Poor audio (crackling) from Workstation Windows client (17.5.2)

[DavidHary]

I am seeking suggestions, help or updated drivers for resolving the crackling sounds of VMWare Workstation audio that seem to go back to Windows 98 clients.

I have been trying to fix the poor audio sound for a couple of days now. I explored numerous suggestions inxluding using the VMware audio driver from (5.10 from 2009; very poor audio) or the Windows default (HD audio; much better but still crackling). 

My system info:

Host: Lenovo P16 windows 11 23H2

Client: fresh install of Windows 11 23H2 

Workstation:17.5.2 

Tools: 12.3.5

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David
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[Fred.S]

I've had 3d issues with 17.5.2 and restored from backup to 17.02 and ended up with this same issue.

Reverting VmWare-Tools to 12.1.5 solved that. 

[DavidHary]

Hi Fred,

Thank you for your reply. 

Seeing that 17.0 has undergone significant security patches, I prefer to hold off hoping that this issue is **** by Broadcomm and will get addressed in the next release.

[bluefirestorm]

It has nothing to do with Broadcom. Garbled/stuttering audio on Windows VMs has been around since at least Workstation Pro/Player  version 12.x (2015); possibly earlier. So don't expect any fix any time soon.

FWIW, it is more likely to occur on Windows hosts than Linux hosts. Have yet to encounter garbled/stuttering audio on VMs running on Fusion on macOS.
Chances of having garbled audio increase if the Windows host machine is a laptop.
Chances also increase if the Windows 10/11 host has Hyper-V enabled.

My best guess is the garbled/stuttering audio issues stem from DPC latency issues on the Windows 10/11 host.

To minimise the chances of garbled/stuttering audio occurring, remove Hyper-V (or any components that activate Hyper-V such as WSL2, VBS, Kernel DMA protection) from the Windows 10/11 host. Set the Windows host machine power profile to Performance instead of the default Balanced (at the expense of battery power duration on a laptop). 

The drastic option is to switch to running VMware Workstation on a Linux host or run the VMs using Fusion on a macOS host. Running macOS on Apple hardware with Intel CPUs days are numbered though.

[DavidHary]

@bluefirestorm. Thank you for the comprehensive input 

I have the laptop now running in Performance mode. No hyper-V, VBS or Kernel-mode protection. 

I am also running the workstation as admin, which greatly improved loading and running apps in the VM. Apparently, the addresses some yet to be fixed issues with how Workstation handles the Intel Performance Cores. 

Yet, audio still is not free of the crackling noises. 

[kasper]

4 things to try:

• power options.   Go full throttle.
• Core isolation.   Disable it is settings / privacy security / windows security / device security. 
• Consider removing Windows Defender and HyperV if you disable Core Isolation.
• Use a Linux Host

Microsoft is cornering the Virtualization market through the guise of security.    They are visualizing device drivers through HyperV which gives them an edge in that Market.    This may be one reason VMWare was sold.

[DavidHary]

@kasper thank you.

Running full throttle with admin credentials has not helped. Hyper-V is already disabled. Disabling defender is not a viable option and the same goes with core isolation which, I presume, is unlikely to affect the performance of a resident driver. 

Setting the processor affinity of  audiodg.exe GitHub.com/gobidev/voicemeeter-auto-affinity had no effect either. 

Using a Linux host presents a challenge that clearly is beyond my humble skill set and no doubt will bring about its own set of issues. 

I hope Broadcomm is up to the challenge f caring for its VMware community. Time will tell. 

[DavidHary]

@kasper thank you for your suggestions.

Audio is still crackling when running full throttle on both host and client at admin credentials. Hyper-V is off. Turning off defender is not a safe option. How is core isolation likely to affect the driver functionality once it is memory resistant?

Audio has not improved after setting the core affinity of audiodg.exe (GitHub.com/gobidev).

[kasper]

Core isolation visualizes hardware drivers.   Like audio and video.    Try turning it off.   Rebooting.   And see what it does.    It is very easy to turn off and on through settings / privacy / windows security / device security....

