12 replies to this topic

[WrackJacket]

Hello there guys,

 

first of all I want to thank you for all the great work and the fun I already had with Visual Pinball.   
But now I got a problem and I hope so much you can help me out.

 

I got irregular game and audio stutter with all Tables in VPX, since my pc made a windows update in january this year.

I sadly left on WLAN and yes, I guess that was stupid. But I’m still not shure, if the stutter really depends on the updated windows. So I’m really lost here.

Here is the story of my despair…    And what I’ve already done tryining to fix it.

 

My Cab consist of 3 Monitors:

 

1: 4k Playfield

2: Full HD Backglass,

3: Special DMD Monitor (with 1280x720px).

 

PC Hardware is:

• AMD Ryzen 1700X
• Chipset AMD X370
• 32 GB RAM DDR4 3200
• 256GB SSD Kingston Fury
• Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti 8GB (Asus Strix OC)
• 600W PSU

Controller:

• Pinscape with Expansion Board
• Flipper Buttons, Arcade Buttons, Analog Plunger, Solenoids, Gear & Shaker Motor, LEDs

Software:

• VPX (I’m using no other pinball software)
• Pinball Y
• VPinMAME (I only got MAME-based tables installed)
• DOF
• B2S Backglass Server

 

So this is what I set up in June 2021. And all was running great! I never had any problems with stutter or audio delay, till january 2022. At that time stutter starter and I found out, that Windows was updating in the background.

 

Now I‘ve tried to help myself and alread did:

• Updated hardware drivers
• Updated Pinscape firmware
• Updated all software (VPX, PinballY, VPinMAME, DOF, B2S)
• Installed PINAffinity
• Set video settings in VPX to the absolut minimum, even unchecked blur and limited fps to 60. (Video Card is now running on 30 to 40% while playing VPX)

I’ve tried many constellations of video settings at this point. All didn’t have an effect on the stutter.

• Unplugged Pinscape Controller and played with keyboard
• Kicked out and disabled any other software comming with the windows update
• Played VPX without PinballY

 

All didn’t help. So here is my exact problem:

 

When I start playing all is fine. I takes a few minutes (about 5-10) and then it starts. The sounds suddenly stutter and have an echo/delay. Then the game (especially the ball) starts to stutter. Sometimes even the left flipper has dropouts.

There isn’t any error or programm crash. VPX just goes on, but with this unplayable behavior.     I even cannot see anything special in hardware monitoring. All seems to be good.

 

Does any of you guys have some ideas what could be the reason here? And what else I could do?

 

I’m really lost. 

 

Thank you so much 

 

[xenonph]

Have you tried restoring to earlier date? Sometimes a restore point is created when updates occur.

[WrackJacket]

Hey, thanks for your quick reply. :-)

 

I've already tried that. But my windows says it couldn't restore, because the update was more than 10 days ago.

 

Last chance for me could be a fresh installation I guess... But I struggle with that. If I build a Windows Boot Stick now, it would have the updates included. So I guess the chance is big to have the same issue again.

 

Or do you think there is no other way than trying a new installation?

Edited by WrackJacket, 11 April 2022 - 09:37 AM.

[wiesshund]

disable audio

In VPX go to prefs and audio
uncheck to play effects and music

exit VPX

 

Now pick one ROM
and using vpinmame's setup.exe 
pick that ROM and disable the sound on it in its settings

then exit pinmame's setup app

 

Ok, now run the table that the ROM we turned off sound for goes to.

 

Do you have any stutters with no audio?

 

If you have no stutters
Go into device manager, uninstall your audio device(s)
click box to uninstall software, if the option is offered
reboot PC

Once rebooted and audio hardware is redetected, download and install the audio drivers from your motherboard manufacturer

 

Then make sure that windows has your audio card as the default audio device
and you may also want to disable and HDMI audio devices (control panel > sounds)

Now see if you have stutter any more.

 

If you had stutters during the test with sound disabled
then it may not be audio related

PS
 

just run services.msc

Disable background intelligent transfer service

Disable Windows Update Service

 

and make sure to stop both of course

 

Now leave PC on internet all you want

You wont get any updates, period

 

You will probably not be able to add or remove windows components either, and windows wont find a driver for new hardware plugged in
but it will not update
(It will not update AV either, so beware what you do on the internet with this!!!)
 

[WrackJacket]

Thank you so much, I'll try that soon and will report. :-)

[tomlousberg]

Also look at device manager, disable hdmi audio from your GPUcard.

You should disable automatic driverupdates from winupdate in registry or group policy.

 

Check settings/exclusions windows defender

 

Good luck!!

[wiesshund]

Also look at device manager, disable hdmi audio from your GPUcard.

You should disable automatic driverupdates from winupdate in registry or group policy.

 

 

 

He can do that right from control panels, sounds, playback

And he can disable updates in services as i showed him, with out editing registry or playing with policies (which he wont be able to play with if win10 home)

Thank you so much, I'll try that soon and will report. :-)

Ok, it's Soon O'Clock now
any results from the audio off test?

[tomlousberg]

Thats right Wiesshund, on the other hand you could download the gpedit plugin from microsoft.

Noticed that windows keeps reverting things back to its own good.. Group policy and register stay permanent. Same as ms defender

I already ran into this issue, and this helped me out. Just trying to help

[WrackJacket]

Hello guys,

 

sorry for the delay. I sadly had some other things to do, but now I've had the time to fix it. :-)

 

I uninstalled all audio devices, disabled the HDMI sound of the graphics and then installed the latest driver for the mainboards sound card.

Also I disabled the windows updates as you described.

 

So until now there were no more audio or game stutter. I will test it a few days. Maybe I'm lucky and it's gone. 

 

Thank you so much for your help and support! 

[BoltBait]

If you're using a virus scanner other than Windows Defender, delete it.

 

Make sure you white list all directories where pinball files are stored.

[tomlousberg]

If you're using a virus scanner other than Windows Defender, delete it.

 

Make sure you white list all directories where pinball files are stored.

 

 

Risky..

I would set exclusions in powershell.for defender. dont forget to point to path AND EXE.

 

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "c:\emulation\VPX\VPinballX.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "c:\emulation\VPX\VPinball 10.7.4360.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "c:\emulation\FP\BAM\Fploader.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "c:\emulation\FP\Future Pinball.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\VPX\Tables\*.vbs"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\VPX\Scripts\*.vbs"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\FP\Scripts\*.vbs"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\VPX\VPinballX.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\VPX\VPinball 10.7.4360.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\FP\Future Pinball.exe"

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "c:\emulation\FP\BAM\Fploader.exe"

[BoltBait]

It is not risky for me as my pinball machine is not on the Internet.

 

I transfer tables to it via memory key which is scanned by my laptop when preparing it.

 

So, I've even disabled Defender.  I've been running for years with no problems and no stutter.

[WrackJacket]

Hey guys,

 

sorry for my late response. I was offline for a pretty long time.

 

Now I built up my cabinet new. Setup Windows 10 again and followed all your instructions.

 

What I also did was to set the skipped Frames in B2S Backglasses all on "5". I read that in another forum. It took away audio stutter in "Attack from Mars" Table from JP Salas.

 

Another config I did was to set the Frame Limiter in VPX Video/Graphics Option to "1". When I left that at "0" my GTX1070 produced more than 300 fps and ran at 99% load.

So now it is running fine with 60fps and 50 - 80% load, according to different tables.

 

So far I have no stutter any more.    

 

Thank you so much for your help!    

Edited by WrackJacket, 14 February 2024 - 01:31 PM.