Clevo Control Center messes up Audio (FIX INSIDE)

I discovered this mess a while back but due to my procrastination, I have been lazy to post it.

So on my previous Clevo P870DM, Sometimes, I would notice that the Audio is way too low or randomly skipping/jerking/stuttering, at that point, I would start uninstalling drivers, adjust power management settings in the Realtek Control panel, nothing worked. I initially thought that my headphone jack is faulty or something.

Then I discovered, that I was on the Entertainment plan in the Clevo Control Center rather than High Performance, I then switched it to High Performance and BAAM!! The Audio became loud and clear again.

So to fix this, I set it back to Entertainment plan (which sets the Windows Power Management to Balanced BTW), then click on the Entertainment Plan > System Program > Gaming Tab (steering wheel icon ), then play around with the Audio Profiles below until one sounds loud and right to you. I set it to Direct and the problem was solved.

so if you ever feel your Audio is not loud enough as it was before or is stutering, make sure to check your settings in CCC

EDIT: the issue was not in CCC after all, it was me overclocking the cache ratio! Setting it back to 0 (default) fixed the audio stuttering

 

yea i noticed that too so i thought the culprit was the Realtek Audio manager.

 

me too, it was the cursed CCC. I only need it to change the lights though

 

what a surprise...

I haven't experienced the issue you have but CCC does mess with SoundBlaster settings when restarting or cold booting. Maybe this is the same issue here and I will try your method next time I catch it doing the same.

 

Latest Clevo Control Center (Control Center AP v5.0001.1.01) has this entire option removed, so now the audio will stutter / cut on the Entertainment plan no matter what:

 

hmmm, @infex is not having this issue even while on the entertainment plan...

what do you think @Mr. Fox ? What overclocking setting that I did may have impact on this?

@bloodhawk @Papusan @Prema

 

That is the headphone amp setting. Needed for higher end high impedance headphones.


Unfortunately I haven't used the onboard audio or CCC in months now. I use an USB DAC for my Audio needs.

Crackling however could be because of the notriously high DPC latencies on Pascal and the ****ty NVIDIA drivers.

 

so why doesn't the crackling/stuttering happen on the higher performance plan?

it happens on the Quiet plan, Entertainment, and what's surprising, it also happens on the Power Saving Plan but to a much lesser extent.......

 

Because the processor being at max core speeds metigates the NVIDIA driver calls a bit.

Also try reducing the Windows Timer value.

 

Windows Timer? Please explain

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-overclockers-lounge.788975/page-851#post-10425490
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-overclockers-lounge.788975/page-850#post-10425280

 

I set the Timer Tool to 0.5ms, doesn't fix t3h stuttering

 

Alrighty , can you download Latency Mon and run it. And see which .DLL file shows up when the stutters happen ?

 

Linux master race reporting:

The sound on my P870M differs between Linux and Windows for some reason. The sound on Linux sounds different(I would say better). At first I thought it had to do with the subwoofer not working. But it does work. There is also a difference with headphones so it's not just the stock speakers. Windows also has lower volume sound(as indicated in this thread). The weird thing is, it still sounds different under windows with no drivers.

 

Yeap Linux doesn't have the Realtek and Soundblaster bloat crap.

Same with my P870DM-G. Without drivers, sure it's not as loud, but sounds cleaner.

 

I tried lowering the Cache Ratio to 41X down from 45X just to check, made no difference

I'll just leave it in High Performance mode then I give up

 

I can tell you the cause if you run Latency Mon.
And no Cache is not responsible for sttueting crackling ma man.

 

ok here's what I noticed, even if I uninstall the CCC and set the Windows Power plan to Balanced, same thing happens so it's not CCC that's the issue I guess

please guide me about this latency monitor?

where to download and how to run it to show you

 

http://www.resplendence.com/download/LatencyMon.exe

Install and run, then click on the tiny green play button on the top left.
And do what you normally do when stturrreing / crackling starts happening.

 

Entertainment:



Performance:

 

this is why i uninstalled CCC

 

uninstalling it didn't help as I mentioned a while back. the moment I go to the Balanced plan or anything other than the high performance plan, this stuttering / latency happens

 

Seems to be the NVIDIA Drivers from the second screenshot.
Are any of the bars spiking to red and settling down occasionally ?

 

when on the balanced mode, they do that

so how to fix it? if I don't run the latest nVIDIA Driver, some games won't run right like BF1 and Doom

 

Well the problem is that NVIDIA just doesn't want to fix it on their end and choose to blatantly ignore it.
I was hoping it was something other than the NVIDIA drivers. But since that seems to be the case, I would just use High Performance profile, if that fixes it for you.

 

yeah true, just to ensure it's the nVIDIA Drivers, I'm almost done downloading the latest Clevo nVIDIA Driver just to test

 

Cools.
Have latency Mon running and play some audio alongside... And notice which DLL it points to when the bars spike to red.

 

I installed nVIDIA GeForce Driver v21.21.13.6956

still stuttering on the Balanced plan



I give up, just gonna leave it on the performance plan

 

Mine audio stutters when i overclocked the ring ratio max: 44 min:44

 

ok let me do an NVRAM reset and see if it helps

 

NVRAM Reset done, all stock settings, no more stuttering........



now I have to change the overclocking settings one at a time and see what was the cause of this nuisance

@bloodhawk

 

Hmm yeah, it's weird. ACPI.sys is probably related to.something that is controlling power profiles/options/states/what Nots. And might be because the CCC talking to the EC.

 

Wait Vram oc cause audio stuttering?
What is this new devilry.

