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anonymous 21 August 2003

Pleaaaaase help cause I'm becoming more desperate every minute !

I've been working on an important project lately that is very powerhungry, so I needed to upgrade my DAW. A week ago I got all the carefully selected components for my new DAW, and built it. The configuration was :

Motherboard : ASUS P4C800 Deluxe (Intel I875 chipset)
Processor : Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz FSB800MHz
Ram : 2 x 512MB Kingston HyperX KHx3500 DDR434
HDD 1 (system) : 60GB Maxtor Diamond MAX 9 7200RPM ATA133 2MB cache
HDD 2 (giga) : 120GB Maxtor Dimaond MAX 9 7200RPM ATA133 2MB cache
HDD 3 (audio) : 120GB Maxtor Diamond MAX 9 7200RPM SATA150 8MB cache
Graphics card : ATI Radeon 9000 PRO 64MB
CD-RW : TEAC CD-W548E
Case : Chieftec DA-01B-D 360W
Audio card : M-Audio Delta 1010

Operating system : Windows XP Professional version 2002 Service pack 1, installed in STANDARD PC Mode

I installed the OS on a clean formatted drive, then installed Gigastudio, and when I played the Gigapiano, I got annoying clicks & pops in uneven intervals (approx. 15-20 sec). I tried VIRTUALLY everything to get rid of them including :

1.) moving the card thorugh every single PCI slot
2.) changing the cards IRQ number
3.) turining off every peripheral device on the system (IEEE1394, onboard audio, onboard lan, raid controller , etc.)
4.) switching the graphics card from Radeon 9000 PRO to RADEON 9000 and to RADEON 9200
5.) Lowering the Graphics acceleration
6.) experimenting with the bios parameters & HDD configuration

Then I gave up, and returned the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe board thinking that a new MOBO will definitely solve the problem. I got the ABit IC7-G (also Intel I875 chipset) ... Installed the MOBO,... configured the BIOS... reinstalled the system. reinstalled Gigastudio. . BUT THE FREAKING CLICKS/POPS ARE STILL THERE ! I repeated the procedure, but nothing I do seems to solve the problem completely. I must add that Gigastudio worked flawlessly with these Maxtor ATA133 2mb cache drives and my Delta1010 with my old AthlonXP2000+ on Gigabyte 7VAXP (VIA KT400 chipset).If anyone has any idea how to solve this problem, PLEAAASE let me know as soon as possible ! ANY TIPS APRRECIATED !

[ September 21, 2003, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: Hypothesis ]

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Opus2000 Thu, 08/21/2003 - 15:32

Uggg..sounds like hell!

What bit depth and screen resolution are you running on with the video card?

Have you tried running Giga from the ATA drive and not the SATA drive?

Kill the SATA and see what happens. Almost gaurantee you that's the cause.

I keep telling everyone that SATA is still not ready for prime time yet!

Opus :D

anonymous Fri, 08/22/2003 - 01:01

Hi Opus !

I'm running on 1280x1024 / medium bitdepth (16 bit) with all the WinXP "beautifull graphics mumbo-jumbo improovments" turned off... I tried to run gigapiano file from ALL the drives (120GB & 60GB Ata133 & SATA) but it wouldn't help... I didn't try to disable SATA completely though... but I'll do that in just a moment, and let you know if I acomplished anything... Could the problem be that these boards (Asus & Abit) only have ATA100 protocol and both of my IDE drives are ATA133 ? (they are currently scoring slightly worse results than ATA100 drives in SISOFT Sandra 2002, but used to kick ass on my AthlonXP machine)... And the click/pop sounds that I mentioned sometimes sound more like broken audio, or something like that... The things I also tried :

- Flashed the bios to newest version
- Updated graphics card drivers
- Installed DirectX 9

I really don't have anyone to turn to here, so please any tips are welcome, even the most incredible ones, and even those that I already tried, but you think I should try again in some new circumstances :) ....

Yours completely,

Hypo :( (worried to death)

[ August 22, 2003, 06:32 AM: Message edited by: Hypothesis ]

anonymous Fri, 08/22/2003 - 01:40

Disabled both SATA controlers (INTEL & Silicon Image) completely (from BIOS)... the problem is still there... From time to time, when I do some changes it seems to improove a bit (very small improovments), but the CLICKING/POPING/BROKENAUDIO is still VERY appanrent. If you need any additional info on my system / bios options, please ASK ! I used Win XP PRO version 2002 (not SP1) on my old AthlonXP2000+, and had no problems at all... Should I try to install that version of Windows on my current system ? Are there any known issues/problems with Intel I875 chipset ? Thanks again !!!

[ August 23, 2003, 03:21 AM: Message edited by: Hypothesis ]

dabmeister music Fri, 08/22/2003 - 05:07

Hey Hypothesis , I remember an article posted a little while ago that was about the same thing , clicks , pops , & etc. The user said he had to adjust the programs clock. Or have you checked the clock settings on all of the programs ? He said one of them was set to external or something to that nature. This is very interesting. Please let me know if you find something.

3dchris Fri, 08/22/2003 - 05:35

Hypothesis,
I use SATA drive as my audio drive and I have no single problem with it. Clicks and pops seem to be a problem with not correct setting of buffer. What are your settings? If you go too low (i.e.64) then you may experience clicks and pops.

just a thought...

chris

P.S. What audio software are you using?

