May 08, 2006 07:24 pm What kind of problems are you having? If your running XP you shouldn't have any IRQ issues. If your still using CEP I've heard the M-Audio wmd drivers are lousy which might give you some problems since CEP can't use ASIO.
Dan
Bit of a quandary...advice appreciated
Posted on May 08, 2006 06:35 pm
thermocaster
Appenine
Member Since: Dec 13, 2004
Okay, so despite 6 hours of troubleshooting, phone time with M-Audio, etc...I'm still having major problems with my Delta 44. And I'm ready to start recording now, so I'm almost to the point where the situation looks hopeless, and I'm willing to spring for a different card just to get things running again.
I wanted to start getting into MIDI a bit anyway, so I was looking at the EMU 0404 or the Audiophile 2496. Both are in my current price range as it is.
My question is this, for those who have had similar problems with IRQ issues. Do you think ordering a new card and installing it will end up leaving me with the same problems I've been having? Nothing would be more frustrating than getting a new piece of hardware only to find that it's giving me the same crap over again.
Thanks in advance.
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May 08, 2006 07:24 pm What kind of problems are you having? If your running XP you shouldn't have any IRQ issues. If your still using CEP I've heard the M-Audio wmd drivers are lousy which might give you some problems since CEP can't use ASIO.
Dan
May 08, 2006 07:54 pm Dan,
Ironically, all my problems are coming since I upgraded to Audition...but it's more than that.
Okay, here's the story: About three months ago, with no warning (and no obvious reason), I started getting really bad crackling on just regular sound card usage --- not even recording, just like when I would use WinAMP or something. Then, the computer started randomly locking up. Plus, when I'd use Audition (or CEP) for recording, I was getting really bad latency problems --- which made no sense since I hadn't had any such problems before.
Well apparently, XP decided that my Delta 44 needed to be on IRQ 16...which was the same IRQ as the video card (hence the lockups). I de-installed the card and put it in the other PCI slot, and that put the 44 on IRQ 17...which stopped the freezing up, but did nothing for the latency or occasional crackling. I tried re-installing it a few more times, even back into the original PCI slot I had it in. When I did that, it put it back on IRQ 16, so I had to revert back to slot #2.
I called M-Audio today, and the guy was nice, but had no clue how to fix it. The weird thing is that after I re-seat the card but before I install the M-Audio drivers, the computer assigns the card to either IRQ 5 or IRQ 11 --- both of which would be fine. But after I install the latest drivers, it always reverts it back to IRQ 17.
I'm completely confused. I don't have any other peripheral devices. There are plenty of available IRQ numbers for the sound card, yet the computer keeps putting the Delta on 17, which I'm sure is what's causing the problems. And the ACPI settings don't allow me to manually assign it the right IRQ...at least, not that I know of.
Any ideas?
May 09, 2006 08:36 pm Have you tried contacting Dell to see if they can get you through getting it set to its own IRQ? I think that would be my next step, as I dotn really think blame lies on windows or the card itself, I am guessing it lies in the Dell PC's MoBo set up.
May 10, 2006 12:48 am Noize,
Yeah, I tried calling Dell. They were, in a word, totally useless. Wanted me to run diagnostics on the Delta 44, even though I'd done that already.
I guess I could call back and try to get someone else in Dell customer support...that's about all I can think of right now.
May 10, 2006 08:48 am I've heard tell of people turning off ACPI, so you can set irq manually. I don't know if this is a possibility with you / and your dell, but it's worth a shout.
Sounds to me like something changed on the motherboard. Maybe a circuit ran afoul somewhere, or maybe something in bios got changed. Are you OC'ing the board? I'd guess not.
Maybe a bios reset is in order? maybe a 'set to default' action on bios, or maybe a 'set to optimum settings' action. Something along those lines.
Also, you may want to try multiple times with dell. I know that sucks, but they're support is overseas, and you may have better luck with another tech. Also, you may lean towards talking with second level, if that's possible.
I've had hit-and-miss luck calling dell, but eventually, usually get what I'm looking for.
I'm not at home, I have a new(ish) E310 2.8g, that I could poke around in bios on.
May 10, 2006 08:53 am Windows could likely be reseting the IRQ too, Windows knows better than you ya know...don't doubt Windows! :-)
Disable ACPI if you have the chance to but it's quite likely it won't give you the option. Since youhave a name brnad PC, you may very well not have any such options in BIOS to disable ACPI, or to hard-set the IRQ's...in which case it's just time to continue card-juggling until the sound card lives where you want it to...
take out all the removable cards and start trying them in different slots in different orders, take note of which slots wind up on which IRQ's for which devices...the long and boring process of deductive reasoning. There is usually a way.