If that does not work go to the Lenovo website and download/install the latest chipset drivers.   Make a backup before you install.

[DavidHary]

Oh well, disabling Core Isolation had no effect. the drivers have been up to date all along. 

@kasper, out of curiosity, what is it in your mind that makes Laptop more succeptible to audio crackling. Perhaps naively, I thought 'workstation grade' laptop, such as the Lenovo P16 Gen2 I have, would allow me to enjoy workstation performance levels. 

Also, naively, I am wondering what might be preventing the Workstation from accessing the audio driver without limitations. 

[kasper]

I am unclear as to why you said 'laptop more susceptible'.   I never implied that.   What I am going to say is that if you have correctly done everything suggested than the issue is specific to your hardware/software configuration.   Try updating the BIOS.   Go over BIOS settings and make sure they are setup for virtualization.   Go to 'drivers'.   Show 'hidden drivers'.    Make sure they are up to date.   Identify your audio chip.   Maybe the drivers for that are incorrectly setup.   Good luck.

[bluefirestorm]

kasper and I are NOT the same person.

I mentioned that it was more likely to occur on Windows laptops as that was my experience (first encountered garbled/crackling/slow-mo audio playback Surface Pro 3 with i5-4300U CPU and subsequently laptop with i7-6700HQ compared to desktops with i7-4770, E5 v3, E5 v4, i7-8700K CPUs). It is possible it is more susceptible as laptop CPUs can be aggressively throttled down to prolong battery power.

As for Hyper-V, so long as the vmware.log "Monitor Mode" shows ULM, that means Hyper-V is still active on the Windows host. When "Monitor Mode" is CPL0 that means Hyper-V is no longer running on the Windows host.
Another indicator is msinfo32 on the Windows host, VBS showing as "Running" and/or Kernel DMA Protection shows "On", that means Hyper-V is active.
Kernel DMA protection has to be turned off at the host UEFI. If it does not have that option (or you can't find it), you could also turn off VT-d, or VT for Directed I/O (the names varies from UEFI vendors) as Kernel DMA protection is dependent on VT-d. Keep VT-x on though as that is needed whether CPL0 or ULM.

[Dhairya Tomar]

@DavidHaryPlease update to latest VMtools Version 12.4.0 and let us know if the issue still persists.

If yes, then share the support bundle of the affected VM using below-

Help->Support->Collect Support Data

Also from inside the VM check your audio device on this website - https://mictests.com/ and share the results here.

Please share make and model of the Host machine where Workstation is installed and of the audio device which is being used where you are seeing this issue.

[Dhairya Tomar]

@DavidHaryBased on your reply to me separately, it will be great if you can share your observations after upgrading VMtools Version to 12.4.0.

In case for VMtools 12.4.0, the issue still persists, you have shared the mictestresults, from the same website it will be helpful if you can share the Speaker Test results. You can proceed with sharing Support bundle as it does not contain any Sensitive data.

[gbohn]

If the problem still persists, as mentioned before, one possible cause might be the host experiencing high DPC latency (from troublesome drivers, etc).

For what it's worth, there are graphical tools available (for Windows) that show some aspects of how your system is performing. One such tool is at https://resplendence.com/latencymon .

I think it may be free for non-commercial use.

[DavidHary]

Thank you @gbohn.  https://resplendence.com/latencymon is impressive.  Upon reading a bit, it occurred to me that, if latencies are at issue, the crackling noises should appear when testing audio from the host and from the client. However, crackling noises are coming from the client and not the host even though both use the same hdaudio driver (I tried the VMWARE driver on the client; it was worse).  Crackling noise can be heard on the host while the VM is starting, indicating that an increased CPU load does affect the audio quality. 

Note that I attempted to set the audiodg.exe auto affinity to a specific core but that did not reduce the crackling. Granted, I did not try different cores.. 

I also tried to reduce the number of the cores assigned to the VM from 8 to 4. Client audio crackling was still present even if running the VM with admin privileges, which significantly improves performance with Intel cores. 

