Is the Buffer Size in the Settings dialog set to 128 or 256 samples? Try both.

Use Latency Mon from Resplendence to check your computer.

The 'shrieking' sound is buffers no longer synced. That happens on the application side (so not visible as error in the USB diagnosis). Stop/start of playback should already fix that (at least with ASIO).

As you didn't have this problem before something on your computer must have changed and causes worse performance than before.

That's the worst test result I have ever seen. But please do it again without any app or program running.

The Oppo uses much larger buffers (latency) and might not be affected then. Still the problem here is the computer, this needs to be fixed.

Ifi dc purifier

Thank you everyone for chipping into the conversation.

I really hope that with your help I will be able to fix this because, honestly, I absolutely love this device.

So far, with the information gathered from you, I'm inclined to believe there's nothing wrong with RME but more so with my laptop and/or operating system.
Am I mistaken?

Here is the Latency Mon situation after reboot and ~7 hours of... basically nothing.
Except programs and services found in Startup.
Left the computer running after it rebooted and then left the house so I wouldn't be tempted to tinker around.

I owed Matthias an answer to his original question about sample size.
Its default seems to be 512?
I'm currently running Foobar2000 (with ASIO) and it shows 512 Samples, 0 USB errors and 44.1khz.

I would attach an image of the MADIface but I can't put a 2nd link

I will change the sample rate, as Matthias has suggested and will report back.

Hello ramses,

I just changed the Buffer Size (Latency) in MADIface from 512 to 256, started Chrome with 2 tabs  (this being one of them) and Foobar2000 (ASIO enabled) with those 2 Darkthrone tracks in loop.

I'm not sure I got your suggestion right so please be so kind as to clarify.
Are you suggesting to go above 512 samples, not below as Matthias suggested?
Or just to play around with samples, above and below the default (?) 512 to see what's right for this computer?

Better sort for Highest execution time. Its not the amount of DPC its more the time that it takes to execute the DPC.
During that time the CPU core is blocked by this low level routine which can not be interrupted by the task scheduler.
If there is an audio thread on this CPU, then it waits for the core to become available. This results in audio drops.
2 requirements
a) more efficient drivers (solve root cause)
b) higher ASIO buffer sizes (try to mitigate the issue)

Very useful input indeed ramses, thank you.

The root problem remains the computer, either on the hardware part (which would be the most unfortunate case) or the software part (drivers, OS, certain programs badly interacting with others etc).

The diagnosis so far, as suggested by Latency Mon in my rather limited understanding, are the drivers.
I don't, yet, have serious reasons to believe internal hardware in the laptop is malfunctioning.

I have already proceeded in tinkering with 2 particular drivers:

1. Wireless network card drivers (Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260)
2. the nVidia drivers (nVidia Quadro K1100M)

1. Rolled back the official latest Intel drivers from version v18.33.71.1@21.MAY.2019 to the default Windows 10 driver v17.15.0.5@22.FEB.2015
Upon restart, the immediate effect is positive and noticeable, as observed here.

Execution time for ndis.sys used to be ~14ms and go up to ~31ms as observed in the first screenshot from Latency Mon I posted earlier.
Now it's ~1.6.

2. Used Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to uninstall the nVidia driver and update it to the latest, v426.32.
Driver only installed this time, not the other stuff the nVidia driver package suggests.
Not much of an improvement here, some people suggest that an older driver, around version 390 would improve some things.

Will test and report back.

Veiozar,

I've just been following along quietly.  We're all disappointed when a User has difficulties.   However, You did some good diagnostic work before posting!  This no doubt helped the "Power Duo" of Matthias, and Ramses to get involved, and help navigate you toward a solution.   You're getting closer!   Hang in there Man.  The Solution is close at hand!

Best to You,

Curt

Curt962,

welcome to the conversation & thank for your kind words.

Very much appreciated, just like the prompt interventions from Matthias, ramses and the others, that already proved beneficial to my conundrum.

This ADI-2 PRO FS is my first ever RME product purchase and I did so with massive confidence.

Confidence built on several factors.
One of them being this very forum and noticing how yourself, ramses, Matthias and I'm sure others I forget right now get involved in each and every question a RME user or a potential buyer has.
Your guys' presence was also felt on other fora too, with or without an "audiophile" scent, combating that particular smell with science & facts rather than with feelings and marketing splendor talk.

Kudos to you all for that kind of customer or potential customer support!

But I digress.
Back to the issue in question, I should maybe offer some context for those who will read this in the future and may or may not encounter what I did.

... in this regard I started writing an unnaturally long post which I believe can be compressed into the following ideas:

1. This particular computer/laptop that I've been using the ADI-2 PRO FS on is 5+ years old and has had its motherboards replaced (in an authorized HP dealer), albeit more likely with a refurbished component.
So issues of various nature are to be present, I just wasn't careful enough to take this fact into consideration this time.

e.g.
I forgot disabling the on board "Realtek High-Definition Audio" from BIOS, among others, for example.
And I also had its drivers & software package installed.
That stuff sure was indispensable with RME ADI-2 PRO FS or even OPPO HA-1 around, LOL.

Yes, having it enabled for no reason did negatively impact things.

It is not the only sub-component that one can disable via BIOS or operating system to help decongest things on an older computer.
This varies from user to user and can range from Bluetooth or Webcam to LAN Network Card.

2. I've always had my suspicions about this particular HP model's WiFi Network Card.
More so after motherboard replacement.

ndis.sys (Network Driver) seems to be the main culprit indicated by Latency Mon.

Wdf01000.sys seems to be the 2nd one but isn't this in strict relation with each and every other driver out there in the operating system, including the Network Driver?
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

3. I've been listening to the same 2 tracks in loop via Groove player (the exact "setup" that helped me reproduce the issue ~3 days ago) for more ~4 hours now and I heard no click, pop, distortion or shrieking sound whatsoever.
With Chrome and 40+ tabs open.
In the past ~72 hours distortion would make itself violently present in max 3-4 loops.

This has been obtained via following Matthias' recommendation of selecting 256 samples in MADIface, installing Latency Mon and following ramses' indications.

... thus disabling more things I don't need in BIOS, operating system, changing driver versions of WiFi Network Card and nVidia Video Card while monitoring the situation in Latency Mon with every change I made.

This kind of tweaking until Latency Mon's graphs are green only is work in progress.
Also, this current Latency Mon status is far from perfect but it eliminated 100% of the issues I had.

Will report back if significant findings are... well, found.

4.The issues described in the initial post were caused by my aging laptop and improperly managed BIOS and/or operating system.

Matthias was correct in his diagnosis:

In light of recent discoveries, I am exceptionallly happy to report that my unit of RME ADI-2 PRO FS is NOT faulty.

P.S.

For the sake of potential future users experiencing the same kind of dilemmas and reading this,  supplementary information or suggestions are more than welcome.