Damn, I knew my time would come!
Home > Home Recording Forum > Computers & Software > Damn, I knew my time would come!
Posted on May 23, 2007 12:24 am
Walt
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Member Since: May 10, 2002
Typical problem, but I thought I would ask the gurus prior to starting a new career trying to fix the thing.
Drop-outs..BAD.. to the point of stoping Wavelab 6 in it's tracks and halting playback on Cubase 4 for seconds at a time.
I'll start with what I think will help:
Pentium 4, 2.4G
2G ram
ASUS P4G8X
Award BIOS
M-Audio 1010
Using IRQ 22 is shared with "Microsoft ACPI compliant system"
Latest Driver {check}
Disabled all non-used IRQ devices e.g. parallel, serial..ports.
Went through the Db 'tune up' prodedures and performed all but Reg-edit changed (sorry scared of reg-edit)
Windows XP pro 32b
Data files on 7200rpm ata F: e.g. not operating system drive.
Network connection disabled and McAffee removed.
Computer does have an All In Wonder mega monster video card in it. (a friend insisted...)
The thing runs fine at times and then seems like it's loading up. Like a bad carburator (remember those?) CPU does run out at 90 to 100% a lot when monitored while doing playback. Darn old Tascam US428 works fine. Sheesh!
Any ideas?
[ Back to Top ]
glnflwrsHead KnockerContributor
Since: May 20, 2007
May 23, 2007 05:09 am Walt,
I'm using an M-Audio 1010LT and one of the FAQs at MAudio's site for both 1010 and LT is just what you are experiencing. Their solution included changing the Op Sys to not use any IRQs above 15 and not to have the 1010 share an IRQ.
Ya' might wanna' check out the FAQs at www.midiman.com, they give a fairly good explanation of how to go about changing the IRQ allocations. I followed their suggestions completely and have no troubles at all.
(now I bet I've jinxed myself with that one)
Glenn
May 23, 2007 07:39 am If it suddenly got worse it makes me first ask if you have done virus and malware scans, defrag, temp file cleanup and all that other routine maintenance type of stuff.
Do you have Webroot's Window Washer program? It's a very cool automated disk cleanup app that cleans temp internet file, recycle bin and all that sort of junk with one button, the Diskeeper is a great disk management/defrag type application. None better.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 08:59 am First, thank you both!
Glen, Gotcha.. will do on the irq gig.
Db, I am on top of the defrag part, but re: temp files etc is still all Voodo to me. Do I need Webroot and Diskeeper or will one of the two suffice?
May 23, 2007 09:09 am Those two apps do two different things. Webroot's WIndow Washer just makes cleaning your drive easier, there are, I am pretty sure, various freeware apps that do the same thing. Diskeeper is the best as far as disk management goes. If you use the built in Windows defragger, well, it's not the best...but better than not defragging.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 09:15 am Wow Db, just got a great supprise. Both progs have free trial periods! Snatched both of them already. Per your recomendation I will most likely purchase them when I have more time. Diskeeper has a bunches of versions...like home, pro, super pro, mega pro, ultra pro. Any advice on how pro to purchase?
May 23, 2007 09:16 am I just got the home version myself...as I recall...
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 09:26 am Great!
Well time to get off to work. These suggestions will keep me busy tonight at least!
Thanks as always! HRC the one stop shop for all your recording needs and MORE!
May 23, 2007 10:37 am Hey Walt, it's good to have a healthy fear of messing with the registry, as one wrong move can put you in a painful situation. There's a great freeware app called RegSeeker. I've been using it for two years and it works well to clean up invalid, obsolete entries, etc. and includes some other useful tools too.
www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 03:20 pm Herb, Thank you! That is tooo cool! I know for sure I have removed programs via MicroSlops change or remove and left bits and pieces scattered around. Like trying to remove my tascam but the icon in the control panel never dissipeared, and things show up in choice boxes that when chosen don't exist. I don't mind doing a reload of the XP CD, it's the two days of downloads you have to do to get it updated that really wear me out.
Verry cool! Now I have three major utilities to beat the snot out of my computer. It will come to understand that I am the MASTER!....i hope...
