SmartSDR V1 on Windows 11: Audio dropouts and loud pops

DaveAB3I

I'm at my wits' end here, and I'm leaving for a week in VP5 in 36 hours.

I'm running my 6300 with SmartSDR V1 (latest) on a Windows 10 desktop, and a Windows 11 laptop. The desktop works flawlessly both directly connected via ethernet, and via Wifi with the Flex connected to the wifi router. No latency, perfect audio.

The Win11 Laptop is an ~8 month old Lenovo Flex, Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB ram, fully updated including all the latest drivers Lenovo offers, windows updates, etc.

You can see a video of what it's doing here: https://youtu.be/b6lDUR3QIvQ

This was actually one of the least problematic runs I had with it, just the loud popping and clicking. At times audio will almost completely drop out, sounding very hollow and compressed. You can hear me turn the CW filter all the way down for minimum latency at the end with no change in the popping. Network latency Is mostly good but does spike at times. The popping and dropouts don't seem to coincide closely with those spikes though.

Things I've tried for troubleshooting and the result:

* Ethernet and wifi (2.4 and 5GHz). It's a bit better on ethernet but still present, 2.4GHz is really bad, 5GHz worse than ethernet but better than 2.4GHz.

* Changed the wifi router connected to the Flex, no change

* Set CPU throttling to "best performance", no change

* Tried it plugged in and on battery, no change

* Set SmartSDR to "High priority" in task manager, no change

* Switched to a different wifi card, no change

* Turned the display frame rate down to only 3 or 4 FPS and cut the rate way down, tried all AGC settings to make sure it wasn't just clipping (it's slightly worse on loud signals), Maybe very small change? Hard to say for sure

* Updated all audio, networking, display, and chipset drivers on the laptop to latest available, no change

* Made sure windows is fully updated, no change

* Closed all other software, no change

* Disabled windows firewall and Windows defender, no change

CPU is cruising along at <20%, RAM utilization is <35%, so it isn't taxed for resources.

I'm at a loss where to go next. Maybe wipe Win11 and install Win10? It seems like it's actually gotten worse over the last 24 hours as I've been troubleshooting. Yesterday it was annoying on wifi but ok on ethernet. Now it's all but unusable even on ethernet on the laptop, while the desktop continues to work just fine.

I hate this laptop, and I hate windows 11, but I'm not sure I've got time to do anything about either of those before I leave. I do have an ipad, but that won't be great for running a pileup. At this point I have my IC-706 packed assuming there's no hope of making this work, but I figured I'd throw a hail Mary here and maybe one of y'all can save the day.

David Decoons, wo2x

you can try changing the power plan to high performance instead of default balanced.

Also, are you running speakers into radio directly or using PC audio?

Dave wo2x

DL4RCE

Hi Dave, this is a known problem, Flexradio is working on it. Same problems here. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse. Disconnecting DAX and unncessary CAT Software helped for me. You can try it.

Pete La

I am experiencing the same thing along with VOX dropouts. I don't know if they are related or different problems, but they both started with the new 3.3.32 software version. Please put in a help ticket even if you think Flex Radio is aware of the issue. Someday they may actually decide to fix it. New Software = New Problems =/= Not New Radio.

Mike-VA3MW

The vox issue is now fixed and it should be in 3.4 assuming it passes all Q/A testing.

73