I identified a process called "Windows modules installer worker" starting to run sometimes and causing high cpu and disk use.
After some research, it seems to be related to windows updates. It is strange that this process starts even with the wifi and ethernet off...
So, I switched the windows updates process from automatic to manual.
I hope this solves my problem.
We will see.

SK

Hi there,

I come back after a clean install of Windows 10 and I made all the tweaks suggested in the youtube video posted above.

I still have some crackles (not very much) every 1-2 hours.
These seem to be associated with a sudden and brief increase of CPU and Disk charge. I see that in the Task Manager.

Anyone else having this kind of trouble?
Any solution or idea?

Thanks,

SK

I have some older PC and sure "something" happens "sometimes". Yes, some crackles. Unless they happen once every minute I don't bother. I suspect Google Chrome having some activity, or some Windows services, checking updates, whatever. You may want to try to disable your Ethernet controller.

I come back after a clean install of Windows 10 and I made all the tweaks suggested in the youtube video posted above.

I still have some crackles (not very much) every 1-2 hours.
These seem to be associated with a sudden and brief increase of CPU and Disk charge. I see that in the Task Manager.

Anyone else having this kind of trouble?
Any solution or idea?

Thanks,

SK

Not using a paging file here and seems better to me - YMMV of course.

Had noticed over time that the paging file was not utilized greatly with adequate RAM onboard - I'm often working with many tracks/instruments/samples/plugins at the same project. Have often found paging to be a part of the problem with Win glitches in DAW (not just instruments).

Other culprits might include security software, persistent "update" checking programs and things trying to phone home randomly - disallow un-needed things from starting up.

I have tried many things over time but will point to advice about not going too crazy to change system level stuff. If you know what you're doing, do it. Don't just follow every list of fixes as good as many might actually be.

Not that I like this, but as EvilDragon mentioned, hands off and defaults is probably right.

Your Win machines will probably run better if you let it do updates and run all your defrags and etc. etc. overnight at least - let the machine catch up with its own housekeeping don't just shut it down before it can check itself thoroughly and such. It's often overlooked but allowing the machine to run idle isn't time wasted, in terms of a healthy machine.

If I am too quick to shutdown after booting up (too often over a given time period) I can garantee that more odd things occur (eg. like task bar not auto-hiding and a million other boring little annoyances) but if I leave the machine UP for days and weeks (maybe hibernate here and there) there's less annoying real time hands on maintenance for me to baby sit it through.

That video was very good overview. Nothing more needs to be done on W10 - no need to mess with services etc. Just follow what that guy said and it's all good.

I will just say regarding page file: it should be 50% of the amount of RAM you have. So if you have 16 GB, set it to 8 GB. If you have 64 GB, set it to 32 GB.

thank you EvilDragon.
I have 16 GB of RAM. I set the paging file to 4096 minimum and maximum (like in the video).
are you for sure saying I should change it? (and guessing change it to 8192 for minimum and maximum?)

I will just say regarding page file: it should be 50% of the amount of RAM you have. So if you have 16 GB, set it to 8 GB. If you have 64 GB, set it to 32 GB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxtkEyGih2g

Did you change the power settings so that you have your CPU always at full speed?
Win key + R then type:  powercfg.cpl and click OK.  Select High performance and then “Change plan settings”. Click on “Change advanced power settings”, go to “Processor power management”; expand “Minimum processor state” and put at 100%.

Usually LatencyMon finds the culprit for dropouts: it's often a graphics card or network driver introducing too much DPC latency, which doesn't bode well for audio.

I did run LatencyMon and it did report possible issues using the same terms you mention .... network driver, DPC Latency, CPU Throttling.   I am not knowledgeable enough to attempt fixes so I will put this on the back burner until my son (computer guru) visits in a few months.     I happens very infrequently so I can live with it for now.

Thanks for your help.

Usually LatencyMon finds the culprit for dropouts: it's often a graphics card or network driver introducing too much DPC latency, which doesn't bode well for audio.

No problems running things here in whichever sample rate and buffer size I want. Glitch-free at 96k and 64 samples

My advice would be not to try TOO hard with "hard optimization". That is not really necessary with W10 anymore (like in W7 where you'd disable a great number of services to squeeze out better performance - doing the same thing doesn't yield the same benefits in W10, you just get marginally better results, it's not worth it). You may disable stuff like Cortana and so on, but it's more important to get the drivers in order rather than mess with services, and make sure that power options are at high performance, and that CPU doesn't get throttled and cores don't get parked (disabling SpeedStep and C-states in UEFI, and core parking is a registry tweak). Oh and of course: DO NOT use W10 Home, use W10 Pro and defer updates as long as possible. Or just keep the computer offline if you absolutely must.

stamkorg wrote:

This operationel system is not 100% stable for realtime audio.

Incorrect. I have zero problems with realtime audio on latest version of W10 Pro. Perfectly stable system. In fact, the most stable Windows ever. It is NOT true that you ABSOLUTELY must go to Linux or Mac for decent audio performance. That's just false.

Strange,
Some seem to have success with Windows, some others not.

I tried 3 soundcrads (Focusrite 6i6, Zoom UAC-2, RME HDSPe AIO) with a powerfull pc (W10 Pro, Core I5 7600k, 16Gb of RAM, SSD + separate SSD for the programs, Z270 motherboard) without success. It played well but I had some random glitches that I couldn't avoid even after hard optimisation.
Since I installed Librazik (Linux based distro), 0 audio glitches at 48Khz/64samples on the same hardware...

This operationel system is not 100% stable for realtime audio.

Incorrect. I have zero problems with realtime audio on latest version of W10 Pro. Perfectly stable system. In fact, the most stable Windows ever. It is NOT true that you ABSOLUTELY must go to Linux or Mac for decent audio performance. That's just false.

W10 is actually quite a lot better for audio than W7. I get better performance than I ever could on W7, with the same audio interface.