Hello,
I’m experiencing digital distortion, clicking, crackling or what sounds like buffer issues since I did a fresh install of Windows on a new drive – All computer components are the same as before except the SSD.

After a short while after starting the system, playing any audio file and format, even stream starts to ‘glitch out’ and seemingly gets worse over time (though that could be my imagination). File formats I tested: 320kbps mp3, 32-/24-/16-bit WAV, aac audio streams, DAW playback. DIGICheck Bit statistics doesn’t show any anomalies, however in the spectrum analyzer the glitches show up at the low and high end of the spectrum as if it were part of the audio streams – again, the files are not at fault.

Example of what is happening (Glitching start at around 0:25):
https://soundcloud.com/blaehubb/glitch- … 09/s-50MTi

System info:
-RME Multiface II on HDSP PCI card
-Windows 10 64-bit build 1909
-Intel I7 7700K
-Asus Strix Z270F
-64GB DDR4 Ram – 4200 MHz
-GeForce GTX1080

I’ve now tested several things for two days and am finally starting to make >some< sense of what seems to be going on.

Long story short, after a lot of testing I am now sure that this is an issue that comes with one of the new windows versions – They probably changed something that somehow affects the RME HDSP driver.

Either I just have to wait for them to fix it, or this is something they changed for good and RME needs to figure this one out and update their drivers (though I’m not sure if this only happens to the driver when running an older HDSP interface – The new interfaces are probably not affected by this).

Here the things I ruled out/tested so far (Still hoping there is a fix and I’m just missed something):
-    Tested with 320kbps mp3, 32-/24-/16-bit WAV, AAC audio streams and DAW playback
-    Played files from different sources (Main hard-drive and system SSD)
-    Every buffer size setting
-    Every sample rate setting
-    Clock is set to internal – I don’t have an external clock generator
-    All other probably unrelated settings in the DSP settings
-    Windows sound enhancements all disabled
-    Disabled communications options in the sound panel
-    Tried with different exclusive mode setting combinations
-    Default format in windows properties is set to 24 bit 48kHz, but this setting is actually disabled since DPS is managing it
-    There is one other audio driver installed for one of my screens, which I've disabled in the sound settings
-    Old and new HDSP drivers
-    Uninstalling using device manager and windows uninstaller
-    Also removed components manually from registry before another reinstall
-    Manual install in device manager
-    Firmware update for PCI card
-    Bios is on latest firmware
-    Tried with and without mainboard drivers
-    Installed windows again on a different drive and didn’t install anything except the HDSP drivers
-    Tried running the interface with and without external power supply
-    Replaced CMOS battery
-    Windows power plan set to max, changed all power settings to max performance and back
-    Disabled CPU parking
-    Disabled all sleep and hibernate options etc.
-    CPU is not showing spikes when the glitches happen (Utilization around 8-9% with file playing, 7-8% without)
-    CPU clock speed was 4.7 GHz initially, but I disabled overclocking. At the moment it is running at 4.49 GHz
-    Disk is also showing minimal activity
-    RAM right now is only using 8.9 GB

I also popped my old system drive back in and there everything works fine. That’s version 1809.

I’m pretty sure this is something Microsoft changed, I’m just wondering if I have to wait for them to fix it or if they changed something that new drivers need to consider – Or maybe I’m missing something obvious here.

If anyone is experiencing similar issues or has ideas for other things I could try, please let me know.