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Intel WifiLink 4965 AGN Driver's DPC Latencies causing audio glitches in Windows 7 X64 (RTM)

idata
Employee
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After many tests I can ensure that the wireles adapter Intel WifiLink 4965 AGN is causing high DPC Latencies with an interval of 10 micro-seconds in Windows 7 64 bit (Release to Manufacturer). I have tried the latest drivers for Windows Vista 64 bit (12.4.3.9) and Microsoft's drivers included in Windows 7 with the same results: high DPC Latencies with an interval of 10 micro-seconds and eventual very high DPC Latencies causing audio glitches with a length of up to one second. Is there any specific driver for Windows 7 64 bit (Release to Manufacturer) that solves this issue?? Will there be??

110 Replies
idata
Employee
915 Views

Sorry luke, I don't remember anymore. The thing with Lenovo is that they provide modified drivers and reference drivers doesn't always work (well). I guess something like that happend to me with the 82566MM. It could be that I tried the most recent driver version back then directly from Intel which only then caused DPC spikes. The (modified?) driver version from Lenovo worked well as I remember vaguely.

Sorry that I cannot help you more.

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idata
Employee
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I too am having DPC Latency issues from my wireless driver. I have the WiFi Link 5100 AGN and my driver version is the latest (13.1.1.1). It is quite frustrating to have the computer hiccup ever few seconds, and if anybody could help, it would be amazing!

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idata
Employee
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utorrent forums seem to indicate that a combination of Microsoft Security Essentials and utorrent are a catalyst for this issue. You might be able to drop DPC latency back to normal by restarting MSE. I have not confirmed this. The consensus, however, is that this is ultimately a bad driver issue.

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=59644 http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=59644

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idata
Employee
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I used to have Kaspersky IS and Azureus and the DPC latencies were the same as with MSE and utorrent (tested with computer turned on for 12 h and the mentioned issue doesn't take place). Anyway the driver issue seems to be absolutely confirmed.

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idata
Employee
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It's the same with my 3945ABG (13.0.0.107 drivers) - I have regular 1000-3000 microseconds DPC latency spikes every 10 seconds which cause audio stuttering and clicks. When I disable the wireless drivers the problems goes away

When can get some updated drivers which solve this issue?

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idata
Employee
915 Views

is there any Intel staff around here?

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Amazing thread, truly.

I just wasted a week of my life troubleshooting before isolating my Intel 5300 as the source of my inability to stream high resolution audio on my LAN (5000Kbps).

So now we have seen 4965, 5100, and 5300 mentioned in this thread.

The strange thing is a swear my Lenovo X61 tablet has a 4965 which I can stream to no problem on draft-N 2.4gHz at 144Mbps rate.

My main system where the 5300 problem resides also uses Windows 7 but the x64 version, not x86. This PC has a 300Mbps connection using 3 antennas and has 94% signal strength and DPC Latency goes THROUGH THE ROOF when transferring files or streaming over wireless; I think even when I just do a file transfer or copy on local disks as well.

So I wired up the PC and disabled the device/driver and have no issues. This is a Zotac ION 330 ATOM Windows 7 x64.

Linksys AE1000 does the same thing. Motherboard incompatibility across (3) wireless NICs......5300, AE1000, and Atheros 9285?

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idata
Employee
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Please Intel, do something about this! This problem has been reported almost over a year ago and its the most viewed thread in the forum! At least give us some feedback on this problem! Just let us know if you are aware of this issue and if you are working on it...

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idata
Employee
915 Views

This is taking extremely long even NVIDIA had time to review it's driver code and fix the famous high DPC latencies that took place when the core clock speed was changed. It's making me think of replacing the 4965 AGN PCI-E module or use one of the two free PCI-E slots I have with another adapter.

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idata
Employee
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the new drivers ( 13.2.1.5 ) didn't solve the DCP latency spikes problem on 3945ABG and Windows 7, screenshots included:

with wifi adapter disabled in device manager:

http://imgur.com/6V07x.png

adapter enabled:

http://imgur.com/iSrcZ.png

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idata
Employee
915 Views

after some time it get's like this (latency up to over 7000) - these drivers are unusable!!!!

http://imgur.com/3PCLG.png

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Hello everyone,

I had audio glitches on my Lenovo T61 too and spent a lot of time to figure out what the problem could be. I posted my solution in Lenovo forum (http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/Audio-stutter-on-T61p/m-p/243913# M49612), but I will do it here again, maybe it helps some other guys.

I recognized the problem when I was surfing in www using wlan, but in my case it was neither the wlan dirver (intel agn4965) nor the nvidia driver (NVS 140). But it was / is the network driver from intel for the network chip 82566MM, here are my hardware/software details:

OS: Windows XP Professional 32bit

WLAN-Driver: 13.2.0.30 (18.03.2010)

LAN-Driver: 9.13.41.0 (26.03.2010)

Laptop: Lenovo T61

The solution:

I used DPC Latency Checker to fugure out which hardware causes the audio glitches and after deaktivating the intel network card the audio glitches were gone. As I did not want to disable the network card every time when surfing with wlan I did as well a deeper look into the driver setting of the network card and found out, that the energy settings caused the problem!

