Audio Becomes Glitchy Intermittently What Have I Not Tried

When I am using my PC in either 1) a taxing manner with lots of RAM usage or 2) just for a long amount of time, no matter what at some point my audio starts to become glitchy-sounding. My computer was not always like this but I have no idea what could possibly have manifested the issue. Restarting the Windows Audio Service fixes it immediately every time but I am tired of having to do that and sometimes it doesn't last. I am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with any of my drivers. I am on a fresh install of Windows on a new SSD I put into my laptop, and yet the issue still persists. I have measured with the DPC Latency Monitor tool and when the audio becomes glitchy it correlates. I know about the MSI Utility and the Interrupt Affinity Policy tool, are they useful here and if so what is best practice with them? For information, I have the Ryzen 3500U, Synaptics/Dolby Audio.

Hello, and welcome to the forum. It really would help us to help you if you would post your system specs in your forum profile. We need to know what you are working with as all I can give without more information are generic suggestions.

Troubleshooting audio is a process of elimination. Try these suggestions in no particular order and check your sound after each one. Make note of any change you make in settings. You can revert the changes later if changing them doesn't fix your issue.

1. You say you have clean install. Windows will usually not install the sound driver but use a generic MS driver. What is your sound device and where did you get the driver for it? Preferably go to manufacturer and download the latest sound driver.

2. You did not say if you are using speakers or headphones, wired, or bluetooth. See if problem exists in whichever one you are not currently using. ie: disconnect one while testing the other. If you use usb speakers try a different port. Try your speakers on another device or try a different set of speakers on your device.

3. run sound troubleshooter Settings>System>Troubleshoot>Other troubleshooters>Audio

4. If you're using bluetooth headset or speakers, other devices that emit radio frequency signals should not be near your computer as they can cause interference (such as a cordless telephone, router, alarm systems, wireless microphones, etc)

5. Disable audio enhancements. Control panel>select your sound device>playback tab>advanced>uncheck enable audio enhancements>apply>OK. While on that screen set it to default format for testing. 16 bit 44100 hz studio quality.

Also on that page you can turn off "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"

6. Run sfc /scannow for a command prompt as admin.

7. Put machine in clean boot state to see if some piece of software is interfering, not likely but possible. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

8. Do a repair install Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial