If your Focusrite is crackling, glitching, or dropping… this fix saved me.
I’ve been dealing with random crackles, audio glitches, and full dropouts on my Scarlett Solo (4th gen) for a long time. Audio would freeze, loop a buffer into a distorted mess, or cut out entirely until I re‑plugged the interface. I even did a full clean boot to rule out software conflicts. I also tried a UA Volt and previously a Scarlett 4i4 (3rd Gen), and all of them showed the same behavior, so it clearly wasn’t a hardware defect.
If you haven’t used LatencyMon, it’s extremely helpful. Just run it for about five minutes while playing audio, then open the Drivers tab and sort by highest execution time. The drivers at the top are the ones causing the worst DPC latency. In my case, Wdf01000.sys was sitting at the top with a huge lead. That’s a Windows kernel driver that handles device framework operations, so when it spikes, it usually means something else in the system is stalling it, like a USB controller or a port that isn’t handling USB audio well.
LatencyMon also shows a warning on the main screen if it detects latency issues and will tell you which driver is responsible. The best way to use it is to run a scan after every fix you make. That’s how you know whether a change is actually helping. For me, Wdf01000.sys dropped from first place to fourth place after I moved the interface to the correct port, which is how I knew the problem was actually resolved. I also got a positive message on the main screen saying no latency issues were detected, which confirmed everything was finally stable.
After testing different ports, I found out something important about my motherboard (Gigabyte X870E AORUS ELITE X3D): the USB‑C ports are not equal. Two of them are “USB‑C DP” ports tied to the GPU’s DisplayPort lanes. These caused constant DPC spikes and unstable behavior with audio interfaces.
The fix was moving the Scarlett to the top rear USB‑C port labeled “USB 3.2 Gen 2.” That port is routed through the chipset and properly supports USB 2.0 fallback. I got the same good results using a USB‑C to USB‑A cable, which forces the interface into a stable USB 2.0 path. Both setups performed identically.
On my board, the stable port happened to be the top rear USB‑C, but I recommend checking your motherboard manual because the layout varies. Not all USB‑C ports are equal, and the manual will tell you exactly which controller each port is connected to.
To make sure the fix was real, I stress‑tested the setup using SoundID Reference in virtual driver mode, which intentionally introduces extra DPC load. I also ran the interface at 192000 Hz sample rate and a 16‑sample buffer, which is about as harsh as it gets for USB audio. Even under both conditions, the system stayed stable and clean.
This is a pretty specific case, but I hope it helps someone else, or at least helps you identify whether DPC latency is the culprit and where to start looking. LatencyMon makes that part much easier.