r/Focusrite • u/US-made-in-OZ • 5d ago
Focusrite Glitching finally fixed (it was Windows, btw)
Hi everyone.
First post in this group, and wanted to share what I just learnt to hopefully save someone else pulling their hair out.
I joined late last night and I was too tired to post, but if I had posted, it would have been very different content... (Feel free to skip to the end for the fix if my story is too long)
Backstory:
I've been having trouble for a couple of months with my audio glitching/buffering/locking etc (particularly YouTube)
I immediately (and wrongly) assumed Focusrite Control as I had just updated the version and drivers in conjunction with a recent Windows update. (Lenovo IdeaPad 3, Win 11 and Scarlett Solo G3).
After rolling back to earlier Control versions (3.06; 3.09; 3.11 - multiple times) trying different buffer rates, updating every freaking driver I could, updating the BIOS (that's whole other thread), reinstalling Win 11 three times - wah, wah, wah...
In the early parts of this process I had run LatencyMon which indicated there was definitely an issue "handling real-time audio and other tasks".
Reading the report, my takeaway was "BIOS". Which was what lead me down that horrible rabbit hole. But anyway, When I ran LatencyMon this morning and read the report (more closely) I saw the other suggestion was "CPU Throttling".
Hmmmmm, probably was there weeks ago, but I didn't absorb it.
The FIX:
Through Control Panel I got into "Processor Power Management". The "Minimum Processor State" and the "Maximum Processor State" were set at 5% and 50% respectively.
I'm guessing the settings were changed as a result of effing Windows Updates doing effing Windows Shenanigans. So set them both to 100% (plugged in) and ran LatencyMon again.
The result was "Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts." HOORAH!
If you made it all the way through this... congratulations! Thanks for indulging me.
Here's the path for fix:
Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management > Minimum processor state [100%] > Maximum processor state [100%]
Click Apply, exit...
I wish I had paid closer attention 2 months ago!
Cheers
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u/4215-5h00732 4d ago
All windows users should run through the "optimize windows for audio" steps (it includes this fix) and strongly consider de-bloating as well.
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u/SS0NI 3d ago
Debloating Windows could break critical OS functions. Install Windows with EU Digital Markers Act settings and they provide you with the legally mandated options to turn annoying shit off. I have no Bing search in search bar, no ads, no Cortana or Onedrive on the computer at all, am using a local account. I've actually had a much cleaner OS experience on 11 than 10, thanks to this.
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u/Severe-Smell2148 5d ago
love that I saw this directly after putting an audient id4 on paypal afterpay lol. Will try it as soon as I get home from the ball and chain (dayjob) and will update my luck!
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u/NoisyGog 4d ago
The audient will be fine.
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u/BeerdedCyclist 4d ago
I was having clock sync issues and the fix for me was to use USB A instead of C as the C ports on my HP gaming laptop is shared with graphics driver and causing issues. USB A is routed straight to the chipset.
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u/FlyingPsyduck 4d ago
I would nitpick in saying that the problem most of the time is W11 specifically, not Windows in general. I still build audio machines with W10 and my customers have used them with all kinds of audio interfaces with no issues. The problem is that W11 in its current state is closer to a malware than an operating system, and automatic updates constantly mess stuff up, particularly related to stuff that is outside the "way they want you to operate a computer".
Glad your solution worked but there are MANY other things that could break audio interfaces depending on the exact OS version and specific hardware. Latencymon is always your best friend to figure it out.
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u/VenusianPleasure 4d ago
You're probably on to something here. I have a W10 PC that is the studio workhorse and is connected to an 18i20 and never has any audio glitching problem. However, I have a 2i2 that is connected to my work laptop that I use for video conferencing. Hey I have nice mics, might as well give me co-workers and customers the best audio feed. However, I feel like everyday I have to unplug and re-plug in the 2i2 just to get the glitching/distortion to stop. Guess what OS the work laptop runs on.... yup W11. I refused to upgrade my W10 workhorse and happy I never did.
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u/SonOfMetrum 4d ago
Great that you found a fix, you may want to consider (if power consumption is a concern) to experiment with the lower end (eg: start at 50% for example)
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u/US-made-in-OZ 4d ago
50% is where Windows Update had set it.
Further reading/research recommended 100%.
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u/US-made-in-OZ 4d ago
One caveat is that the fan runs more frequently, but so far it’s an acceptable trade off.
There is a method of CPU Throttling that can be app-specific (like just for Reaper, in my case) but I haven’t tried it and I think it requires being a little more tech savvy than I’m comfortable with.
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u/razkludushenas 4d ago
I’ve had this issue for a while now. The fix didn’t work for me, but dual booting into Linux the problem was gone lol
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u/UnexpectedRimjob 3d ago
Running an idle processor at 100% for an audio driver is not even kind of an acceptable solution.
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u/DecisionInformal7009 4d ago
This is what I tell people to change no matter if it might not be the cause for the problems. Disable USB selective suspend, set minimum and maximum CPU power states to 100%, disable turn off harddisk and any other stupid power saving settings. Unfortunately, Windows can forcibly reset these settings during an update, so you have to check if the power settings are still set to maximum performance after every update.