As documented across the internet, many users of Dell XPS laptops encounter a problem of high DPC latency, which manifests as clicks & popping sounds when audio is played on the system. For these users, there is one main culprit - the ACPI.sys driver. This is confirmed when I use LatencyMon to diagnose the cause.
After having had to replace the motherboard in my XPS 15 9550, I started experiencing this issue. I have tried many troubleshooting steps, one I have not yet tried is the last comment of this Super User post, outlined by user gl-:
I was nearly ready to just overwrite a prior backup image, but with nothing to lose this worked:
Device Manager -> View -> Devices by Connection
find some juicy root nodes (eg. PCI(e) stuff, USB 3.0 controllers, HD controllers) and nuke them, taking everything below with them.
Don't necessarily delete their drivers if asked (unless desperate). reboot.
Bingo, pretty much all my hardware was re-detected on next boot, and the problem went away. I can only assume that it wasn't so much a single rogue driver, as some corruption in my driver setup (or a specific driver's setup) generally.
My question(s) are as follows:
- By 'nuke', do they mean 'Uninstall' the drivers?
- What exactly do they mean by 'root nodes', and how do I choose the ones they are talking about?
- What's the worst thing that could happen when uninstalling the things they are talking about?
I am grateful for any assistance I may get. Thank you
