I’ve owned the Mind V2 and dock for a few days now. After switching to Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC, I’m having problems with the sound. It always sounds choppy in videos or has several dropouts. All drivers are displayed and installed correctly in the Mind app except for the Intel Smart Sound Technology driver. The app constantly indicates that the current version is unknown and recommends installing the driver displayed. No matter how often I install it, the app does not recognize the installed driver.
However, the version shown in the app is displayed as installed in the device manager. No other drivers are missing in the device manager either.
Firmware and BIOS of the Mind and dock are up to date.
What could be the problem? Are these possibly compatibility problems due to the Windows version used?
Here’s a screenshot of the device manager in regular view and with the option selected “show hidden devices”.
As you casn see in the later, there’s a missing “intel high definition driver” and a “usb4 virtual power coordination device” driver.
So I’m not sure what caused the sound problems I mentioned. But after a reinstallation, everything was fine again.
However, the Mind app seems to have a bug.
If I switch the system language from English to German, for example, it shows in the driver update panel that the version of the Intel Smart Sound driver cannot be found and suggests an update. When I switch back to English, the driver is suddenly recognized again and shows that the latest driver is already installed.
I did a fresh install with W11 Home files from Khadas server and can confirm that the Intel smart sound drivers were installed an none missing in the device manager. So that works out of the box.
But why doesn’t the operating system find all the drivers if you install them in the conventional way after setting up the operating system? In the Windows 11 Home version provided by Khadas, only the drivers which are available for download are already integrated, aren’t they?
What I also noticed is that when you update to the latest Mind software v.1.3 the drive update panel will again miss to recognize the installed version of the Intel Smart Sound driver. The older version works fine thou. So there’s definitely a small bug in the latest release but doesn’t affect sound quality.
Would be nice to get this working properly on W11 (IoT) Enterprise LTSC. Every help is appreciated.
I am afraid that this might be a hardware problem or rather a defect in the Mind Dock. Since today, the dock has been making a constant hissing/ whirring noise as soon as I connect the Mind to it. This only goes away when I switch the device off completely.
All the latest updates are installed on the docking station itself.
Unfortunately, I will have to send the device back
So the fresh install of our Windows 11 image all works, right?
Yes, for our Windows image we integrated all the drivers, and we also checked that with fresh install of Microsoft official windows and install the drivers we provided also works.
Please provide a screenshot of the Mind App.
And also provide the screenshot of Mind App Mind Dock interface?
Thanks for the reply @numbqq and confirming that it works with W11 Iot Entpr. as it should.
With your W11 Home image the device manager does not list any missing drivers - that’s fine.
Sound playback via Youtube seemed at first sight fine but after a while I noticed some signal noise. Especialy noticeable when you for example get a notice sound (Email etc.) it would playback the sound an keep a strange noise running out of the speakers. It went off when you pull the windows volume slider up or down for example just to have the sound from the adjustment play to kinda cancel the noise out.
Here are the screenshots after a fresh install. Just the first login after w11 install.
Looking after updated drivers in the Mind app (v.1.20 included in W11 Home image) does not show any outdated drivers. Note: the naming of the Intel smart sound driver - “ISS Dynamic Bus Enumerator”??
Now the same with the latest Mind app v1.30. After clicking on the “Driver Update” tab, the “ISS Dynamic Bus Enumerator” driver is listed as “Intel Smart Sound Technology BUS”.
When clicking on the “Check for updates” tab, the Intel Smart Sound Driver is shown as outdated or the currently installed version cannot be found and it is suggested to update it. After updating and restarting, the result is the same - the current driver version was not found.
The device manager does not show any errors and the suggested Intel Smart Sound driver is also installed. It is just that the app does not recognize it.
I think that’s just a minor bug in the latest app and not the cause of my problem thou.
Now to the actual problem, which has become more noticeable over the last few days, so I think it’s due to the defective Mind dock. Since today, as soon as I switch on the Mind Pc, the Mind dock makes a constant hissing, buzzing noise that sounds like a ground loop or coil whine from the speakers and only goes off when everything is switched off again.
Here is a video for better illustration. 20241122_020042097~2.mp4
So i guess my one week old Mind dock is fried and caused all this problems in the first place.
I’ll return it and order an replacement.
What are your thoughts?
The Mind App 1.2 has not been adapted for Mind 2, therefore, there is no update option available for the Intel Smart Sound Technology BUS driver.
The current version of MindAPP 1.3 for Intel Smart Sound Technology BUS driver updates is only available for use in Chinese or English language systems; it has not yet been adapted for German.
I have detected abnormal noise. Please perform the following checks:
Try updating the Dock audio firmware to see if it resolves the issue. The latest audio firmware can be found at this link: Khadas CN Download There are two versions available for download: one in Chinese (dock-audio-v2.04-241125-cn.zip) and one in English (dock-audio-v2.04-241125-en.zip),
If the issue cannot be resolved and remote assistance is no longer possible, you may return the product for us to inspect. Please contact the person in charge of the purchase channel for after-sales service. If necessary, I can also help you get in touch with the responsible person at the corresponding site.
But that shouldn’t affect the functionality if you change the OS language, should it?
The dock was updated with the latest HDMI and audio v2.03 driver. Unfortunately I can’t test the audio v2.04 driver as the dock has been returned.
A replacement is underway thou, so I’ll try it again.
Do you generally recommend to update the docks firmware?
I guess I’ll try it out of the box and with updated firmware.
Thanks for the support.
I received a new Mind Dock today and started testing it immediately.
