Ok

My spec is here:

* CPU: Core2Duo E8400 @ 3GHz
* RAM: 6 GB
* HDD: 2 x HDD - 1Tb
* MB: Gigabyte P35-DS4
* OS: Windows 7 64-bit
* VGA: ATI Radeon HD 5400 (dummy vga actually )

Last night I tweak some params in BIOS, like:

* CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E): disable
* CPU Thermal Monitor (TM2): leave enabled **
* CPU EIST function: disable
* CPU Hyper-Threading: leave enabled **
* Virualization technology: leave enabled **

* HPET support: leave enabled
* HPET mode: 64-bit (instead of 32-bit)

* CPU CLOCK RATIO: 9 X (instead of 6 X ) ***

(**) In some resources I found this params must be enabled, in some disabled, but I don't know !!!
(***) I do this also

Windows now run much better then earlier, I think the reason is settings (***) but I don't know.

After that I run:

* Latency checker - and all is green, never get red lines
* Latency monitor - there is a problem

in first 2 minutes everythings fine, but after that I get spikes in:

* acpi.sys
* dxdrv.sys
* ntkrnl.exe

and all becomes red.

Strangely acpi.sys is most in list, but I'm not on laptop.


Main reason of this topic, I found some spikes from time to time, recently in Sequoia and Independence sampler...

When I change sounds, the sound on 3 sec. get frozen, or if app in idle state, and after 3 minutes I play on Independence channel with midi I get also this behaviour...


Should I must do some changes in bios, thermal monitor 2 ???? etc...

Also I forgot to tell that I do all the tweakings on Windows OS.

 

Here is the screens of checkers

Latency Checker



Latency monitor



in all situation Winamp is played a song...

Here is the deep descrption:

Code:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3000,0 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   2436,0 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   24778,341803
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   2,733104

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       192,850141
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0,575987


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              17,3550
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,051253
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   MAudioDelta.sys - M-Audio Delta PCI driver, Avid Technology, Inc.

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,124420

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   397337
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              836,5890
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,350471
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         rspLLL64.sys - Resplendence Latency Monitoring and Auxiliary Kernel Library, Resplendence Software Projects Sp.

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,729543

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   1599840
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                2
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 winamp.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       8
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          8
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          17835,168333
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              0,006101
Number of processes hit:                              1


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       3,76560
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                17,3550
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,376360
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      330583
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                836,5890
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   2,320715
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      1462694
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       2,768201
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                13,2930
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,282364
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      66754
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                805,7460
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   1,541751
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      137148
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

intresting thing is that I must use lot of channels in Live to attack the CPU and get crackles or freezes, which is not the case in Sequoia... maybe the problem is related to Sequoia.

Also one thing... I try Omnisphere besides Independence and I never get spikes!

xhaze, ok, sorry

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b_AdZYSmLg

 

Thanks for the win 7 tips.

 

Hi Nikon

I had the clicking problem and took 1 week to find "CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E): disable"

This post is fully important and is not easy to find in Web.

About Your Problem:

Check in Device Manager / universal Serial Bus controller/

Right click / Properties /resources

See if any usb or universal bus controller has the same IRQ with Your sound card IRQ

Sharing Sound card IRQ causes Sometimes issues.
This can cause Your Problem.
You will find Instructions in google how to solve it.

Thanks

 

Speedstep my friend is your enemy for crackle free audio. That is CPU throttling. I resolve that problem like this: I have two power profiles that I use 1) No CPU throttling or any kind of power saving that I call "Audio" power profile and 2) CPU throttling/Speedstep enabled that I call "Power Saving" power profile and then I exchange between the two according to what I do on the computer. I can usually work with audio with Speedstep enabled, but as I add more synths I get crackles as the CPU throttles up/down. It's time to change the power profile then to "Audio" and the crackling goes away. So go to the control panel and make these profiles. One with all the CPU power saving functions "off" and one with them "on". I actually learned how to make these profiles in a batch file so I can change the power profiles easily through command line.

And yes, C1E should definitely be disabled. That's the first thing to disable. You can also disable Speedstep [sometimes called CPU Throttling] in BIOS but then your CPU will work at the maximum frequency all the time. It is better to have the best of both worlds an save on the electric bill, eh? ;) Most of the time we don't need that kind of speed anyway.

 

You did everything fine except for this CPU CLOCK RATIO: 9 X (instead of 6 X )
your over clocking the cpu and hents the audio freezing turn that setting back or you will cause more errors you've never seen before

 

very very thanks

Also I check IRQ problems etc... there is no problems, audio card is it own irq.

Here is my setup in sequoia

 

An E8400 has a default multiplier of 9x. 333 FSB x9 = 2997 mhz stock speed.
So the ratio _should_ be at 9x (in doubt, reset your bios to 'optimized defaults'.

If it really was _locked_ at 6x you had your CPU underclocked.
But most of the times the setting in the bios is ment as a safe boot-default, and speedstep + windows take over when they're ready and start adjusting the ratio depending on load.
You can run a program like the small free cpu-z to see what your CPU is doing while Windows is running in case of doubt.

You should not have to do stuff in your BIOS to get a good running (audio) box.
CPU throttling _can_ do weird things do audio clocks, but this is mostly due to faulty and stupid (and outdated) drivers. It shouldn't have to be a problem these days, specially since CPU throttling is the normal thing to do (Even on desktops) since 2003 or something .

