[SOLVED] Focusrite Scarlett Intermittent massive stuttering, microphone/audio desync

[Bucketsmith]

Since the last big patch, I am having intermittent massive stuttering.
The audio stops functioning for 20-30 seconds, the system freezes almost completely, mouse input becomes sluggish, everything responds sluggish, and after things return to "normal", then my voice will trail behind any input.
I will press my button to talk, but it will not record/send the first two seconds of me speaking. So part of what I say will be cut off.

I thought changing my interface setting from 48KHz to 44,1KHz would work as a workaround, but apparently it did not.
I'm only having this issue with this game, and only since the last big patch.

[Team17_Service]

Hey BucketSmith,

Thanks for getting in touch with us - sorry to hear you're having some performance issues in Hell Let Loose.

Could you please pop us over your DxDiag information - you can do this by following the steps below:

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R. 
   
2. The Run dialog should appear. Type dxdiag in the available text field. 
   
3. Click OK
   
4. Click Save All Information
   
5. Set the Save as type to Text File (*.txt)
   
6. Save the file DxDiag.txt to your Desktop so it is easy to find. 
   
7. Open the .txt file, copy all the contents > Paste all the contents to a free text hosting service such as http://pastebin.com/
   
8. Copy the link to your post and paste in your reply

Once we've received this information, we can take a closer look.

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey BucketSmith,

Thanks for getting in touch with us - sorry to hear you're having some performance issues in Hell Let Loose.

Could you please pop us over your DxDiag information - you can do this by following the steps below:

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R. 
   
2. The Run dialog should appear. Type dxdiag in the available text field. 
   
3. Click OK
   
4. Click Save All Information
   
5. Set the Save as type to Text File (*.txt)
   
6. Save the file DxDiag.txt to your Desktop so it is easy to find. 
   
7. Open the .txt file, copy all the contents > Paste all the contents to a free text hosting service such as http://pastebin.com/
   
8. Copy the link to your post and paste in your reply

Once we've received this information, we can take a closer look.

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

https://pastebin.com/8e7KJ9t8
Here ya go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQbzKhSNwE

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting that over to us.

Can you please perform a clean install of your graphics drivers? I can see quite a few on your DxDiag and I suspect some may not be in use and potentially causing this. For steps on how to do this, please see the following article:

• Using DDU to perform a Clean Install of your Graphics Drivers: https://team17.helpshift.com/hc/en/3-team17/faq/98-using-ddu-to-perform-a-clean-install-of-graphics-drivers/

Once you have completed this, can you please reboot your PC and retest the game?

If the issue persists following this, please do let us know and we can investigate further.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting that over to us.

Can you please perform a clean install of your graphics drivers? I can see quite a few on your DxDiag and I suspect some may not be in use and potentially causing this. For steps on how to do this, please see the following article:

• Using DDU to perform a Clean Install of your Graphics Drivers: https://team17.helpshift.com/hc/en/3-team17/faq/98-using-ddu-to-perform-a-clean-install-of-graphics-drivers/

Once you have completed this, can you please reboot your PC and retest the game?

If the issue persists following this, please do let us know and we can investigate further.

Regards,
Team17 Support

I've gone in to safeboot, used DDU to cleanly remove all AMD GPU drivers, and done a fresh install of a new download.
Here's the new dxdiag: https://pastebin.com/Qh6XgpJF

Just in case you missed it, I managed to record the issue and posted the link in my edited post above, but here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQbzKhSNwE

[Bucketsmith]

The problem still happens, even when having the game only on the menu and running in the background...

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and trying those steps.

Could you please send us an updated DxDiag now you have cleared up some of the drivers so we can take another look into what may be causing this?

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and trying those steps.

Could you please send us an updated DxDiag now you have cleared up some of the drivers so we can take another look into what may be causing this?

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

I did, it's in my previous post.
https://pastebin.com/Qh6XgpJF

Maybe you are confusing me having 4 monitors for having multiple display drivers?

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us - I missed the updated DxDiag in my previous response so do apologise but appreciate you sending again.

We can see the 4 monitors so no issue there, the DDU has cleared the extra graphics driver we were seeing on the original DxDiag so that's good - just a shame it hasn't resolved the issue.

Can you please disable the Voicemod Virtual Audio Device you have installed and see if this makes a difference to the performance please?

I can also see on your DxDiag that you are receiving a couple of LiveKernelEvent a1000001 crashes - can you please follow the steps in the link to perform a clean boot?[team17.helpshift.com]
A clean boot is being used to start your Windows device using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs and this will help us determine if there is a particular program interfering with Hell Let Loose. Please retest the game once you have done a clean boot and see if the issue persists.

To re-enable your start-up programs:

1. Follow the steps above again but enable all of your programs and services.
   
2. Then click Apply and restart your computer.

If the performance has not changed despite clean booting, we'd recommend performing a SFC scan to reveal any possible issues with your Windows system:

1. Open the Windows Start Menu
   
2. Type “cmd”
   
3. Right-click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator
   
4. Type “sfc /scannow” without the quotes
   
5. Press Enter
   
6. If the process has revealed/resolved any issues, please attempt to run the game again

Get back to us when you can and let us know how you get on with these steps, if the performance issues continue, we can investigate further.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us - I missed the updated DxDiag in my previous response so do apologise but appreciate you sending again.

