# Audio popping with 2i2



## saboo (May 28, 2020)

Greetings everyone, I come to you in a time of great need.

The most dreadful purchase I've ever made was the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Ever since buying it I've had problems with it. More specifically, the problem that is plaguing me to this day is popping/clicking noises that happen regardless of me being in the DAW or not.
Upon rather unfruitful chats with the support reps of focusrite, I at least found out that nvlddmkm.sys is the main culprit, although I have no idea what to do with it. 
Has anybody had any experiences with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## Manaberry (May 28, 2020)

Hi Saboo,

Welcome to the world of "damn that kernel sys file is messing with my system stability".
So, just to recap a bit about how it works on PC/Win.

You have what we call a "kernel". This is the lowest level of your operating system (also call ring-0.) This is the level that "connect" software to hardware (like a video driver.)

In your case, the nvlddmkm.sys is the Nvidia system file. Your computer is very sensitive about latency when it comes to audio processing. If your Nvidia drivers are messing with your system roundtrip, pops may appear.

*What is the first thing to do?*

First: monitoring your PC to identify and confirm the issue. (avoid the 1024 buffer size from Focusrite, it's messy)
- Run *LatencyMon *for 15 minutes without any apps launched
- Run *LatencyMon *for 15 minutes while working on your DAW

*LatencyMon *will spot the shady process. See if it appears in both situations.

*Second step:*
If NVIDIA is indeed in fault, uninstall it with *Display Driver Uninstaller *and clean EVERYTHING. (First create a restore point, just in case)

Download the latest *Studio Driver* (not the regular gaming drivers) from Nvidia.
Unpack the driver file with *NVslimmer *and remove EVERYTHING (except what you cannot uncheck).
Repack.

Reboot and install the new driver.


*Third step:*

Run *LatencyMon*. If you still have the issue, the last thing to do would be to try the MSImode.
First, create a restore point. This step may be "dangerous" in a way that you can have an issue with your OS. But it is very, very rare.
---
Download MSI Utility.
Run it as an administrator.

If your graphic card is not in MSI mode, activate it and click on "Apply", then reboot.



I've done those things a couple of times on my PCs. This is advanced optimization for your machine. But you have to take full responsibility for those manipulations results.


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## premjj (May 29, 2020)

saboo said:


> Greetings everyone, I come to you in a time of great need.
> 
> The most dreadful purchase I've ever made was the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Ever since buying it I've had problems with it. More specifically, the problem that is plaguing me to this day is popping/clicking noises that happen regardless of me being in the DAW or not.
> Upon rather unfruitful chats with the support reps of focusrite, I at least found out that nvlddmkm.sys is the main culprit, although I have no idea what to do with it.
> Has anybody had any experiences with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.



I just posted a similar issue on a different thread. Will try the solutions posted above by @Manaberry


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## Brendon V (May 29, 2020)

Greetings Saboo, I also have a 2i2 so I know exactly what you are talking about, I dj live as well using it and have learnt the hard way about these problems, 

So its very tempramental, but after owning it for a number of years I have figured out its quirks for me anyway and my 2i2, what I have found works is, 

If any other program is open that uses the 2i2 for playback it will always pop and crackle, so if I am using the Daw and say Rx7 or DJ software open at the same time it will pop, the only solution is to close the other software, so you can only have one thing open at a time, 

After closing any other software if it still pops I use the focusrite program that comes with it and change the sample size say to 512 or 1024, just search for Asio in the windows taskbar, it doesnt matter the number to change it to as long as its different then change it back, this always seems to fix it, as to why I have no idea, 

Before I dj I always restart the computer now, because some weird popping creeps in and it just seems to be a build up of conflicts from the computer being used for a long time, very annoying if I forget, 

Also make sure you have the latest software update, it seems to help, 

It has been a bit of nightmare but once I figured out its tempramental side I havent had any further issues other then the headphone knob is crackly and the usb plug at the back is loose, but would I buy another focusrite product, I'm not sure, when it works its great, anyway hope there is something useful in there, try those things and see if it makes a difference, best of luck


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## Brendon V (May 29, 2020)

Brendon V said:


> Greetings Saboo, I also have a 2i2 so I know exactly what you are talking about, I dj live as well using it and have learnt the hard way about these problems,
> 
> So its very tempramental, but after owning it for a number of years I have figured out its quirks for me anyway and my 2i2, what I have found works is,
> 
> ...



