apache-labs.com

Many people have found changing the Windows 10 Network Throttling Index setting in the Windows registry produces vastly superior performance by eliminating "Seq" errors, reducing or eliminating audio glitches on both transmit and receive, and improving VAC performance as well.

It's not entirely clear exactly what behavior this setting controls in Windows because network testing tools don't show any dramatic changes in performance, but the results have been undeniable for many who have made the change.

This is a tweak that comes out of the gaming community and was first identified as being applicable to our needs by EA3AQR. Thank you, Jordi!

To change this setting you need to run the Registry Editor (regedit), then find the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

In that key you should find a registry value of type REG_DWORD called NetworkThrottlingIndex. It will have a default value of 0000000a in hexidecimal notation, which is 10 in decimal notation.



Double click on that value, change it to ffffffff (eight "f"s), click OK, close the Registry Editor, and reboot.



If for some reason you do not see a REG_DWORD called NetworkThrottlingIndex you can create one under the SystemProfile registry key by right-clicking in the right hand pane of the Registry Editor, selecting New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, creating it, then edit it as specified above.

That should do the trick. Not everyone notices a difference. If you experience problems, simply repeat the above instructions and change the value back to the default (hex "a", decimal 10).

Nice topic Scott!

It has been a pleasure to be able to contribute with something really useful to the Anan comunity.
I hope it can help many users!.

This worked great for me:

Apache 10E + latest Win10, running VAC without resampling, FT8, monitoring RF output waveform on an oscilloscope:

Prior to changing the throttling index I was seeing roughly 2 glitches (more or less) in each 15 second FT8 transmission period. Each glitch appears as a 5.3 millisecond RF output dropout. Main sampling rate is 96kHz, main sample buffer is set to 512 samples. Note that 512 samples/96k samples per second = 5.3 milliseconds.

After changing the throttling index to ffffffff, I don’t see any glitches.

Stu

Hi,
Will the windows 10 update revert the "Throttling Index" back to the original setting, do we need to check this periodically? Thanks very much for your help.

Thanks,
Joe
WD5Y

Don't know, Joe.

Joe wrote:Hi,
Will the windows 10 update revert the "Throttling Index" back to the original setting, do we need to check this periodically? Thanks very much for your help.

Thanks,
Joe
WD5Y

I got a Windows update yesterday, Throttling Index is still where I set it earlier in the week (ffffffff).

Mark

Just worked up a batch file to set the Network Throttling Index to Disabled, works very good. Would be good to have this execute at the PC's shutdown in case an update occurs at restart. Might be of some use, the .bat lines are as follows:

@echo off

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile" /v "NetworkThrottlingIndex" /t REG_DWORD /d 4294967295 /f

exit


73's
Joe
WD5Y

All
I have made these changes and now I have a Yellow lightening bolt with 13.8v 25.0A in the bottom LHS where it used to give me the CPU usage.

If I click on it it does not change or give me any information.
Any suggestions what it means,
Thanks
John

John--what version of Thetis are you running, and with what hardware (e.g. 200D, 7000, etc? Not only do I not see CPU percentage, but also do not see the antenna assignments on the status bar. This implies that you are either running an older version of Thetis, in which case you should update to 2.8.11, or if you are running 2.8.11 that the database or installation has somehow become corrupt. In either case this seems entirely coincidental to your registry change, which should have absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

FWIW, you can turn the volts/amps display on/off in Setup > Display > General.

VK2WJ wrote:All
I have made these changes and now I have a Yellow lightening bolt with 13.8v 25.0A in the bottom LHS where it used to give me the CPU usage.

If I click on it it does not change or give me any information.
Any suggestions what it means,
Thanks
JohnCapture.JPG

May not be relevant (and I’m away from the shack and going from memory - never a good thing for me- lol), but I had what appeared to be “full screen” but it wasn’t - not until I expanded to actual “full screen.” If I remember correctly, only then did I see CPU usage, etc. Again, may not apply, but I thought I’d note it.

A friend and I with SEQ errors tried this and it worked for both of us. I am running a 7000DLE MkII with Win10 21H1 Pro on an Intel NUC8i5 with Thetis 2.8.11 and v 1.9 P2. I restored the the throttling setting and the seq errs returned. Thanks. This is reall good information! 73 -- Larry W8ER

Thanks for this Scott! It helps a lot. No more seq errors and no more audioclicks.

