PC Build - Keep getting audio pop on Stop

[Hardin]

Greetings!

I have a new PC Build this Summer.
ASUS Prime Deluxe II
i9 9940x
64GB GSkill TridentZ
Samsung EVO Plus NVME and WD Black NVME
EVGA Platinum P2 Power
Windows 10 Pro
Pro Tools 2020.5

This system runs flawlessly without crashes, including Pro Tools. However, when playback in Pro Tools stops, I get a pop. This happens with UA Apollo Thunderbolt MKII and USB versions - and HDX/OMNI systems and a Focusrite Scarlet just for kicks. It doesn't happen with Ableton.

I've spent many weeks trying to sort this out with everything I can find, including Pro Tools Buffers/Settings/Preferences/Sample Rates the Control Panel settings and disabling everything else, Windows power settings, BIOS updates and settings, driver re-installs, realtek uninstall/reinstall, hyperthreaded/non-hyperthreaded, and RMA'd the board to ASUS who sent me a replacement. Same behavior.

*Edit: No plugins are running. also went through anti-malware settings and powershell scripts.

Is anyone running into this specifically? It's a really solid-running system, even with a 35GB composition template loaded. I can't seem to get rid of this pop when I stop playback.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[FunkzzaJ]

Long shot in power distribution:

If there is a major and steep change of power consumption during playback and during non-playback, that might induce spikes in your power distribution. If strong enough it might get audible.

You may check power consumption under play/non-play operation using

windows activity monitor
Pro tools system usage
Any Asus supplied monitoring
PSU monitor if any

If this indicates a major power drop, further actions would include moving around cables and possibly further electrical measurements.

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[Hardin]

Thank you for the suggestion. I pulled everything except the system drive, moved the drive to another M.2 bus, and reformatted and reinstalled Windows with only Pro Tools and XPand installed. It doesn't pop with instrument track playback - only playback of audio files - each time playback stops.

[albee1952]

This never happens here(also on Windows). The question about power is worth a deeper look(maybe). Is your PC on direct power, or fed from a UPS? Have you measured the voltage? I highly recommend a good APC UPS for all. Having that has saved my bacon more times than I can count(and I recommend APC because Cyberpower units failed me twice!!!).

If you do add a UPS to your setup, you don't need everything to be powered thru it. You need to computer, screens, interface and external drives(leave preamps, speakers and such on direct power).

[FunkzzaJ]

Originally Posted by Hardin

Thank you for the suggestion. I pulled everything except the system drive, moved the drive to another M.2 bus, and reformatted and reinstalled Windows with only Pro Tools and XPand installed. It doesn't pop with instrument track playback - only playback of audio files - each time playback stops.

Solved?
Did you check up on power consumption playing/non-playing?