The following was connected to the docking station:
Power connection from the power supply unit
Network cable
The Mid mini-Pc was only connected to the HDMI cable for the monitor.
When connecting the Mind to the Mind Dock, it behaved normally. So no constant noise - so far so good.
The boot process under Windows also went smoothly.
Playing a short YouTube clip was also normal.
I then decided to update to the latest audio firmware v2.04 as recommended.
The update went smoothly and successful. I then shut down the entire system.
The first thing I noticed was a loud “pop” sound when the shutdown was complete - great
I removed the Mind from the dock and disconnected everything from the power supply to repeat the test as shown in the video.
I then connected the Mind dock to the power supply and placed the Mind PC on the dock. As soon as it was connected to the dock, the dock started making noise again.
Then I made another attempt. Instead of supplying the dock with power from the power Supply, I connected the Mind via USB-C hub from the monitor which also supplies the power. I had unplugged the HDMI connection for this.
Strangely enough, the dock makes no noise in this configuration.
The update seems to have messed up something. Can you please provide me the original firmware of the Mind Dock with which it was delivered so that I can restore it to its original state. I don’t want to send the dock in again. I’d rather send everything back straight away. This is just frustrating.
Little update on this topic.
My company returned to Mind Dock and ordered a new one.
This time I only updated it’s firmware to v1.04 via the Mind app which did not introduce that humming/buzzing sound from the dock.
I’ll leave it like that, since there are no sound hiccups on Win 11 iot enterprise ltsc.
Could you elaborate what the mentioned v2.04 firmware fixes?
Here is another update on this problem.
The sound dropouts during YouTube playback have not really been resolved with a new Dock.
You rather don’t notice it with one or the other video, but when it occurs, it can’t be missed.
I have tried everything from the latest drivers to the latest Windows updates, but apparently this is not the problems solution.
I then carried out a latency test with “LatencyMon” and found that the problem lies in the high DPC latencies.
I also found a test on the net that points this out and also notes that this issue is considerably better with the Mind 1 (around 962 μs) than with the Mind 2 (over 2780 μs).
Here is a screenshot of the result:
As you can see the conclusion hints exactly at my problems with the device.
It also mentions the CPU throttling that constantly occurs on my device, even when surfing.
I assume the high latency values can be corrected with a bios update, which probably will take a hit on overall performance, right ?
According to your description, we suspect that it may be caused by the power howling. If possible, please re-record the video when the problem occurred, to help us confirm whether the noise is coming from the Dock’s motherboard or the Dock’s speaker
Regarding the issue you mentioned, I would like to clarify the following points:
The “Highest reported DPC routine execution time” just the highest value that has occurred during the software running.Even if the same environment is tested again, different results will be obtained. It may be more meaningful to observe the percentage of the highest value. As shown in the figure below, the percentage of the highest value is very very low, which does not have a practical impact on daily use.
When I was using this software, I observed a phenomenon that during the first 10 minutes of software operation, the highest value of DPC did not exceed 600 μs. However, as the software continued to run, there was a momentary peak of over a thousand microseconds that was recorded. Therefore, I have reason to believe that as long as this software continues to run, it will eventually record a very high value
At the same time, we have done a comparison test of Mind 1 and Mind 2, and the test results do not seem to be much different, even Mind 2 is better than Mind 1, the Mind2’s highest DPC value is 1137 μs but the Mind1’s highest DPC value is 1790 μs
Besides, the driver that affects the highest value of the DPC produced is ACPI.sys or ntoskrnl.exe, These are very common drivers of the system, so we can also classify them as system behavior, not caused by the product itself
Therefore, I think you can continue to use our products without worrying, these things should not cause too much impact on the product
The strange humming coming from the dock only occurred when the sound update v2.04 was installed. The dock was then exchanged and the mentioned update was not reinstalled, as a result of which the humming/buzzing no longer occurred when connecting the Mind to the dock.
As I have no way of reinstalling the original version, I don’t want to try this again. But I’m sure you can reproduce this yourself.
Therefore, dock out of the box does not produce that audible buzzing sound, only after applying the sound update.
Yes, the software records everything and lists the highest values or peaks so to say. I find i very accurate when tested in a “controlled environment” like playing the same clip over and over again or for the same time back to back.
Here is another example on a different clip were the sound dropouts (sounds like someone is pressing the mute button rapidly on/off randomly) also occured.
I think this peaks are due to the constant throttling of the CPU at least on my device. Even now when writing this post, core 9 is throttling around 7% - 20%. I have read that changing the power state/mode to performance can help to minimize this problem, which I have done, but have not seen any improvement. And yes, depending on the duration and source you monitor, it will eventually record higher peaks because the CPU workload increases, which leads to throttling, that creates higher peak latencies.
Here the link of the test I mentioned. Scroll down to DPC latencies. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Khadas-Mind-2-review-Portable-mini-PC-now-with-Intel-Core-Ultra-7-155H-Thunderbolt-4-and-USB4.906624.0.html
Here’s a screenshot of their measurements:
I can’t verify if it’s the one or the other. I’m just reffering to the test and as you can see on their results, the Mind 1 seem to be noticeably better with regards to DPC latencies. And I guess it’s because of the less throttling CPU.
My problem is that these common drivers, especially ntoskrnl.exe is giving me at least one bluescreen everytime i use the device. Most common during booting into windows right before the login window. This wasn’t the case before i started this thread but now it seems to get worse.
Here is a screenshot of the latest .dmp files recorded:
Mind you this is on a fresh w11 install with latest drivers and updates installed.
So I guess it’s a problem of my faulty Mind 2 device? My return window also expired on 15th January.
?
