HWINFO64 4.22 to 4.30 causes audio anomaly

[CaptChaos]

Windows 7 64 bit
Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard
Intel Core i5-3570k
Realtek ALC892 integrated audio
MSI Afterburner On-screen display server

First post. Great program but wanted to share this experience.

Had been running 4.22 for many months without issue. Decided to upgrade to latest non-beta version 4.30.

Afterwards, any audio output would have a periodic buzz every few seconds. At first I thought it was an audio driver problem as lowering sound quality would improve the problem although not eliminate.

Narrowed it down to the new HWINFO 4.30. Backed out to 4.22 and audio problem is gone.

From what I can tell, it is some sort of resource contention (processor?) from HWINFO 4.30 that coincides with its data sampling?.

Hope this helps others.

 

[Martin]

This might be caused by reading data from some sensor. Especially the EC sensors, or some SMART (depending on storage driver) can cause such issues. You can check/workaround this by going through the list of sensors and disabling them one by one (right-click and Disable Monitoring) until you find the one which is causing this. Please let me know which one was that...

Edit: you mainboard should feature the "ASUS EC" sensor too, which might cause such problems. HWiNFO should warn you about this when first launched and offer you to disable this sensor automatically if you choose so.

 

[Bullhead]

Sorry to necro an old thread, but wanted to post in here in case someone else comes searching.

I was having this exact issue (and it was more than just audio hiccups, the whole PC would freeze for a millisecond or so), and had gotten to the point of disabling every sensor, yet it would still occur (albeit much less) if HWiNFO was running at all. Found the FPS fix thread where you talked about IRST, and sure enough, I was running an ancient driver version (10.5 versus the current 12.9). Updated that, and it's running fine now, no problems whatsoever! So if anyone else comes searching and finds this, make sure to update your Intel Rapid Store Technology (IRST) software and drivers.

 

[Martin]

Thanks for your feedback ! I'm sure this experience might help a lot of users.

 

[KWKSLVR]

I'm retrieving this one from the dead for better or worse. First off, I freaking love this program. It's a godsend. I currently have version v4.62-2500 which I run on a new Alienware 17 R2 specifically to kick the fans on. It works perfect for that using the Dell EC sensor for both CPU and GPU (and it was the only way I could get things to work). But, similar to the OP, as soon as I get things running you get an audio stutter/buzz/zzzzpppp, whatever you want to call it, that happens like clockwork every 5 seconds or so. Shut the program off, and the stutter ends immediately. I've disabled monitoring to every sensor except for CPU and it still happens. Are there any other tricks I can try? Doing anything more pretty much disables the number one thing I use the program for (fan control).
Thanks for any tips! But more importantly, thanks for the hard work that seems to be constantly poured into this thing. You should be very proud of this sucker!

Edit: I should also mention that IRST Drivers did not appear to be the problem (they are updated)

 

[Martin]

Are you sure you have disabled the "Dell EC" sensor? Disabling that one will have no effect on fan control, it's just a readout.
Another thing I can suggest to disable is the "Periodic polling" option in the main program Settings.
If neither of those above helps, then try to disable the fan control to see whether that might be the reason.

 

[KWKSLVR]

Are you sure you have disabled the "Dell EC" sensor? Disabling that one will have no effect on fan control, it's just a readout.
Another thing I can suggest to disable is the "Periodic polling" option in the main program Settings.
If neither of those above helps, then try to disable the fan control to see whether that might be the reason.

Ok, I see what you're saying now. For some reason, if I disable the DELL EC Sensor then restart the program, the fan button won't bring up the fan control settings. Opening the program, enabling the sensor, then disabling allows me to get into the settings. I've been using custom auto settings. What I have discovered is that even with the DELL EC Sensor enabled, manual fan control will not cause audio stuttering.

All good now! Thanks for the help, I should have figured that out myself. For some reason I was reading the term "Dell EC" as being "EC Support" under the "Safety" Tab. Noob stupidity on my part!