diff --git a/libs/backends/dummy/dummy_audiobackend.cc b/libs/backends/dummy/dummy_audiobackend.cc
index 9c757d95ab..aed0a30921 100644
--- a/libs/backends/dummy/dummy_audiobackend.cc
+++ b/libs/backends/dummy/dummy_audiobackend.cc
@@ -932,6 +932,10 @@ DummyAudioBackend::main_process_thread ()
 	manager.registration_callback();
 	manager.graph_order_callback();
 
+#ifdef PLATFORM_WINDOWS
+	PBD::MMTIMERS::set_min_resolution();
+#endif
+
 	int64_t clock1;
 	clock1 = -1;
 	while (_running) {
@@ -1036,6 +1040,9 @@ DummyAudioBackend::main_process_thread ()
 		}
 
 	}
+#ifdef PLATFORM_WINDOWS
+	PBD::MMTIMERS::reset_resolution();
+#endif
 	_running = false;
 	return 0;
 }
diff --git a/libs/backends/portaudio/portaudio_backend.cc b/libs/backends/portaudio/portaudio_backend.cc
index ab1044639a..4a4ed2580d 100644
--- a/libs/backends/portaudio/portaudio_backend.cc
+++ b/libs/backends/portaudio/portaudio_backend.cc
@@ -681,12 +681,14 @@ PortAudioBackend::_start (bool for_latency_measurement)
 		if (!start_blocking_process_thread()) {
 			return ProcessThreadStartError;
 		}
+		PBD::MMTIMERS::set_min_resolution();
 	} else {
 		if (_pcmio->start_stream() != paNoError) {
 			DEBUG_AUDIO("Unable to start stream\n");
 			return AudioDeviceOpenError;
 		}
 
+		PBD::MMTIMERS::set_min_resolution();
 		if (!start_freewheel_process_thread()) {
 			DEBUG_AUDIO("Unable to start freewheel thread\n");
 			stop();
@@ -833,6 +835,7 @@ PortAudioBackend::stop ()
 	}
 
 	_midiio->stop();
+	PBD::MMTIMERS::reset_resolution();
 
 	_run = false;
 
diff --git a/libs/backends/portaudio/winmmemidi_io.cc b/libs/backends/portaudio/winmmemidi_io.cc
index 5b8b31b55c..e288eae40d 100644
--- a/libs/backends/portaudio/winmmemidi_io.cc
+++ b/libs/backends/portaudio/winmmemidi_io.cc
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 
 #include "pbd/error.h"
 #include "pbd/compose.h"
-#include "pbd/windows_timer_utils.h"
 
 #include "winmmemidi_io.h"
 #include "debug.h"
@@ -137,7 +136,6 @@ WinMMEMidiIO::start ()
 	m_run = true;
 	DEBUG_MIDI ("Starting MIDI driver\n");
 
-	PBD::MMTIMERS::set_min_resolution();
 	discover();
 	start_devices ();
 }
@@ -156,8 +154,6 @@ WinMMEMidiIO::stop ()
 	pthread_mutex_lock (&m_device_lock);
 	cleanup ();
 	pthread_mutex_unlock (&m_device_lock);
-
-	PBD::MMTIMERS::reset_resolution();
 }
 
 void