High DPC Latency Causing Audio/Input Issues
What is this error?
Deferred Procedure Call latency is too high, causing audio dropouts, mouse stuttering, and general system jitter during gaming.
Common causes
- network driver causing high DPC
- GPU driver DPC spikes
- USB controller issues
- storage driver latency
- power management transitions
How to fix it
- Run LatencyMon to identify the offending driver
- update that driver
- disable power management features
Too many steps? Crashless can diagnose this automatically — checks your drivers, temps, VRAM, and 400+ known error patterns.
Get free AI diagnosis Detailed analysis
High DPC latency makes your system feel 'off' — audio crackles, mouse stutters briefly, and games have micro-hitches. DPCs are time-sensitive kernel operations, and if one takes too long, everything waits.
How to diagnose:
- Download LatencyMon (free) and run it while gaming. It shows which driver is causing the highest latency
- Common offenders: ndis.sys (network), nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA GPU), storport.sys (storage), dxgkrnl.sys (DirectX)
How to fix based on the offending driver:
- Network driver (ndis.sys): update from motherboard manufacturer. For Intel NICs, disable 'Energy Efficient Ethernet' and 'Wake on Magic Packet' in adapter properties
- GPU driver (nvlddmkm/amdkmdap): DDU clean install latest GPU driver
- Storage (storport/storahci): update SSD firmware, disable AHCI Link Power Management in Device Manager
- General fixes: disable PCI Express Link State Power Management in Power Options > Advanced
- Disable Wi-Fi power saving: Device Manager > network adapter > Properties > Power Management > uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device'
- Set power plan to High Performance (not Balanced) while gaming
When to seek help
If this error keeps happening after trying the fixes above, it may point to a deeper hardware or system issue. Consider professional help if:
- The crash occurs across multiple games or applications
- You see the same error after a clean Windows install
- Your PC is less than a year old (could be a warranty issue)
- You smell burning or hear unusual sounds from your PC
Or let Crashless do the deep analysis for you -- our AI checks drivers, temps, event logs, and 400+ known patterns automatically.
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