I recently had a problem when playing movies through iTunes on a laptop. At various parts of the movie, the entire laptop would become extremely slow, causing the movie to sputter. This happened at infrequent intervals. The laptop has a dual core 1.6Ghz and 2GB of RAM, so I new it was more than capable of playing a movie.
To look into the problem, I had the performance monitor running while I played a movie. Once the movie began to slow and sputter, I viewed the performance monitor to see which process was causing the problem. When I viewed the performance monitor I noticed that a process called audiodg.exe was consuming 35-40% of the CPU. I then investigated the problem and found a probable fix to the issue.
What is Audiodg.exe?
The audiodg.exe file made its appearance in Microsoft Vista, which explains why I haven’t seen this file before. When I viewed the properties of the file, the description stated Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation, which doesn’t help explain what it does.
After doing a little research I found out that the audiodg.exe file hosts the audio engine for Vista, and from what I hear Windows 7 as well. All the DSP and audio processing is performed within this file. Vendors are able to install their own DSP and audio effects into the audio pipeline, which will then be processed by audiodg.exe.
Unfortunately, this can also lead to some problems, as I experienced. Some audio effects can consume CPU and memory if not properly coded. How do we fix the problem? Lets take a look.
Disabling Audio Effects
In order to fix the high CPU usage, I disabled the audio enhancements processed by the audiodg.exe file. To disable the audio enhancements, use the following steps:
- Right-click the speaker icon in the lower right corner.
- Select Playback Devices from the menu. A list of devices should appear on the screen.
- Double-click the device that has a green checkmark. The properties windows for that device should open.
- Click the Enhancements tab at the top.
- From the list of enhancements, uncheck all of them, or click the Disable all enhancements checkbox.
- Click the OK button to save your changes and close the window.
- Click OK to close the Playback Devices window.
Once I disabled the enhancements, the movie played without any issues. I also didn’t notice any difference in sound with the enhancements disabled. If I do want to use sound enhancements, I’ll stick to the the options provided in the application.
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It works great, but for solving al all my issue, I had to do the same for Mic.
Tks a lot.
Glad it worked.
Thanks! It works!!
Thanks, it really works!!
I’m glad it worked for you.
didn’t work
It may not be the problem for the high CPU usage. It looks like you have another issue. Have you updated all your drivers?
Worked but made spotify sound like shyte!
If you sound card has an associated application, try using any enhancements with that application instead. Also, in application themselves, there may be a way to enhance the sound.
thanks so much man been haveing a problem with this for a wile. was rather annoying
Audiodg.exe is using %100 of my CPU. I can’t even open the playback devices menu.
Are you running anything that is using sound at the moment? If you are, try closing down that app and then open the playback devices menu.
The fix worked perfect for me! Thanks!
Now how do I fix this same issue in OSX? I can’t find the audio driver configuration.
I’m glad the fix worked for you. I’m not sure how to fix the same issue on OS X. Perhaps others would know.
I did notice the difference…. because i have a frigging high quality sound card with a 300 euros 5.1 sound system
and disabling it made the sound of the music sound alll ewww
Hmm…interesting. I wonder why your music needs software enhancements to make it sound good on your sound system? The audio enhancements performed by audiodg.exe are not natural, because they are created by software.
I’m on Windows 7 and this Enhancements tab doesn’t exist here, so I couldn’t get anything to work. Hmm. :\
nothingxs recently posted..silence is the sound of too much ssf4
It should work the same for Windows 7 – unless you have hidden the speaker icon. I am working on another post that shows how to disable audio enhancements through the Control Panel on Windows 7.