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content/post/sdr-console-audio-stutter.md

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+---
+title: "SDR Console: Fixing Audio Stutter Issues"
+type: post
+author: micha
+date: 2023-04-14T06:00:00+02:00
+url: /sdr-console-audio-stutter/
+tags:
+ - Ham Radio
+ - SDR
+ - Windows
+---
+
+# The Setup
+
+* Lenovo Thinkpad T420
+* Intel Core i5-2520M CPU
+* 16 GB RAM
+* Intel 82579 Ethernet Interface
+* Windows 10 Pro
+* [SDR Console v3.3 Beta Build 2870](https://www.sdr-radio.com/Console)
+
+# The Problem
+
+I had lots of audio stuttering/drop-outs while using [SDR Console] on my Thinkpad T420 (see above), even if no other programs were running.
+
+# The Fix
+
+In order to find out if there are device driverrs that are blocking other processes due to high DPC latency spikes, I've downloaded and executed the tool [LatencyMon](https://resplendence.com/latencymon).
+
+The following screenshot shows the main screen of LatencyMon running:
+
+![image](/img/latencymon-1.jpg)
+
+The drivers with the highest execution times and/or numbers of DPC executions can be seen unter "Drivers":
+
+![image](/img/latencymon-2.jpg)
+
+In my case it turned out that the _ndis.sys_ driver was the main issue with extreme executions times (not visible in the screenshot, took it after the fix). After reading [this very informative blog post](https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=82387) I've replaced the generic network driver for Intel cards with a much older version from Lenovo (from 2011). The execution times are now still not great but much lower and I haven't experienced any audio stutter problems in SDR Console anymore.
+
+You can download the Lenovo driver from here: https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/83rw15ww_64.exe