May 10, 2006 10:20 am removing ACPI has to result from a fresh XP install inorder to work properly... If the card is on it's own IRQ then it's "fine". Try opening services.msc and shut off DHCP service... you'll lose internet connectivity until it's restarted...
what is your latency? A lot of people try to set it to 1ms and wonder why it doen't work...
May 10, 2006 03:59 pm Thanks for all the responses. I've been mucking around with this all afternoon, and here's what I've gathered so far:
- It definitely appears that it's a Windows problem...that XP is resetting the IRQs by itself. I took out the Delta card, booted up, powered down, then re-installed both the modem and the Delta card, in PCI slots 1 and 2, respectively. I booted back up, and it found the new hardware. Now, here's the weird part - it assigned the modem to IRQ 17, but assigned the Delta (without the drivers installed) to IRQ 11. When XP prompted me to install drivers for the sound card, it did so...and promptly reassigned the Delta card to IRQ 16.
So, I went through the whole process again...powered down, removed both cards, booted up, powered down again, and this time put the modem in PCI slot 1 and the sound card in PCI slot 2. I booted it back up, and looked at the device resources menu again. This time, the modem was on IRQ 16 (with a bunch of other stuff), but the Delta was on IRQ 5, by itself.
Again, I was prompted to install the drivers, and did so. This time, not only did it re-assign the sound card to IRQ 17, but it moved the following device to IRQ 5:
82801 FB/FBM SMBUS controller - 266A
I have no clue what that one is.
So could it be something about the drivers that is causing XP to reassign the card down to the virtual IRQs? Would deleting the drivers in the "lastgood" folder and re-installing them completely help matters at all?
Also, to answer some other questions:
- I have no ability to disable ACPI in BIOS on this machine
- My latency was normally at 256ms, but even at higher numbers, I get the same problem.
Thanks for all your help, guys. Continued help is much appreciated. I'm gonna try taking out the old copies of the new drivers, reinstalling, then pulling the cards out and putting them back in. We'll see if that works.
May 10, 2006 05:11 pm Okay...tried taking the drivers out and installing the old drivers...that didn't work.
And I was mistaken...that SMBUS controller is already on IRQ 5. And that seems to be the default IRQ for PCI slot 2...which might explain why it's moving it to 17.
What I can't fathom is why it's moving PCI slot 1 off of 11 and putting it on 16.
May 10, 2006 07:39 pm You should have an option like "Plug & Play OS" in your BIOS, if you disable that it's the same as disabling ACPI, but it does require a fresh install of WinXP. I would only do that as a last resort though, the card should work properly with XP's virtual IRQ's.
If your using AA 2.0 it has known problems right now with it's ASIO or P4 HyperThreading implementation. There are some workarounds if that's what your using.
Dan
May 10, 2006 10:46 pm Dan,
Well, I don't even see that option in the BIOS, but I'm guessing it is there.
It's not just Audition that's having problems now...all my sound apps are having issues, even WinAMP and Windows Media Player. Which is maddening, because the crackling problems in those two programs had previously disappeared.
Guess I'll try calling Dell again. Or order a new soundcard and see if I have the same problems with it.
May 10, 2006 10:51 pm I am not surprised your BIOS does not have that option. Typically brand name computer makers don't allow users full access to their BIOS system, they don't want users mucking around in there. The home made systems is generally where you see options like that.
May 11, 2006 08:52 am Okay, so if I go ahead and re-install Windows XP, what will happen? Will it erase the hard drive, or will I be able to keep my existing files on there?
I did notice that the same crackling noises and slowdown elements were taking place in Cool Edit Pro 2.0, as well...which means it's affecting both the WDM and the ASIO drivers.
May 11, 2006 08:53 am if you wanna do it right, it'll wipe out everything, backup all your data.
May 11, 2006 01:20 pm Well, that's disheartening, but not surprising. I appreciate your help, dB.
Okay...option C. If I were to get a new non-name brand system, where would be a good place online to look? Any suggestions?
May 11, 2006 02:52 pm Also...I have figured out HOW to disable ACPI, although I haven't done it yet. I'm gonna go get an external HD to back up all my stuff first.
But for those who have disabled ACPI in the past, is it like Zek said above, and it'll require a complete reinstall of XP? Or has anyone had success on a Dell system disabling ACPI without having to reinstall?
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