But if you don't like it or you have faulty drivers who can't handle it, it's easier to disable it in your Windows power profiles (like somebody explained here, create a power-profile with a name like 'audio work' that sets your CPU to 100% fixed, so it won't downclock. You could use the stock 'high performance' profile for this as well _I believe_. When you're done working, set it back to 'balanced' so that your CPU will throttle down when you're not using it).

If you're afraid of frying your CPU or shortening it's life: Running your CPU at it's designed speed all the time will not shorten its life span. Running at 3.0 ghz with no load is not the same as running at 3.0 ghz with 100% load .

 

with BIOS setup multiplier 9x I get 3Ghz in CPU-Z, with 6x I get only 2Ghz, so I think x9 is ok ????

 

If you or any one else is having CPU throttling issues I highly recommend Throttlestop.

Throttle Stop

 

+1 for throttlestop, I used it on my old laptop(core 2 duo t9300) and my new laptop (haswell i7 4700hq) and it works really well.

To be honest, your problem can be hard to track down. One thing I always like to do is to disable any hardware that I'm not using - for me I disabled on board devices such as bluetooth, webcam, lan etc. You can usually do this in the BIOS, it might help.

Same goes for Windows, just disable any start up programs that you're not using, disable anti-virus when making music. Make sure all of your drivers are up to date.

 

I noted at the begining, I do all the known audio tweaking, also my PC is for years dedicated only for music and picture (lightroom, photoshop) and nothing more... When I work with music I disable NET etc... I'm not having any camera or other troubled hardware...

Also I say, Live work great for years, v7, v8, v9, but I see troubles in Sequoia... I also try Reaper - work like Live, almost the same, well let's see, normaly work with 20 tracks, with some fx, and perhaps 10 vsti etc...

Samplitude project is about 6 wav tracks bounced from Live project and extra 2 VSTi track, one is Independence and one is Sylenth.

Until bios tweaks (x9) I have constant CPU spike when I work with Independence (ver 3.1) and after this tweaks and above Sequoia setup I work normaly...

I would like to people who uses Sam/Seq just look at the setup in attachments, is that right or not, is that normal or not.

.......

one more thing, my graphic card is ATI Radeon 5400 with hypershared memory, it's 512mb but with ram shared is 1Gb...

 

E8400 specs: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_2/Intel-Core%202%20Duo%20E8400%20EU80570PJ0806M%20-%20AT80570PJ0806M%20%28BX80570E8400%29.html So yes, 9x multiplier is fine.

One other big issue besides CPU throttling that can really hurt DPC latency is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and network adapters in general, but especially Wi-Fi, normal network not so much and good network cards with good drivers doesn't influence DPC latency at all. Try turning it off and see what happens. ;) I don't use Wi-Fi in the studio at all so I always keep it off on my laptop and I noticed that DPC latency figures fluctuate quite a bit when it's on not just on my lappy but on my clients', too, so I always tell them to turn it off when it's not needed. Many laptops have such nice and convenient buttons to turn it off/on or you have to press "Fn"+some key, usually one of the number keys.

 

My PC is desktop PC and I have not wireless on... just wired lan, I have no bluetooth etc... pure machine with lan.

 

I found this to help give me extra power an ram. Doing this on my laptop, I am able to also have only 5 Windows processes running instead of the normal "50" something processes. Yes, it's not "bios" tweak but rather just a different system boot setting to try out.

How to boot Windows 7 with the minimum required processes for running Traktor or whatever Daw you may choose.

I've also done this and have been successful with Ableton Live.

Launch the System Configuration utility by clicking Start -> typing "msconfig" and pressing Enter
On the Services tab, make sure that Hide all Microsoft services is NOT checked, then click Disable All. The list will become longer so it's a good idea to click Service above the first column so it sorts alphabetically.
Now re-enable only the 5 required services, which are:
Multimedia Class Scheduler
NIHardwareService
Power
Windows Audio
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
On the Startup tab, enable the Disable All option and then click OK.
When prompted click Restart to reboot your computer. ENJOY!

When you are done using Traktor, follow the steps below to reboot into windows normally and resume full functionality of your computer.
How to resume normal functionality of your computer:

Relaunch the System Configuration utility by clicking Start -> typing "msconfig" and pressing Enter.
Stay on the General tab and enable the Normal startup option then click OK and Reboot.

I hope this helps someone.

 

Mention that This way all not- microsoft services will stop working, Specially installed Network, firewall, antivirus etc..
For a system that only is used for music and recording purposes, ok but I would not do this for a multi purpose PC.

 

hm... very strange, after two days spend in reading and tweaking I upgrade ATI card drivers and tonight Seq work great and believe or not in hybrid mode. No problems at all.

My internet is on, antivir is on.

In preferences, set to core numbers = 3.

ASIO buffer = 512
VIP buffer = 2046

Maybe graphic card drivers caused trouble, maybe not... we will see tomorow

VIP arrangement is full of waves and instruments with lot of fx, even when VIP is played I change sounds in Independence without any problems ! There is no sound freeze ?!???

 

This can be the reason.
As I updated last time my nvidia Driver, I got audio issues and after searching google I found that the Nvidia update has a bug and I downgraded my Driver.

 

All in all Seqouia has some problems, just for the test purpose I run Reaper and set the same project, there is no cpu overload at all, cpu is under 8%. There is no hdd spikes like in Seq ?!???

In Seq I see some HDD activity, it comes to 100% then back to 2% etc... very strange, always when I move playhead position. Maybe some param in performance with preload or ????

Maybe some problems with configuration or ???

I say again, I would like to see other Sam/Seq users, just to share parameters in performance etc.. I shared my in earlier posts.

That LatencyMon is killing my pc and nothing more. After all Latency Check app says everythings fine.