#432975 - 10/09/03 11:44 PM
PC Woes
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chime13
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Registered: 08/20/03
Posts: 9
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Hi all - Man, I've read possibly everything on the web and I still cannot fix this problem. My latest PC adventure has taken me the route of:
ASUS PC4800E
P4 3.0ghz
1ghz Kingston Hyper DDR400 CAS2
2 Seagate 160gb SATA in RAID 0 configuration
1 WD 160gb primary drive
1 existing Delta66 sound card
1 existing Matrox G450 video adapter
Coolmaster Aluminum Case
WinXP Pro and Win 2000
Price: why bother? At this point...too much!
Objective: An alternative to a dualG4 ($$$)It had to be fast(16-24tracks of 96/24 audio)and it had to be quiet.
Problem: clicks and pops and stuttering graphics with just 3 stereo tracks - no edits - a couple of plugins - that's it!
My previous P3 1 Ghz with a Maxtor drive handled more.
Step 1: I disabled every onboard (audio,lan, etc) function except for the midi port and installed XP. Once OS and Drivers were installed, checking the Device Manager, I saw that my only PCI card in the computer is on slot 1 where there was NO CONFLICT with any IRQs, had an IRQ of 23! The video IRQ10 and so on. basically, there was an IRQ for everyone! I was causiously happy. Note: Deep inside, I new that interrupt 23 was too high or should I say, too low of a priority for the sound card to be at harmony (no pun intended) with the rest of the system. I stripped all the fluff from the OS - made it a lean, mean "Rainy Day" scheme - processes down to 13 or so, and most of the services disabled - I left nothing for the computer to think about other than to read and write music.
"3 stereo tracks and clicks and pops"
Step 2: Do it over again, but also disable ACPI in the BIOS and hit F5 when installing XP just before hitting F6 for SCSI drivers and tell XP that the thing is a standard PC as opposed to the more advanced, current mbs.
Since COM2 was disabled XP agreed with the mb, and assigned IRQ3 for the Delta66! This should be cool...I thought. Wrong! in addition to the symtoms in Step 1, I now also had no MIDI (unknown conflict) and the system has to manually be turned off (I didn't know that XP had the "Now it's safe to turn off you computer" screen!)
So, I enabled plug n play and ACPI 2.0 and XP reconfigured everything again, and there was my little Delta66 back at IRQ23...
Step3:
Win2k
no difference
Steps 4-6:
Delta sound card on PCI slot 2 and repeated all the previous steps
Steps 7-present:
No luck... And yes, I tried every buffer setting on the Delta and every XP trick in the book.
I'm stuck in the WinPC world because I've invested thousands of dollars in software and plugins that won't work on a MAC.
Any suggestions?
The Fine Print:
The Kingston memory I bought is sold as CAS2 DDR400 PC3200 memory....Actually, it's CAS2 at speeds of 333mhz and below otherwise, it's CAS2.5. You're paying (I paid) more for CAS2 memory when 2.5 would have yielded the same performance for less $.
Peace to all and to all a piece,
chime13
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#432976 - 10/10/03 06:37 AM
Re: PC Woes
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axiamusic
Senior Member
Registered: 01/01/01
Posts: 102
Loc: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
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Hey there Chime,
tell me, is this PC connected to the net? I recently built a 'super' PC with a sexy aluminium Coolermaster also, and it was behaving strangely from the start. My CPU usage was fluctuating between 0 and 100% in 4 second waves with nothing going on!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had 'caught' the Welchia virus within seconds of going on-line! The tell tale signs of this one are 2 files, DLLHOST.EXE and SVCHOST.EXE in the Wins folder located in the System32 folder.
If not, and you have been on line, you could have caught another similar virus. Go here for advice http://www.pchell.com/.
I hope this is what it is, as it is pretty easy to fix. Good luck.
Chris
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#432977 - 10/10/03 07:56 AM
Re: PC Woes
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GeToChKn
Senior Member
Registered: 07/26/01
Posts: 46
Loc: ,,CANADA
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What software are you using to record?
Have you tried disabling HT in the bios for the CPU?
Have you upgrade the intel drivers for the onbaord SATA Raid controller to the very, very latest?
You should maybe check out the nuendo forum as lots of people have had problems and resolved them around that motherboard.
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#432978 - 10/10/03 08:29 AM
Re: PC Woes
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LawrenceF
Senior Member
Registered: 10/11/01
Posts: 481
Loc: ,,UNITED STATES
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Look at your running processes. You've got something running in the background that is interrupting the processor.
Do a google search for "tuning xp for audio" and apply most of the tips. See ya.
Lawrence
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#432979 - 10/10/03 11:14 AM
Re: PC Woes
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chime13
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Registered: 08/20/03
Posts: 9
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#432980 - 10/10/03 11:16 AM
Re: PC Woes
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chime13
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Registered: 08/20/03
Posts: 9
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I know I don't have any viruses because I have not used this PC on the net, in fact Lan funtions have been diabled. Disabling HT is the only thing
I haven't tried....I'll keep you posted.
As for software:
legal versions of Nuendo and Sonar. I've tried CEpro2, but latency is too high.
Thanks,
chime13
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#432981 - 10/16/03 07:05 PM
Re: PC Woes
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AudioMaverick
Platinum Member
Registered: 05/19/01
Posts: 1790
Loc: Outskirts of Big Bear, CA,UNIT...
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Chime13... any news? I am trying to get up a system very similar to the one you mentined, by the end of the year (ASUS P4C800-based).
Besides the slot moving, have you tried downloading the latest Delta66 and G450 drivers?
I had trouble with my Delta-1010s, when I first went to XP. New M-Audio drivers fixed me up.
I also had trouble with a wireless NIC, which polls for connection. I have to disable it before I do any real-time editing. It wasn't my better choice of NICs.
I'd also pull the video drivers and try running as generic 640*480*16colors, just to eliminate that issue. You will probably have to pull the INF file out of the *\Windows\INF\Other* directory to keep it from reinstalling. Also, try disabling the second video head. It takes time to update large video areas with high-density color (like 32-bit ot "true color").
Let us know how you've done! I am particularly interested...
_________________________
"It's all about the... um-m-m, uh-h-h..."
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#432982 - 10/17/03 04:09 PM
Re: PC Woes
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Bill@Welcome Home Studios
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 08/23/03
Posts: 7343
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Go to http://www.prorec.com and read the article there in the archives about setting up for win2k. Make sure that you have dissabled the 32 bit junk in the video drivers (in the advanced section.... busmastering is one, I forget what the other is called, but it is obvious.) You don't have to dumb the mamchine down. You are able to run at any video resolution you choose. You should be able to get 40 tracks or more, since the old overclocked Celeron 450 topped 32 back in the day.
Bill
_________________________
"...it's easier than hitting the kids, and almost as much fun..."
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#432983 - 10/18/03 10:54 AM
Re: PC Woes
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Katiedawg
Senior Member
Registered: 02/24/01
Posts: 63
Loc: Birmingham,AL,UNITED STATES
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You'd be surprised what the wrong video card can do to a DAW. I think that ProRec.com has an archived article on "known good" cards.
I remember that the Matrox G450 dual head card is one of the ones that works perfectly, and there are plenty of others. Some, though, just cause all t kinds of problems, but only when running DAW software.
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If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
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