What is it in audio streaming that seems to make it more susceptible to deterioration in quality than video streaming? 

[DavidHary]

Support data and audio test results attached. 

Attachment(s)

vmsupport-2024-06-03-16-38.zip   9.32 MB 1 version

MictestsDotCom test results.txt   1 KB 1 version

[DavidHary]

I have new results from the mictests site using the Chrome browser:

https://mictests.com/reviews/30946

I see a webcam test tab on the mictests site but not a speaker test nor do I see a speaker option from the Testing Area dropdown menu.

I am attaching a password protected msinfo32 output for the host.

Attachment(s)

ThinkpadP16Gen2MSInfo32.zip   119 KB 1 version

[DavidHary]

Hi @bluefirestore.

My apologies. No harm intended.

Indeed, VBA is running per msinfo32 ergo virtualization is enabled even with these 'added' features check off in the 'Add features....' dialog. Consequently, the VM is not running at what VMWare calls 'traditional' mode (Running Workstation on a Hyper-V Enabled Host)

Do you think there might be some interest in exploring further the alternatives for running these VMs using a separate thread on this forum? I surely be interested as clearly, turning off Kernel DMA protection on the host has some security does sides and VBS cannot be turned on on the VM if it is on on the host (https://docs.vmwarLimitations of Host VBS Mode).

[DavidHary]

correction to "...and VBS cannot be turned on on the VM if it is on on the host"; I meant '...and Virtualize CPU performance counters cannot be turned on on the VM if VBS is active on the host".

[bluefirestorm]

The LimeDevB VM is running in ULM. From the vmware.log
2024-06-03T23:34:41.954Z In(05) vmx Monitor Mode: ULM

You should really just remove Hyper-V. Follow the steps in this article.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/315385/vmware-workstation-and-devicecredential.html

The article misses some other steps as it has not been updated.

You would also have to remove "Microsoft Defender Application Guard" as the msinfo32 show "Windows Defender Application Control policy" as "Enforced. Kernel DMA Protection looks like is already disabled as status is "Not Available". The msinfo32 is also in the support bundle zip; so I didn't crack the password in the zip in the separate post/upload.

[DavidHary]

@bluefirestorm Following the steps in the article and your additional suggestions, VBS is still on perhaps because Secure Launch and SMM firmware measurements are still active virtualization security services.

Is attempting to eliminate all virtualization services futile or even folly?

It seems that Microsoft assigned a significant set of services to virtualization to a point of no return. This, I presume, might have been the impetus behind VMWare's ULM mode.

Hopefully VMWare will find a way to address the sub-par audio performance.

[kasper]

Try some or all of these options.   Make a backup first.

settings / security / disable memory core isolation
powershell:   disable-windowsoptionalfeature -online -featurename microsoft-hyper-v-all
dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:microsoft-hyper-v-all
reg: system\currentcontrolset\control\deviceguard   enablevirtualizationbasedsecurity dword value 0
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

[DavidHary]

Thank you @kasper.

It seems to me prudent to conclude that Microsoft has dedicated a set of services to run under virtualization and that attempting to turn off all virtualization is futile and likely to be counter productive. 

So, I am giving up on trying to fiddle with Virtualization. 

I hope Broadcom would be able to come up with a fix for this issue.  Obviously, seeing how audio and video can be streamed at great quality over the Ether, there must be a way to get that done across the virtualization 'wall'.

I also hope Broadcom takes note of the virtualization issues that we encountered and produce an updated knowledge based document with specific recommendations and alternative scenarios for running the VMs under Windows 11 (seeing that Windows 10 is loosing MS support as we speak).

[kasper]

I have a AMD 7735HS SOC NUC.    I have found that the only way to get guests operating with proper audio sound and video

is to do all of the above but to also max out the power settings.   And that is ok because at that level I am only using 40W.

For my setup there seems to be an issue with the power management software and Windows host.   I am happy to run

4 to 8 guests with the host Windows power settings to max (this is NOT overclocking) at 40W and having clear audio / video.

My point here is after you do all the other tweaks you may still want to set host Windows power settings to max.