We can see the 4 monitors so no issue there, the DDU has cleared the extra graphics driver we were seeing on the original DxDiag so that's good - just a shame it hasn't resolved the issue.

No worries. Alright.

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Can you please disable the Voicemod Virtual Audio Device you have installed and see if this makes a difference to the performance please?

I've done this numerous times to see if it made a difference, throughout any other fixes or workarounds, every time, to see if it also had an effect and the problem still occured.

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

I can also see on your DxDiag that you are receiving a couple of LiveKernelEvent a1000001 crashes - can you please follow the steps in the link to perform a clean boot?[team17.helpshift.com]

I have done so, but the problem still persists.

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

If the performance has not changed despite clean booting, we'd recommend performing a SFC scan to reveal any possible issues with your Windows system:

I have done this, too, which did reveal there were problems and it managed to fix all issues.
Subsequent scans reveal no faults.
The problem still persists.

I have also (re)installed the latest software and driver suite to my Focusrite audio interface, which made no difference, the problem still persists. :(

I am only having this issue with Hell Let Loose, that I notice.
I did not have it prior to the last big patch. With the exact same setup, no notable changes to hardware or special software installed, aside from Voicemod, which I removed during troubleshooting.
The other games I currently play do not have this issue occur.

What am I missing? I can't figure it out.
Eventviewer doesn't show me anything specific to this issue. Or on the moment this issue occurs.

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and trying all those steps - we appreciate the time you're taking to troubleshoot with us.

Could you please try running a Windows Memory Diagnostic? Sometimes the LiveKernelEvent a1000001 can be related to faulty RAM which can also cause some performance issues:

1. Type Memory in Windows search and press Enter
   
2. Select Windows Memory Diagnostics result
   
3. Click Restart now and check for problems (recommended) (note that your PC will restart immediately)
   
4. A memory test will run during startup and display any detected errors – this might take awhile
   
5. Replace or repair faulty RAM module(s) if errors are found

Alternatively, you can do this using MemTest86 for a more comprehensive view of any memory issues that may have arisen: https://www.memtest86.com/

Get back to us when you can and let us know if these memory tests reveal anything!

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and trying all those steps - we appreciate the time you're taking to troubleshoot with us.

Could you please try running a Windows Memory Diagnostic? Sometimes the LiveKernelEvent a1000001 can be related to faulty RAM which can also cause some performance issues:
Get back to us when you can and let us know if these memory tests reveal anything!

Regards,
Team17 Support

I've used the WMDT and it went through 2 passes with zero errors.
It is a brand new system and in my testing after building it, I have not seen any indication of RAM issues, but one can never rule it out.
I can do an extensive infinite loop test using MemTest overnight, but that would have to wait until the night.
Still, I don't think it's a memory issue.
To be fair, respectfully, I am not having this issue with other, demanding games.
Those games would have brought RAM issues to the front if there were any.

EDIT:
I've also done a game file integrity verification and it revealed 5 files that were corrupted and reinstalled them.
To no avail, the problem still happened.
(EDIT2: these were the intro movies that I disabled, because it is too annoying at every single start-up.)

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and confirming.

Can you confirm if you are overclocking your PC at all?

If so, please try the game again with the default hardware settings - also please try setting your graphic options to the lowest settings and the retest.

Can you also please confirm if you have any ASUS or ASUS Armoury Crate software installed? If so, please can you uninstall this and see if there is any difference.

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for getting back to us and confirming.

Can you confirm if you are overclocking your PC at all?

If so, please try the game again with the default hardware settings - also please try setting your graphic options to the lowest settings and the retest.

Can you also please confirm if you have any ASUS or ASUS Armoury Crate software installed? If so, please can you uninstall this and see if there is any difference.

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support

There is no true overclocking, only EXPO enabled on RAM. This should not affect memory.

I have consulted some troubleshooting on the Focusrite Scarlett audiointerface.
I have disabled USB power sleep mode, and set each USB host controller to disallowed by system to be turned off for power saving.
Thirdly, I have increased the buffersize from 192 to 256. Even thought my CPU should be extremely capable of handling lower buffer sizes.

I am currently testing playing some games, but the problem persistently happened after only a short while of starting up the game, even in the main menu, and has now failed to reoccur, so far.

I will play some more games to see if the problem reoccurs and I will try to remember to report back.

[Team17_Service]

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for confirming.

We're glad to see the issue has not reoccurred so far but do keep us updated should it come back :)

If it does, we would recommend disabling EXPO and retesting just to see if this has any effect on the performance at all.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[Bucketsmith]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey Bucketsmith,

Thanks for confirming.

We're glad to see the issue has not reoccurred so far but do keep us updated should it come back :)

If it does, we would recommend disabling EXPO and retesting just to see if this has any effect on the performance at all.

Regards,
Team17 Support

It seems the issue was related to the game and Focusrite Scarlett USB audio interfaces.
I don't know what changed in the last big update in regards to drivers/sound how the game handles it.
I cannot be certain it was the buffer size or the USB power/sleep settings, but it seems my problem has been resolved, thanks.

If it unfortunately might happen again, I will return for further investigation.

I cannot mark my own post as a solution to the thread and thus I cannot mark it solved.