, that shouldn't be a problem.)

[Tweedle_Dee]

Okay, well my thinking was that if the latest version of Windows 10 introduced something that caused me and others glitches this latest go-around, maybe MOTU fixed a weakness in their driver. Probably naive to think they would react that quickly...

[murph]

I'm currently having video playback issues with win10 (again). Happened a few months ago, got fixed with an emergency hotfix, now is happening again but no fix yet. Some video plays or streams, some updates every second or so, some doesn't.
This could be a similar thing......
(The HW computer is win7, offline).

[engrssc]

(The HW computer is win7, offline).

Here, too. Have several working.

Rgds,
Ed

[seh52]

My M-Audio Firewire 410 8-channel system developed audio glitches after a Windows 10 update, too. I hired an HW expert who couldn't fix it, and suggested that my M-Audio driver may no longer be supported.

A computer tech friend showed me how to change priority from Normal to Realtime in the Task Manager and that stopped the glitches.

Here is a YouTube showing how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-PTZqjZSRk
I get there in different order, by first selecting the Details section, then the Hauptwerk program, then Right clicking on it to set priority at Realtime.

I just found a free program, Prio, that I may use to save the Realtime priority setting, so I don't have to reset it every time I open Hauptwerk. https://www.prnwatch.com/prio/

[David Baldwin]

I worked my way through a whole host of things after the previous win 10 upgrade. After the last one it was back to lots of glitches again. Some of my previous changes had been reversed but I was still left with one occurring about every 1-2 minutes. I discovered that sysmain was still running after I stopped it. This time I disabled it and I am now glitch free.
I think it is necessary to turn off all energy saving features. Keep the disks running and all cores active.

[chrisdfrith]

I found after my last Windows 10 updates were applied that SysMain was re-enabled and the audio glitches reappeared. I didn't realize some Microsoft updates could make such a change, but it seems it did. Once SysMain was disabled again, I'm glitch free once again.

[seh52]

Update and question:

The Prio program doesn't work to keep a Realtime processor setting.

How do you disable SysMain?

Thanks!

[engrssc]

I find on my online Win 10 computer with the latest update,there many so called new not asked for "features" that most likely are not HW friendly. You can Google for ways to remove them.

Rgds,
Ed

[evertjan]

Windows key + R
Type in: services.msc
Search for sysmain
Double click on it and switch it to 'disable'
Also stop the service by pushing the Stop button. Not necessary because after next restart it cannot start because you disable it.

And do it again after next Windows update because Microsoft turns it on again.