How to resolve DPC Latency and Buffer Underruns leading to frequent audio dropouts on my Windows 11?

Question

How to resolve DPC Latency and Buffer Underruns leading to frequent audio dropouts on my Windows 11?

sch725 0

Hi

I have been experiencing an unreal amount of audio dropouts caused by DPC latency issues over the past few weeks. I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen, and have been in contact extensively with Focusrite support about this, but they can only help so much.

As far as we can tell, the issues are stemming from my computer and how it's running and using resources, rather than the Focusrite driver causing issues on Windows.

Please help, I really need this to stop happening. I can post LatencyMon screenshots if needed.

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Answer 1

Emma1-N 13,320 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Welcome sch725,

I'm sorry to hear you're dealing with this. Since you've already worked extensively with Focusrite support, it sounds like the interface itself has largely been ruled out, and the focus should be on identifying which Windows driver or device is causing the DPC latency spikes.

Before suggesting more advanced changes, could you confirm:

Is this a desktop or laptop?
Did the problem begin after a Windows update, driver update, or hardware change?
Does LatencyMon identify a specific driver (for example, ndis.sys, Wdf01000.sys, ACPI.sys, dxgkrnl.sys, etc.) as having the highest execution time?

In the meantime, please try the following quick checks:

Test with High Performance power mode

Open Settings > System > Power & battery
Under Power mode, select Best performance
Restart the PC and test audio playback

Disable Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth temporarily DPC latency is often caused by network drivers.

Disconnect from audio applications
Disable Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth from Settings > Network & Internet and Bluetooth & devices
Test whether the dropouts continue

Check for optional driver updates

Open Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates
Install any available chipset, network, or device-driver updates
Restart the system

Run LatencyMon again

Let it run for at least 10 minutes while reproducing the issue
Please post a screenshot of the Drivers tab and Stats/Main tab

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Emma1-N 13,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-01T04:40:01.1966667+00:00

Hello sch725,

I just wanted to check if my previous response addressed your question correctly. If there is anything I may have misunderstood, I would truly appreciate it if you could provide a bit more detail to help me better understand your needs.
sch725 0 Reputation points

2026-10-01T13:27:51.8+00:00
This is on desktop

It has been an issue for a number of years, but very infrequently. It became much more frequent (going from once a month to 15 times a day) about 6-8 weeks ago. I changed my audio interface to see if it fixed the issue but it didn't. I'm unsure whether there was any specific update or change that triggered this increase, and I didn't change any hardware around this time.

I've attached a number of results from multiple LatencyMon tests over the past few days. Note that ACPI always seems to spike once and then never again, and doesn't induce a dropout so make sure not to overlook the other programs in favour of it.

I have done the relevant steps listed above and it has made no difference.

This is the result of a 9 hour latencymon test. It is worth noting that neither the huge spike from DXGKRNL or ACPI resulted in a direct dropout as they happened.
Emma1-N 13,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-02T04:28:26.9266667+00:00
Hello sch725,

Thank you for coming back. Please try the step:

Temporarily disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

Open Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Default graphics settings

Turn Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling off.

Restart and test.

Temporarily disable Hyper-V features Your logs show hvservice.sys activity.

Open "Turn Windows features on or off"

Uncheck Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, and Windows Hypervisor Platform if enabled.

Restart and test.
sch725 0 Reputation points

2026-10-02T23:55:23.1666667+00:00

I don't have HAGS available because I have an AMD 6000 series card.

Strangely, Hyper-V, VMP, and WHP weren't enabled to begin with.