Also one final thing I tried the Asioforall drivers but deleted it and went back to the original focusrite asio, but you could try it as it may help, just google it and you will find the download


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## saboo (May 29, 2020)

Thank you guys for the suggestions. I'll be sure to try your solutions once I'm done procrastinating lol
@Manaberry @Brendon V , do you guys know if this is the same for other audio interfaces as well? I'm planning on getting the 2i2 returned using its warranty (although the seller I bought it from went bankrupt, so there goes all my rights as a consumer), and buying an Audient iD14 in its stead.


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## Brendon V (May 29, 2020)

When I had the problems I remember looking into it and it seemed like the 2i2 was notorious for these kind of issues, I suspect its the software so hopefully you should be ok, it is a really good interface if you can get it working properly with your setup and seems to be highly recommended by people, so hope you have luck to return it or sort the problem


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## Manaberry (May 29, 2020)

saboo said:


> Thank you guys for the suggestions. I'll be sure to try your solutions once I'm done procrastinating lol
> @Manaberry @Brendon V , do you guys know if this is the same for other audio interfaces as well? I'm planning on getting the 2i2 returned using its warranty (although the seller I bought it from went bankrupt, so there goes all my rights as a consumer), and buying an Audient iD14 in its stead.



I had a big issue with an RX5700 GPU and my UAD interface. The GPU caused Cubase, Kontakt, VEP, to crash for no reason. Also, the GPU was causing heavy distortion, pops, and crackles to the audio interface. It was very unstable. 

Now all is good with my little 1650 SUPER from Nvidia. 


Sometimes, some pieces of hardware just don't belong to be in a music production computer.


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## premjj (May 30, 2020)

So I tried looking for the studio driver but apparently nVidia hasn't released any for my graphics card. 

For the time being I have switched to an earlier nVidia driver which is cited to be really stable for gaming. The pops are still there though. I haven't had the time to test it thoroughly though.

I do remember that before my HDD crashed (which incidentally was because of the Focusrite drivers which would keep freezing my computer and leading to a BSOD error) I never had these pops. The only issue I would have would be during recording if the buffer settings were too low. But that was easily fixed. Besides that none of the other audio in my laptop was affected at all irrespective of the ASIO settings.


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## saboo (Jun 2, 2020)

Manaberry said:


> Sometimes, some pieces of hardware just don't belong to be in a music production computer.


Well that's just fantastic considering I'm on a laptop lol


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## saboo (Jun 2, 2020)

premjj said:


> So I tried looking for the studio driver but apparently nVidia hasn't released any for my graphics card.
> 
> For the time being I have switched to an earlier nVidia driver which is cited to be really stable for gaming. The pops are still there though. I haven't had the time to test it thoroughly though.
> 
> I do remember that before my HDD crashed (which incidentally was because of the Focusrite drivers which would keep freezing my computer and leading to a BSOD error) I never had these pops. The only issue I would have would be during recording if the buffer settings were too low. But that was easily fixed. Besides that none of the other audio in my laptop was affected at all irrespective of the ASIO settings.


Which driver are you using?


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## premjj (Jun 4, 2020)

saboo said:


> Which driver are you using?



You can download older drivers from:








Advanced Driver Search official NVIDIA drivers


Advanced Driver Search official NVIDIA drivers



www.nvidia.com





It gives you the choice between
NVIDIA Certified, WHQL Certified, Beta Release, Studio Driver.

I am using WHQL Certified Drivers. You'll have to experiment to see which one is most stable for your graphics card.


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