Hi Martin. Thanks for your quick response! I ran Latencymon. Here is the text report (please let me know if you have comments):
CONCLUSION
Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:02:14 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
SYSTEM INFORMATION
Computer name: LAPTOP-99DULLMH
OS version: Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19044 (x64)
Hardware: OMEN by HP Laptop 15-ce0xx, HP
BIOS: F.05
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core™ i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
Processor group size: 8
RAM: 8078 MB total
CPU SPEED
Reported CPU speed (WMI): 2808 MHz
Reported CPU speed (registry): 2808 MHz
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 1456.50
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 6.909639
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1410.20
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2.766610
REPORTED ISRs
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 590.910969
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.003819
Driver with highest ISR total time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.004852
ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 4977
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 1
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
REPORTED DPCs
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 1312.643519
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.032118
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.138055
DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 160021
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 477
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 2
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
Process with highest pagefault count: compattelrunner.exe
Total number of hard pagefaults 10300
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 10021
Number of processes hit: 21
PER CPU DATA
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.604661
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 590.910969
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.048305
CPU 0 ISR count: 4402
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 1312.643519
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.947371
CPU 0 DPC count: 84238
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.841648
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 127.122151
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.003460
CPU 1 ISR count: 526
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 684.655271
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.168575
CPU 1 DPC count: 14153
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.650545
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 32.331197
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000363
CPU 2 ISR count: 50
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 559.608974
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.141317
CPU 2 DPC count: 25077
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.524879
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 365.862892
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.020616
CPU 3 DPC count: 3224
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.521413
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 173.331909
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.088551
CPU 4 DPC count: 14991
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.604858
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 816.375712
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.025510
CPU 5 DPC count: 3378
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.250799
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 460.120726
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.061458
CPU 6 DPC count: 11105
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.603475
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 150.716168
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.029827
CPU 7 DPC count: 4334