Audio crackles with none of the routine solutions

[btdickerson1]

Alright guys, I'm about to pull my hair out. I'm using a brand new laptop with an SSL2+ interface, and I use Ableton primarily for live performance -- literally all I do is run 1 or 2 VST plug-ins to play keys with my band. And the crackling is out of control. At first, everything as fine. A few minutes into a session, it will start crackling and gradually builds and gets worse, until finally the audio cuts out for a second and comes back clean. Then does it again. And yes, I've adjusted sample rates, buffer settings, turned off battery saving settings, turned off exclusive mode, re-installed drivers, disabled other drivers that may conflict (i.e., Conexant SmartAudio 3), different amps/speakers, different cables, and every other solution that a Google search can turn up. I even tried switching to my older Focusrite 2i2 2nd gen, tried using ASIO4ALL instead of the SSL2+ driver, and no luck. So it's not the interface. CPU load never tops 15%, and rarely goes past 10%, and my RAM is always below 45%-ish capacity. Disabled all other non-essential windows processes. Tried different VSTs, and tried closing the GUI windows, and no luck with anything. I have a busy gig schedule starting up next weekend, and if I can't get this horrible sound to stop then we aren't going to have keys on stage. Computer specs below:

ASUS Vivobook
Windows 10 64-bit
500gb SSD
Intel 10th gen i5-10210U
8gb RAM

[Tarekith]

Did you maybe forget to authorize one of the plug ins? I know some developers use noise like that as a way to let people try out the apps before they buy.

[btdickerson1]

Did you maybe forget to authorize one of the plug ins? I know some developers use noise like that as a way to let people try out the apps before they buy.

I did check that actually, and everything is authorized. For that matter, the crackling happens with EVERY plug-in. It even does it to YouTube audio when Ableton is closed.

[oratowsky]

The fact you say it starts out fine then gets progressively worse makes me think maybe your computer is overheating.

Can you get Intel PowerGadget, wait for the issue to happen and see if your clock speed is normal?

[btdickerson1]

Does it happen with just the laptop headphone output and not the interface?

No, it's only when using an interface driver (does it with multiple interfaces). But I've re-installed my interface drivers, disabled other drivers that might conflict, to no avail. And the regular cycles of the crackling (building and getting worse, then starting over), makes it seem like something going on in the background is causing problems with the interface driver at 5-10 minute intervals. And of course, the default Windows sound drivers aren't adequate for doing any type of live midi performance, so I need these interface drivers to do what they're supposed to do. Or for my computer to allow them to do what their supposed to do.

[btdickerson1]

The fact you say it starts out fine then gets progressively worse makes me think maybe your computer is overheating.

Can you get Intel PowerGadget, wait for the issue to happen and see if your clock speed is normal?

I'll give that a try this afternoon and get back to you with the results. I have noticed that at the peak of the crackling, my CPU meter jumps to around 20-25%. Maybe a cooling pad or something?

[Mark Williams]

Does sound like CPU throttling due to heat.

[oratowsky]

The fact you say it starts out fine then gets progressively worse makes me think maybe your computer is overheating.

Can you get Intel PowerGadget, wait for the issue to happen and see if your clock speed is normal?

I'll give that a try this afternoon and get back to you with the results. I have noticed that at the peak of the crackling, my CPU meter jumps to around 20-25%. Maybe a cooling pad or something?

In my experience those cooling pad products aren't very effective.

Try putting the laptop on 4 bottle caps (just something to create a gap between the desk and the computer) and pointing a fan at the computer.

I feel like on Windows these issues can be harder to track down due to weird BIOS stuff ... power management stuff... interrupt requests and stuff like that .... your symptoms are consistent with cpu throttling tho ..

[jestermgee]

Have you simply tried to go into power options and set your CPU to "High Performance" mode and not a power saving mode (Balanced)? Laptops by default are set to have dynamic CPU power which adjusts as demand increases but this can also cause issues.