badmojo wrote:

Standard Def Steve wrote:

-Win10 has higher DPC latency than Win7 on all 4 of the machines. On the Phenom and i7, this doesn't seem to cause any problems. However, on the Pentium M rig and C2D laptop, the increased DPC latency results in random bursts of choppy audio while watching online video. On the laptop, high disk activity occasionally results in choppy UI and pointer movement.

This is exactly the problem I faced on my little ASUS x205ta laptop, which came with Windows 8.1 "Bing", but did say "plays well with Windows 10" on the box. After a variable period of time the audio was transformed into a crackling mess, and the problem seemed to be DPC latency. It only happened over HDMI - headphone out was OK - so I was convinced I could fix it, but I threw all of my nerd skills at it over the course of months and no dice.

DPC latency issues -- check your DRIVERS!

Otherwise may be related to high CPU loads due/related to System interrupts or System and compressed memory. The latter of which I really am not sure will be helping much with slow (or throttled down) CPUs, slow harddrives and low RAM.

I haven't confirmed it one way or another, but I too feel that Win10 is less merciful on harddrives, especially under heavy load or when RAM usage is already maxed up. I mean, with Win7, programs (most notorious, browsers) will just crash sooner due to insufficient memory, but in Win10 it's like it's trying to hang on longer by somewhat overmanaging memory use (and therefore abusing the poor ol' harddrive). I think I'm going to recommend a minimum of a decent 4-core, 8GB RAM and SSD today for chronic multitaskers on Win10. Or for more basic use, a fast 2-core, 4GB RAM but SSD isn't negotiable anymore.

Re:Start/desktop search

Standard Def Steve wrote:

-What is up with Windows Search? It's not as quick and accurate as it was in Windows 7. Disabling Web search and Cortana helps immensely, but it's still far from consistent. For example, a search for Device Manager worked properly on 3 out of the 4 systems I tested. However, on the laptop, Search refused to find it. Very annoying. Sometimes after a reboot, Search takes a while to get back up and running.

I did have some issues (in first RTM) with Cortana disabled and going offline (somebody found out that it still tries to make several connections to certain locations! tschk...) where local search just doesn't work at all (incl. typing apps/programs names) until the system gets back online. Seems to be fixed in 1511 (10586/TH2) though.

However if you feel it's slower, take a look at 3rd party desktop search/indexer programs. Some good choices out there (no phoning home included).

archsan wrote:

DPC latency issues -- check your DRIVERS!

I checked EVERYTHING! All drivers, all power management options, disabled various services / devices, scoured the interwebs for registry hacks, reinstalled Win10, tried various latency monitoring programs - I was obsessed! The problem just seemed to be innate.

Anyway, Windows 8.1 saved the day. I haven't had any issues with my other 2 Win10 installs, but those are on desktops.

When did you try Win10 with that laptop? I remember some supposed Win10-compatible onboard sound drivers were just plain dud early on (this was back on August last year when I first tried and searched a lot about Win10). This affected many major OEMs too (well, all I read were seas of frustrated users 🤣). Many OEM builds were hit and miss, with customer service reps even suggesting not to upgrade to windows 10. Crackling audio was one of the issues that came up regularly.

With my ASUS G73 laptop, even though mostly came fine eventually, I'm still having trouble with the touchpad. 🙁 Now with basic driver ("PS/2 mouse") I can't find any way to disable it.

It was running Windows 10 up until about 2 weeks ago. ASUS have relatively recent audio drivers on their side but I tried all versions I could get my hands on, none made any difference.

Yes there are a ton of threads around about crackling audio with various suggested solutions, none worked for me. I should have just stuck with 8.1 in the first place, but I have an upgrade compulsion 🤣

OK... I have another ASUS laptop yet to receive the Win10 treatment... I think I better use a different drive then. 😊

I have seen DPC latency issues caused by Wifi on two Win10 systems. One I was able to fix up by changing drivers. The other has Intel 7265 wifi and from research it seems like Intel has a hardware problem or are unable to solve it on the driver for some reason over years.

Oh I also saw it caused by running an Intel Rapid Storage driver that was not validated for Win10.

swaaye wrote:

I have seen DPC latency issues caused by Wifi on two Win10 systems. One I was able to fix up by changing drivers. The other has Intel 7265 wifi and from research it seems like Intel has a hardware problem or are unable to solve it on the driver for some reason over years.

Yes network drivers were a common complaint from what I read - in my case though updating the drivers and indeed disabling all network devices made no difference.

It could of course just been false positives from the latency monitoring tools I was using, maybe it was something else altogether.

I think the DPC spikes are a legit problem, especially when you can hear it so clearly. Actually on my said G73 laptop I'd sometimes have audio problems too when it's high on load, though I never investigate further since I'm not using it for any serious audio purposes.

The system memory and compression problem + frequent bouts of 100% disk usage is worrying though. Has anyone had this problem too?

Well, I have a few PCs with older HDD units in them running Windows 10 and I occasionally see that slow-down/pause thing while the drive or Windows or something tries to catch up. But for my personal systems, they're all running on SSD boot drives, so those issues are pretty much non-existent. I am a firm believer in SSD boot drives now and I'll have no personal computer without them.