System Freeze and Audio Problem

This solved it for me!! Thanks for your answer!

My computer was doing the same thing everyone in this thread seems to be struggling with. I applied a fix back in... March or April and haven't had the issue since then. Microsoft keeps emailing me about replies to this thread for some reason, so I figure it's a sign to share my fix and maybe it'll help with some headaches.

All I did was open "Power and Sleep Settings" on Windows 10, "Additional power settings", my plan is set to "High Performance" but I imagine this works with whatever power plan you've selected. Go into "Change plan settings" for your selected plan, "Change advanced power settings", then open the tabs "Hard disk" - "Turn off hard disk after" - set the number to something high so the hard disk rarely turns off. Mine is set to 3000 minutes, but I turn my computer off every night so it never reaches 3000.

In short, what was causing this problem for me was the hard disk turning off randomly and that would cause the stutter and sound card hiccups I was getting. Hopefully this helps at least some others on this thread.

I looked for a long time trying to find a solution to this, and one thing seems to have done the trick. Haven't had a freeze or sound issue for weeks now.

I set my windows power plan to High Performance mode, and inside the advanced power settings, set hard drives to never turn off. I also set PCI Express - Link State Power Management to off as well.

I have Win10 installed on an M.2 drive attached directly to my motherboard (Asus Z370-E). I also have a larger SSD connected in SATA. Somehow during my last system install I ended up with a "System Reserved" partition on my SSD, even though I installed on my M.2. Not sure if that's part of the issue. Perhaps that SSD going to sleep due to power saving was causing the intability...

FYI like a lot of people here, the exact issues I was having were system freezes lasting a few seconds, followed by my Sonic Studio audio driver telling my I've just plugged an audio cable in. The sound of anything playing during the freeze would get very distorted, and depending on the app that was playing audio, it would either stop producing sound at all until a restart, or continue but stay constantly garbled.

I don't know if this will help anybody but I have a similar setup as others within the replies and this problem occurred with my computer.

Intel i7 8700k, Asus Prime z370, Nvidia Quadro P2000, AMD Rx 580, 16GB of Corsair memory, 500GGB Samsung 860evo and 2TB Seagate Barracuda. This entire time while this problem occurred I would get no stutters while gaming but only during normal browsing, YouTube and Spotify I get stutters/hanging. I figured I had a CPU since was spiking during the freeze or HDD issue since I keep my games separate from my OS drive. I did all the benchmarking, diagnosing, made sure AHCI was on for the storage drives, reset the bios and update all the drivers, but I could not figure out what the problem was. So, a couple days ago I decided to uninstalled Intel Rapid Storage Technology and let windows reinstall its own storage drivers. Since then, I haven't gotten a stutter or freeze by my computer. I feel like the Intel RST was conflicting with windows or another driver I am not sure. If I do end up getting a system freeze by the end of the week I will give an update.

Hi Paul. I'm Greg, an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator here to help you.

I'll give you all possible solutions for Sound problems in order of priority, so please try any you've already tried again in order. If you have any problems performing any steps I'll be standing by here to help you.

1. Update the sound driver from the PC or device maker's Support Downloads webpage for your exact model, if it is newer than the one presently installed in Device Manager reached by right clicking the Start button. While there compare to make sure you also have the latest BIOS, Chipset, Display, Network and all other drivers.
2. Restore the Windows Audio Service which may have become disabled: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/57567-resto...
3. Next try these checklists: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/402699...

https://www.howtogeek.com/443702/how-to-fix-sou...

4. Right click Volume icon in System Tray, choose Sound Settings, from the Output and Input devices dropdown menus, choose then one(s) affected to see if that helps. If not use the Troubleshoot button nearby.
5. Run the Playing Sound troubleshooter at Start button > Settings>Update & Security>Troubleshoot.
6. Try rolling back the sound drivers in Device Manager reached by right clicking the Start button. Choose Sound controller and other audio devices, then Driver tab, then Roll back if available.
7. If no newer sound drivers then uninstall the one presently installed in Device Manager, reached by right clicking the Start Button. Restart PC to reinstall.
8. Try other and older drivers for your model Sound controller, too. For example, try the next oldest driver in the model's online Support Downloads list. To try all previous drivers installed on your system, in Device Manager choose Sound controller's Driver tab, then Update Driver, then Browse, then Let Me Pick.

Finally, try installing the latest Sound driver in Compatibility Mode as shown here:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/win...

9. If this was caused by Windows Updates then you can check which were installed at Settings>Update & Security>Windows Update under Installed Updates, then uninstall them from the link there, and hide with the Hide Updates tool downloaded from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f2...
10. If this was caused by a Version update (which you can confirm at Settings > System > About) then you can roll back the version in Settings>Update & Security>Recovery and then hide it until it matures using the Hide Updates Tool downloaded from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f2...
11. You can also use System Restore to get before the problem began, then check for Updates with the Hide Update tool and hide them: http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/how-t...
12. Go over this checklist to make sure the install is set up correctly, optimized for best performance, and any needed repairs get done: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

Start with Step 4 to turn off Startup freeloaders which can conflict and cause issues, then Step 7 to check for infection the most thorough way, then step 10 to check for damaged System Files. Then continue with the other steps to go over your install most thoroughly.

13. If nothing else helps then run a Repair Install by installing the Media Creation Tool and choosing from it to Upgrade Now. This solves many problems and will also bring it up to the latest version which you need anyway and by the most stable method. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/m...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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