“Audio Dropout Detected” during recording

Nuendo
3

Hi yes I did but it doen’t help :frowning:

Following up on my dropout issues with Nuendo, I ran a trace using Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA) to investigate what’s happening under the hood.

My System Hardware:

  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

  • Audio Interface: MOTU M2 (USB)

What the WPA Analysis Revealed:

  • GPU / DirectX Dominance: The top CPU/DPC consumers by far are dxgkrnl.sys and the NVIDIA driver (nvlddmkm.sys), accumulating thousands of milliseconds in total duration and massive counts of hardware interrupts.

  • USB Host Controller: The xHCI USB controller driver (USBXHCI.SYS) also shows significant DPC duration, directly impacting real-time peripherals like my MOTU M2 interface.

  • The Root Cause & Limitations: While my hardware configuration technically has enough raw power to run these projects, it is starting to show its age. On older hardware architectures, the way interrupts, PCIe lines, and USB controllers are managed clashes with modern driver requirements. Heavy graphics and USB traffic frequently monopolize the CPU cycles, delaying audio buffer processing in Nuendo.

Because the underlying hardware and its driver management are a bit dated, these workarounds aren’t a true long-term fix for modern real-time audio workloads.

If anyone with a similar older setup has found a definitive way to stabilize this or successfully mitigate high DPC spikes involving nvlddmkm.sys alongside a USB audio interface, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The Final Solution: Rather than fighting hardware limitations, I’ve decided to purchase a modern laptop dedicated entirely to running Nuendo with great thermal/fan quietness, and keep my current desktop PC for everything else.

Thanks to everyone for the guidance and insights along the way on this post and the previous one !