 

Sweet!
But that NVIDIA DLL is still causing a lot of page faults. God bless the monkeys.

 

@Phoenix

Did you remember to...

(1) disable power management in the Realtek Control Panel? The bubble has to be black for it to be disabled. If it is enabled you can expect audio glitches.
(2) disable ACPI features and ASPM options in the BIOS? Including the PCIe and GPU sections?

I have all forms of power management disabled and have no audio issues that I have noticed. No pops, clicks or stuttering.

 

Yeap that helps a lot.
The last 3 driver chains have been serious hogs.

 

1) offcourse
2) can you show me how please

 

Yes, I can point you where to look. But, right now I have no custom BIOS settings at all except XMP1. Everything else is defaults. Just experimenting with CPU overclocking using the new CCC beta to see what a noob can expect. With BIOS default, touching nothing related to power or voltage, all 4 cores and cache set to 46, benching at 4.6GHz is cool and stable. This will be easy for noobs with no overclocking experience to make all of the BGA turdbooks their friends are playing games with to look like pure feces, LOL.

What video driver are you using? As @bloodhawk mentioned, that could be your problem. If it is a GeForce driver problem, you'll have to use a different driver or live with it. You won't be able to fix the problem if it's NVIDIA's incompetence causing it. This has been a problem on again and off again with GeForce drivers since before Fermi was released.

This is with BIOS defaults and Realtek power management disabled...

 

@Mr. Fox @Prema @Papusan @infex @Mr Najsman @Eedeathstar

1- Enabled Flexi Charger = 80% start / 90% Stop (no audio stuttering)

2- Set Power Limit 1 / 2 to 300,000 and left the time window at the default 8 sec (no audio stuttering)

3- Set VR Current Limit to 8191 (no audio stuttering)

4- Set all core ratios to 46X (no audio stuttering)

5- Set RAM Profile to XMP 2 (no audio stuttering)

6- Enabled Native PCIe Support (no audio stuttering)

7- Disabled Voltage Auto Optimization in BIOS (no audio stuttering)

8- Enabled Intel Speed Shift Technology (no audio stuttering)

9- Disabled Intel Efficient Turbo (no audio stuttering)

10- Set PSYS PMax Current along with System Agent VR Settings & Core/IA VR Settings to 8191 (no audio stuttering)

11- Disabled WatchDog Timer and RSR (no audio stuttering)

12- Set the m.2 SSD Topology to M2 and the HDDs toplogy to ISATA (no audio stuttering)

13- Set the Cache Ratio to 44X (audio stuttering is back!!!)

Never touching the Cache ratio again!

What's weird is, even with the cache Ratio set to 44X, the stuttering only happens when I'm NOT on the performance plan, but anyway, I'd rather have a stable laptop no matter what plan I'm on so default Cache Ratio be it.

 

I tried different nVIDIA drivers, the problem was the Cache Ratio overclocking, see above post

 

That is seriously weird. I get stuttering on my P870DM-G. With or without touching the cache settings. And so do a lot of people.
Not sure what's going on here, but I'm seriously curious to know. Why messing with the cache is causing this for you.
@Prema @unclewebb

 

This isn't the first time, remember when I had audio crackling on my previous P870DM when I overclocked the Cache Ratio?

Crackling noise from speakers

 

That's not the case for me. Try disabling the flexicharger thing. I don't use that. Maybe that is causing you some issues with the cache ratio somehow. I don't have any use for the flexicharger feature. The similar technology caused issues on Alienware notebooks as well, so I have always disabled that.

Anyhow, you saw my DPC latency... no audio problems. And, here's a noob's no-effort 4.6GHz CPU overclock with default bios settings for everything except core ratios and cache all set to 46x ( using only CCC in Windows). No current limit throttling or anything. GPUs set to +175/+600.

 

@Mr. Fox @bloodhawk

The reason I never thought the Cache Ratio was the culprit before was I was setting it to 41X and getting stuttering still, not realizing that when setting it to 0, it's actually 4.0 GHz and NOT 4.1 GHz. as even 4.1 GHz Cache Ratio causes stuttering!

 

+600 MHz mem?? wow bro! I thought me setting it to +300 MHz which is the max the built in GPU Overclocking tool was a lot!

I guess I need to start playing with the MSI After Burner tomorrow

 

Here is the thing. You are having the same issue on 2 different systems. The only common factor. The Processor that was carried over.
If possible , I would test with the other non SL processor, to rule out the chip.

 

It will depend on GPU to GPU. One thing to note that, in most cases going that high, results in negative performance. And you need to find the sweet sport for "your" GPU.
My desktop Strix 1080 starts having negative effects after + 535Mhz
My EVGA ftw hybrid does +615 MHz and then negative after that.
My friends Strix 1080 can't go over +505 MHz.

 

I don't know. That's strange. Cache ratio has no effect on audio on my system. Other than having the flexicharger thing disabled, the only thing I might be doing differently is using Legacy BIOS and booting W10 and W7 with MBR drive format. That should have no bearing on it.

Try disabling flexicharger in the BIOS and see if that helps. Maybe it's doing something goofy with the charging system causing DPC latency issues.

What audio drivers are you using? I am on v6.0.1.7874 released 7/6/2016.

 

I will try that Flexi Charger thing tomorrow. Audio driver versions have no effect on this, tried them all

I also don't think that boot mode has any effect on this

it's either the Flexi Charger or my Cache Ratio

 

oh heck no, no more burning calories on this

tomorrow I'll try disabling Flexi Charger and see if that helps. no more energy today I did over 20 reboots testing diff. BIOS settings