Windows – NDIS.SYS driver very high latency in Windows 10

dpcdriversnetworkingwindows 10

I have upgraded my computer from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. The installation went well, no problem occurred.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H. After the install, I updated the Realtek drivers to their latest Windows 10 version.

After I started to use the new Windows 10, I experienced sudden freezes, the audio or video playback is stopped for a very short time.

I checked the driver latencies with LatencyMonitor and DPC Latency Checker.

They both showed very high values (100-200 000, even 600 0000 microseconds), and it seems that NDIS.SYS causes the problem.

As this file is network related, I tested it with another LAN card (an ASUS PCI LAN card), it has a very different driver.

Surprisingly, this LAN card also shows very high values (not as often as the Realtek).

Realtek:

ASUS:

What should I do now?

UPDATE

I installed Windows 10 again.

I use a torrent client (uTorrent) that is set to autostart.
If I quit the client, I get normal values.

What parameter should I check in my torrent client to avoid the problem?

Best Answer

I dumped a statistic about DPCs ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -I highCPUUsage.etl -a dpcisr > dpc.txt) and this shows 2 DPCs which are critical (over 1024µs):

Total = 19697 for module ndis.sys
Elapsed Time, >      512 usecs AND <=     1024 usecs,      1, or   0.01%
Total,                                                 19697

Total = 7174 for module tcpip.sys
Elapsed Time, >      512 usecs AND <=     1024 usecs,      1, or   0.01%

I checked the NDIS.sys call stacks and saw that 2 rd party files are involved. ipgdnd60.sys is the ASUS Gigabit network driver and vfilter.sys (VPN driver). Update both and look what happens.

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Windows – High DPC latency Windows 10, unable to fix

Looking at the log shows indeed ndis.sys and nvlddmkm.sys spikes:

Total = 98101 for module nvlddmkm.sys
Elapsed Time, >      512 usecs AND <=     1024 usecs,     68, or   0.07%
Elapsed Time, >     1024 usecs AND <=     2048 usecs,     13, or   0.01%
Total,                                                 98101

Total = 2703 for module ndis.sys
Elapsed Time, >      512 usecs AND <=     1024 usecs,    103, or   3.81%
Elapsed Time, >     1024 usecs AND <=     2048 usecs,     19, or   0.70%
Total,                                                  2703

Looking at the stacks shows that NDIS.sys calls your Intel Wifi driver

Line #, DPC/ISR, Module, Stack, Count, Process, Weight (in view) (ms), TimeStamp (s), % Weight
14, , ndis.sys, [Root], 25, , 23,699083, , 0,01
15, , ,   |- ntoskrnl.exe!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd, 5, , 4,746332, , 0,00
16, , ,   |    |- ntoskrnl.exe!NtSetIoCompletion, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
17, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!IoSetIoCompletionEx2, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
18, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!IopAllocateMiniCompletionPacket, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
19, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KiInterruptDispatchNoLockNoEtw, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
20, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KiDpcInterruptBypass, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
21, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KiDispatchInterruptContinue, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
22, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KxRetireDpcList, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
23, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KiRetireDpcList, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
24, , ,   |    |    ntoskrnl.exe!KiExecuteAllDpcs, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
25, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!ndisPeriodicReceivesTimer, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
26, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!ndisQueuedMiniportDpcWorkItem, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
27, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
28, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
29, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
30, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
31, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
32, , ,   |    |    Netwbw02.sys!<PDB not found>, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
33, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!NdisMIndicateReceiveNetBufferLists, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
34, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!ndisCallReceiveHandler, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
35, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!ndisMTopReceiveNetBufferLists, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00
36, , ,   |    |    ndis.sys!ndisMIndicateNetBufferListsToOpen, 1, , 1,016103, , 0,00

You use driver version 18.33.5.1 which is the latest version for your Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 adapter. Wait for newer drivers, replace the adapter with a different model (a Gamer Wifi adapter from Killer or newer Intel model) or use LAN cable connection.

Your nVIDIA GPU driver nvlddmkm.sys is version 376.19, which is a bit outdated. Try the driver 378.49 which the most recent one (as 2017-01-31) for your Geforce 860M.

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