When I use the Apache Labs V2 Controller I hear those audioclicks (a lot) and see seq errors too. Is there any way to get rid of them, like the change in the Windows 10 Registry? Perhaps you or someone else could be of help for the V2 Controller (Pi HPSDR) users.

TNX es 73, Hans PA0Q.

pa1hr wrote:Thanks for this Scott! It helps a lot. No more seq errors and no more audioclicks.

All credit belongs to Jordi, EA3AQR

When I use the Apache Labs V2 Controller I hear those audioclicks (a lot) and see seq errors too. Is there any way to get rid of them, like the change in the Windows 10 Registry? Perhaps you or someone else could be of help for the V2 Controller (Pi HPSDR) users.

I'm afraid I'm not up to speed on piHPSDR or linHPSDR. While I was an early adopter and booster of the project (I even built my own controller which you can see here) the software, while much improved of late, never got to a place where it did all the things that I had come to rely on in Thetis. So unfortunately my interest in the linux client area has waned. Perhaps someone else might chime in who is a regular lin- or pi-HPSDR user.

w-u-2-o wrote:

pa1hr wrote:Thanks for this Scott! It helps a lot. No more seq errors and no more audioclicks.

All credit belongs to Jordi, EA3AQR

TNX Scott and Jordi!

73, Hans.

Thx fellas.. just made the changes here and so far it's definitely less lag. Zero lag

Works very good on my both machines. Huge improvement on my office laptop going through two GIG network switches.

Thank you

Mike W1PL

This is an old thread, but I thought I'd mention that my squeaky-new Windows 11 installation had this key set to 0xFFFFFFFF by default.

73,
Jim N7CXI

Hi Jim,
Was that a "bare metal" installation of Windows 11?
73, Bryan W4WMT

Scott,
I just performed this change and it worked. I use to be able to observe a glitch on the 2 tone test about every 10 seconds, it is now gone.
Windows 10 PRO/Build: 19044.1889


Thank you, Dan KM6CQ

I also found using ProcessHacker and changing the priority of audiodg.exe to Critical and the I/O Priority to High solved some glitches I was seeing even with the throttling change.

I'm going to be upgrading to a fiber optic card though so will see if that perhaps behaves better.

N7CXI wrote:This is an old thread, but I thought I'd mention that my squeaky-new Windows 11 installation had this key set to 0xFFFFFFFF by default.

W4WMT wrote:Hi Jim,
Was that a "bare metal" installation of Windows 11?

Just checked my fresh install of Windows 11 on a new build and it too had the key set to 0xffffffff by default.
Steve .. k8pz

Thanks for confirming the Windows 11 change on that key. Since they're changing defaults around in there, can someone plese check to see if the "Pro Audio" key is still there by default? Thetis depends on that key being present in order to elect participation in the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCS). Without that, the various streaming threads in Thetis won't be able to run at the highest possible priority.

Don't forget, if you run Thetis as administrator you can change this right from within Thetis:

W4WMT wrote:Thanks for confirming the Windows 11 change on that key. Since they're changing defaults around in there, can someone plese check to see if the "Pro Audio" key is still there by default? Thetis depends on that key being present in order to elect participation in the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCS). Without that, the various streaming threads in Thetis won't be able to run at the highest possible priority.

Pro Audio Key.jpg

Yes it is

Great
Thanks for checking!
73

I changed the throttling index a year ago and I've been running it consistently since then. What I noticed is that the audio ticks on TX that I was seeing and hearing have completely disappeared. The consequence seems to be the Thetis screen will freeze, and then when I click on the power button it comes back to life. If I leave Thetis on all day, this might happen three times. I was on 160 this morning for an hour and a half and it happened once. It's not a big deal, and I'm content with the trade-off.

Yeah I've noticed the screen freeze too and was not sure of the cause. happens rarely enough. Thanks Dan

Could this also help with Win11 and Thetis Protocol 2 running Anan G2?
-- Bob - Ki1n

rbanasik wrote:Could this also help with Win11 and Thetis Protocol 2 running Anan G2?
-- Bob - Ki1n

Yes, it’s a network traffic tweak. Pretty universal.