May 23, 2007 04:16 pm Righto, Walt. That app is also cool because it backs up files before deletion, so you have a 'restore point' just in case. I've never had to use it though.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 09:20 pm Ok, got on my army boots and dog tags and off to war I go! I have decided on the Bushwacker 'shock and awe' campaign! First out with the card and into a new slot. Never knew what hit it! Landed IRQ 5 all by itself! Next the Root washer complete with washing free space, 3rd phase will be diskeeper bhahahahaha.. and the final blow will be the resister fixer uper!
Stay tuned! NPR don' miss this event...Man against computer! How to Bushwack Microslop! Billy Bob don't always know best!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 23, 2007 09:53 pm Yep, Walt the higher IRQ's don't seem to like the M-Audio stuff. Mine is on 13 and stays there by itself. 5 will work well also. And one thing to double double check is that you don't have the latency buffer set below 128. Might suggest going to 256 as well. The buffer can be a killer when running pluggins and multiple tracks with M-Audio stuff some times.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 10:18 pm Always good to see you.... read you...ah.. you know what I mean!
I read about how everything above 15 is 'virtual' and actually shared in re: IRQ's, so I was glad to hit a 5. There are just sooo many permutations and possibilities, and no real way, at least that I know of to monitor and trap an event. The other thing I wonder about but don't have enough knowledge to entertain the wondering much is the video card. It is an All In Blunder. It slices, it dices, it's got umbeilcal cords hanging off of it! I think it has some audio componants as well if I'm not mistaken. I can turn my machine into a tv or a monster game station I guess. I didn't install half the software for the thing. Pretty much only the primary driver to make it work as a standard video card. I can't help but believe it's a resource hog.
Hell maybe the real answer is to source one of these esp or esi? cards you guys are talking about. I tried for a bit but couldn't find a place selling the item.
Anyway, no social crisis, just another trickey day for me!
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 23, 2007 10:24 pm Oh and yes, sorry, got so excited to see you I forgot to respond to your comment. I have pushed it up to 3xx something. Got some god awfull lag time, but until I can figgure out the whole mess I don't want to fight with that at the same time :)
glnflwrsHead KnockerContributor
Since: May 20, 2007
May 24, 2007 01:03 am Walt,
We must have twin machines. I've got an ATI All-in-Wondra with the TV adapter, etc. also. Like you, I only installed the drivers and not the Control Panel or the multimedia files. Actually, with the RAM onboard the video card, the PC runs a bit quicker than with my older ATI Expert 2000.
And the ATI drivers are very good.
Try setting your M-Audio buffers in the hardware tab to 256. If the sound gets garbled or choppy go to 512. Mine runs great at 256.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 24, 2007 01:45 am glnflwrs,
I can't tell you and all how much I appreciate you (plural) and this site! Will do on the buffers. I did a test from C4 and got it to sync test ok. It set my buffers at 256, but I will watch it and move if it gets garbled.
I have went through all of the suggestions so far and removed my tascam us428 info. Herb, if you read this, that reg prog is kick-***! I asked it to find tascam, us429 and us-428. It must have found over 100 entries that I deleted! Holy poop! the garbage microslop keeps!
This machine is just wierd! Even after all of that I am still getting drops, although I did catch the ASIO monitor redlining so that is a clue. And 99.9% of the time the performance monitor shows zip zero zilch on the drive but once it did max out for an instant and yes another nice little audio glitch accompanied it. Yikes! What a mess! ASIO monitor runs out at about 60% on the current project with I'll guess about 35 tracks, but very few plugs running all in all.
I gotta say regardless of what the machine is doing, I am enjoying learning all of this and having a good fight with the beast!
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
May 24, 2007 07:19 am There's a PCI latency utility, that will turn down the refresh timing of your different PCI cards.
From what I've read (on a few occasions) is that the video card can be a piglet, and set the PCI refresh to a really high number, so the video card is refreshed very often. This, of course, takes away processing from any other PCI card, like your 1010lt.
downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951
There's a link for it.
I'm thinking first off, like dB mentioned above, of malware, spyware, bots, etc.
Grab a copy of adaware (free) and spybot (free) and give those a whirl. Make sure to update the list in adaware (at least) and run it a couple times.
www.lavasoftusa.com/produ...se_personal.php
www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
Sometimes adaware will find one that it can't remove, but cross that bridge when (and if) you come to it.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 26, 2007 02:41 am Once again Thanks to all!
