Clicks and co.. What's wrong?

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks for all the details!

Make sure you have all those systems optimizations done exactly right. But yes you just left off a few things like moving out plugins in your initial post which is a not uncommon cause of issues like this, and frequently overlooked so kinda natural to assume you might have missed that.

At some point you have to give up and just try a clean windows and Pro Tools install... which you already did, so good thinking there. But make absolutely sure you got all the low level optimization correct.

Can you post a SiSoft Sandra report. A long shot but that _might_ show up suspects.

When you've done all this type of careful troubleshooting, take a break and go back and recheck stuff, maybe recheck the out of left field stuff.

Also confirm that the clicks are really coming from Pro Tools, not say introduce in monitor controllers, monitors, not caused by RF interference etc. Yes even if other apps don't seem to produce these clicks, try to think of some way this might be possible. Check though stuff looking for anything crazy. Things as crazy as hidden tracks with clicks on them, I've seen open mics driving through hardware monitoring system (not Pro Tools) producing noises folks swore were coming from the DAW. It is possible to get caught by something totally unexpected.

Go hunting for any apps or utilities that might have the same interface open.

It might be worth trying another new clean install of Windows 10. Install just Pro Tools and the interface driver, absolutely nothing else, just on a spare test drive or volume.

[pierremanu]

Hello
Thank you for these latest recommendations.
I will take the time in the next few days to start from scratch as you advise.
The environment in which I work is mixing oriented, so without microphones or other potential sources of interference.
I'll come back to you as soon as I have something new, or when I've done this famous Sandra report.

Have a nice day!

[ejinbc]

OP

Free advise alert...

Because you get the clicks even at 1024 buffer I do not think Processor Affinity changes or Avid plugins are the issue.

I would bring up the task manager and CPU activity monitor and look for spikes, listen for clicks and watch if any drivers / software are grabbing the processor in the Task Manager list.

If you don't see anything obvious I would start inactivating hardware in the device manager - WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, microphone, soundcard, ...

Also, if you can get into the bios I would inactive C-state switching and Turbo Mode. C-state switching can cause some clicks/pops under some circumstances.

Make sure you are plugged in and on maximum performance mode. Disable all power saving features as well.

Just some ideas. YMMV.

E

PS

If this does not work, I would suggest killing a chicken and waving it over your head three times while facing north and chanting "Helter Skelter". Won't help, but your neighbors will have a great laugh.

[pierremanu]

Thanks again for the advice.

Well, I'm not going to claim victory too quickly, but it seems to me that I managed to improve the situation.. thanks to your multiple advices.

- for some obscure reason, one of the power saving options was not available (minimum processor load). So I couldn't change it. A little time spent in the registry allowed me to solve this point
- Some services seemed to be back in the list of services launched at Windows startup. I made a small cleaning of this list
- the most enigmatic point concerns the graphic card. It's an NVIDIA T500, but it seems that Pro Tools wants to run automatically under the integrated graphics card. I don't know to what extent this point has any importance in the final result but the few searches on this subject proved to be very fruitless!
- a BIOS update was available, but I have no idea if it has anything to do with it.

Even when using a power-hungry program in parallel (Chrome, to type this text), I don't perceive any audio playback defect.

Knock on wood!

ps: no animal was finally mistreated during all this time.

[ejinbc]

OP

One more point, I was helping someone today with an issue that was very much like yours on a Lenovo Notebook - there were random periodic clicks.

The solution was to go into the startup list and disable everything except the audio driver. In particular there was some Intel software that once disabled allowed very low latency operation with no clicks. Make sure you restart after making these changes.

E

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by pierremanu

- the most enigmatic point concerns the graphic card. It's an NVIDIA T500, but it seems that Pro Tools wants to run automatically under the integrated graphics card. I don't know to what extent this point has any importance in the final result but the few searches on this subject proved to be very fruitless!

If this is still an issue check Windows Graphics Control Panel has Pro Tools set to use the T500, and if that does not work then in the NVIDIA control panel (should be installed when drivers were installed) see what settings are there, I think you can set to always use the GPU. Between these two you should be able to control this. Make sure you are running up to date GPU drivers.

[The Weed]

Normally the Intel graphics should disable if there is a graphics card installed. If not, the Intel graphics should be able to be disabled in BIOS.

The OP should also run LatencyMon for 15 to 20 minutes to see what drivers may be causing interrupts.