There is a tab for energy settings in the network driver where it is possible to "reduce energy if cable is not plugged". This option was enabled (I think this was the default of setup) and when I disabled this option (and save klicking OK-Button) all the audiogliches were gone beacuse there were no more DPCs. :-)

Here is what I did in summary:

- Go to the device manager (hardware manager) and select the settings of the network card

- select the tab for energy settings

- uncheck the option "reduce energy if cable is not plugged"

- apply changes and see if DPCs are gone

Hope this helps

KingTutt

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idata
Employee
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KingTutt, maybe you didn't notice but the title is for Win 7 x64, not Win XP 32 bit.

So I tried your solution and here are my results:

1) There is no tab in win 7 for energy settings but there is one for power management

2) There is no option called "reduce energy if cable is not plugged" but instead is just the "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

3) I unchecked "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" hit ok, etc.

Nothing. Still the same DPC peaks every 10 seconds.

Thanks for trying but unless I missed something, that is not a solution for win7 x64.

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Hello Robert,

of cause I noticed that the title is for Win 7 x64, not Win XP 32 bit. That is why I explicitely mentioned my operating system and said "maybe it helps". Last week I set up a new operating system (Windows 7 64bit Enterprise) on a new SSD-Disk and on that system I counld not recognize DPCs although the rest of the hardware is (of cause) the same.

But I will see if I can reproduce this problem on my Windows 7 system as well and if so I will come back. At the moment I can _not_ confirm that on Windows 7 although I had this problem using Windows XP.

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Thanks for trying to help, but this doesn't work for me as too. I'm using Windows 7 x64 and Atheros Lan adapter and disabling this "power saving" feature haven't helped - I still get the latency spikes every 10 seconds

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Ilene_K_Intel
Employee
915 Views

First I want to say thank you to all of you who have included great detail on this issue. We are researching the issue and have been able to reproduce it thanks to the level of detail in this thread. If you can include your OS, wireless product (4965, 5300, etc.) and driver version in your post as well as any troubleshooting you've done and the results.

When we have more information available I'll be sure to add it to the thread.

Keep up the good work!

Ilenek

Intel Customer Support

idata
Employee
915 Views

Make/Model Laptop: Lenovo T61p

Product: 4965AGN

OS: Windows 7 Professional x64

Driver Version: 13.2.1.5 (5/31/2010)

Problem: High DPC spikes every 10 seconds resulting in glitchy audio (buffer underruns) and other IO glitches

Tests done: Disabled Wireless driver - DPC spikes go away and audio is normal, re-enabled and DPC spikes come back and audio glitches again.

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Make/Model Laptop: Asus F3SG

Product: 3945ABG

OS: Windows 7 Professional x64

Driver Version: 13.2.1.5 (5/31/2010)

Problem: High DPC spikes every 10 seconds resulting in glitchy audio

Tests done: Disabled Wireless driver - DPC spikes go away and audio is normal, re-enabled and DPC spikes come back and audio glitches again.

adapter disabled: http://imgur.com/6V07x.png http://imgur.com/6V07x.png

adapter enabled: http://imgur.com/iSrcZ.png http://imgur.com/iSrcZ.png (it tends to get worse over time)

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idata
Employee
915 Views

Hello,

today I found the time to install further drivers on my new system (Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit) and now I can confirm the DPS's on my new system as well.

OS: Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit

WLAN-Driver: 13.2.0.30 (18.03.2010)

LAN-Driver: 9.13.4.10 (26.03.209)

Laptop: Lenovo T61

Disabling the enery settings in network does not work as mentioned by Robert Green but diabling the Wireless Adapter!

I will now download the latest drivers from Intel Homepage, the mentioned one above are provided from Lenovo for this Laptop on their homepage.

Here are some screenshots:

WLAN Adapter disabled:

http://imgur.com/6SMtJ

WLAN Adapter enabled:

http://imgur.com/2heuu

King Regards

KingTutt

Driver Update:

Installing the latest wlan driver form Intel Homepage (Version 13.2.1.5) did _not_ solve the problem. I installed as well the latest driver for network card 82566MM from Intel Homepage (9.13.41.0) but disabling the setting "reduce energy if cable is not plugged" did not solve the problem as well.

@Robert Green:

>There is no option called "reduce energy if cable is not plugged"

This setting is only available if you install the driver from Intel Homepage. If you just install the driver provided from Lenovo you will _not_ find this option.

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idata
Employee
898 Views

Make/Model Laptop: LG R500-CP50P

Product: 4965AGN

OS: Windows 7 Professional x86

Driver Version: 13.1.1.1

Problem: High DPC spikes every 10 seconds resulting in glitchy audio

Tests done: Disabled Wireless driver - DPC spikes go away and audio is normal, re-enabled and DPC spikes come back and audio glitches again.

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idata
Employee
898 Views

Having the same problem. Here's my info:

Machine: HP Pavilion Dv9700

OS: Windows 7 Professional x64

Wireless Adaptor: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

Driver Version: 13.2.1.5 (31-05-2010)

Issue: High latency when the Wireless Adaptor is active and audio glitches.

Troubleshooting done: Using DPC Latency Checker, and deactivating the Wireless Adaptor, all the latency disapears (goes to "green zone") and the audio works perfectly (but internet access is gone). When reactivating the Wireless Adaptor, everything is back to the issue discribed.

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