Did an interesting experiment. Ran all above utilities and removed a mega-ton of stuff. Had the machine to a bare-min of services/activities at least in theory.
Reloaded XP fresh on another HD. Performed all updates on drivers, windows etc. Loaded only Delta 1010 driver. Now I am getting less avg. cpu draw than after striping the previous XP load. Around 4% on average.
Here's the part I do not understand. I am getting paging spikes up to 97% which is sometimes echoed by cpu spikes up to about 30% with the system basicly doing nothing but monitoring itself. Is this a standard test result? .... Or... do I have something flaky going on with my ram?
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 26, 2007 03:00 pm Ok,
I gave in and did it. Fresh load of XP. Sheesh! What a time waster! And what a battle! Whatever was in it's craw was not about to come out even with all of the tools used. I now have an 'idle' cpu usage of about 3%. No more mega spikes on paging, and for the first time the disk drives are not having to run at idle.
Yowzer! Once ole MicroSlop gets something stuck in it's craw, you be in trouble!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 27, 2007 01:29 am Indeedy doo. Thats the problem with any OS really. Once something gets corrupted it is not easily solved sometimes.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 28, 2007 01:01 am Well, just wanted to drop in an thank ya'll for givin a hand in my little delima. It's all good now, but I can see that I will need to pop for a new mb processer, and mem as the single core 240 just is not gonna get it for long. I love what I am able to do with C4 and the 1010 but they are power hogs for sure, and I've got this guitar player who wants 82 tracks in every song. Sheesh!
And yes Noise, my friend, 'not easly solved' covers it well.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 28, 2007 08:24 pm I wish there really was one of those EASY BUTTONS like that office supply store advertises on the tube. That'd make life really simple wouldn't it?
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
May 29, 2007 12:04 am It sure would! And it would also make it a lot easier if all of the software and hardware manufacturers would stop playing cover my *** and point the finger, and just come out and give recommended settings for at least the major league componants they interface with. Stienberg used to. They had a pretty extensive section on test results and settings for major audio cards. Now Lawyers must write all of their recomendations as they reslly don't say much when it comes down to it. I still havn't figgured out weather independant or multi should be used with Cubase and or Wavelab. It seems like Wavelab likes independant and Cubase likes multi. I've seen articles written that would support either. I'm prepared to pick up an new mb and cpu, but I really can't find any information on anything tested with my sound card and software to aid in the decision. Just damn poor documentation all the way around.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 29, 2007 09:35 pm AMD with an MSI mobo. I have had no trouble with either mine or the boyz and that is the combo we are running on both.
May 29, 2007 10:02 pm Quote:
I wish there really was one of those EASY BUTTONS like that office supply store advertises on the tube.
Actually, we have a bunch of those "easy" buttons all over our office :-)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 30, 2007 10:51 pm Your not kidding are you?
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Jun 01, 2007 09:04 am Thanks! Noise!
I've been pokin round Tiger and been eyen up just that combo. Me thinks its time to replace mobo cpu.
Jun 01, 2007 09:16 am Quote:
Your not kidding are you?
No, I'm not actually...some vendor (that store that uses them in their ads, I forget who it is) gave them to a bunch of people around here...it's kinda funny.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Jun 01, 2007 09:35 am Office life, ya gotta love it! For awhile every office had a set of little swingy balls. Bizzar!
Jun 01, 2007 10:23 am Yeah, being a desk-jockey drone does have it's moments of humor and fun...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jun 02, 2007 09:16 pm Staples, funny pun on an office supply company I think. I love their commercials though. Like the one were the guy is afraid to push it as it might cause a riff in the universe and the chick just pushes it anyway. And some guy ends up in a tiny little cubby. But I digress. I find I am spending more time at a desk as well these days. Spending more hours on IT each month, which requires more desk time as well as running around the place alike chicken with my head cut off. But am enjoying it as well, and learning as I go.
Jun 02, 2007 09:56 pm I don't mean to sound pretentious or pedantic, but:
riff = a musical motif, a lick
rift = a division, a fissure in a rock
Just thought I'd post my dos pesos...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jun 03, 2007 01:00 am Thanx Dungbeatle. I did indeed mean Rift. As in Rift in the Universe.