[ August 22, 2003, 07:37 AM: Message edited by: 3dchris ]

anonymous Sat, 08/23/2003 - 01:19

Thank you all for your replies !

I installed WinXP in ACPI mode, and the situation improoved a lot, HDD's & CPU are scoring MUCH better resaults in Sandra2002, but even though much less frequent, clicks/pop's are STILL THERE, and in professional audio that is not alowable... It seems as if something is interrupting the audio flow... When in ACPI mode, my audio card is on IRQ23 (and I can't change that) not sharing the IRQ with any other device ... DMA Buffer Size is set to drivers default value of 512 samples... and the fact is it should work flawlessly (and it worked on my AthlonXP) on 256 or even 128..... I'm currently testing the system only with Gigastudio 2.53 (GSIF Drivers) & Playing audio files with ordinary windows audio drivers (thorough eg. Winamp), but as a Sequencer I use SONAR 2.2 (haven't installed it yet, though) ... Clicks/Pops/Broken Audio issues are there even when playing a song in Winamp !!! Any new IDEAS ?

Opus2000 Sat, 08/23/2003 - 07:42

Well, first off the difference between ATA100 and ATA133 are so minimal. It's only like a 3-5% increase if that. Dont waorry about that issue.

Most likely you may have something going on between your audio card and the video card.

Go into the video display settings into the advanced section and turn off any un necessary features of the video card. Things like Bus Mastering, any high quality 3D features etc etc etc

If that doesn't help then use the hardware acceleration slider and see if you have something going on there.

Also try this, don't move your mouse when you are playing the files. If the cicks don't happen, move your mouse...if the clicks come into play...good luck....I've never been able to solve that one!

Opus :D

chrisperra Sat, 08/23/2003 - 22:42

had something similar when i started out. and it seems that standard pc mode works better for xp home edition than pro edition for some reason.

yesterday, a friends rig had the same problems.it was xp pro in acpi mode, had a few pops and clicks, switched it to standard mode, all hell broke loose, it was much worse in standard than acpi.

my rig uses home edition and works flawlessly in standard.

this contradiction was very perplexing. in the end i wound up gutting all the cards in my friends machine and through trial and error card instalation got the audiophile 2496 on it's own irq.

this took awhile, i had to write down what happened each time i added a new card. the irq's seemed to jump randomly each time i added a new device.

good luck

chris perra

anonymous Sun, 08/24/2003 - 03:41

Hey, Hypo. My condolences, bud. You must be very frustrated by now.

A few thoughts.. use lots of salt. :)

- Video card. I've heard of other people who never got the Radeon to work well within their DAW. They switched to a simple 2D card (Matrox G550 and TNT2 come to mind), and probs went away.

- I trust both boards offer integrated SATA support, right? You're not using a PCI Rocket card or similar. Right? Just checking.

- RAM. Have you tried removing one of the chips? Have you run a memory tester to make sure both chips are good?

- BIOS. Have you dropped memory timing settings to more conservative settings and tried again?

- Basic system stability. Have you run Prime95 (or other) Torture Test? Everything stable here?

- XP Tweaks. http://www.musicxp.net

Hope you're able to solve the prob, bud. I know how frustrating it can be. It's not often I hear someone say their VIA chip worked flawlessly while their new Intel system pops-n-clicks. Heh.. interesting. *from an AMD guy*

tj

anonymous Mon, 08/25/2003 - 02:10

Hiya all, and thanks again for the replies !!!

I'm using Delta driver version 5.10.00.0029, and the clicks I'm experiencing sometimes sound more like audio hickups, and are present regardless of the application I'm playing the audio from (even Winamp)... When I installed Sonar 2.2, and played one of my songs (that has only a few powerhungry softsynths in it) the CPU-usage meter went into RED (100%), and audio engine stopped... But that song played FLAWLESLY on AthlonXP 2000 with average CPU usage of 70% !!!! Then I disabled Hyper-Threading technology from bios (which prooved itself to be more like hyper-farting, excuse the expression), and the situation improoved significantly (what a paradox !?!), but the CPU usage was still at about 70% and that's not better than my-ex AthlonXP 2000 ?!?!?! Not to mention clicks that I still can't solve. Is it really possible that a processor that costs 3 times less, with a 2 times less expencive motherboard and half as RAM, that is slower & cheaper works considerably better than my current Intel setup that I payed more than 2 times more bucks for ?!?!?! I'm REALLY getting desperate now... :) Just to mention that I haven't done any DAW optimizing on the Athlon machine, just plain instalation of WinXP.... urgh... My current system is detected by WinXP as an ACPI Multiprocessor PC...
Opus, would going through your DAW optimization guide enhance the performance considerably, or am I stuck with what I have now (concenrnging CPU power) ? I've done some basic optimizing (disabling graphics improovments, defrag, virtal memory)... HyperX Memory modules are LIFETIME guaranteed and triple-tested by Kingston (one of their best models)... Should I get rid of RADEON 9200 and definitely buy the Matrox G550 which is about 100 Euros here (about 140$)... (Radeon 9200 is about 70$).... THANKYA GUYZ AGAIN !

anonymous Mon, 08/25/2003 - 16:28

Sorry, I don't agree with the comments about SATA drives. I have two running on an AMD based system and an ASUS board and never had a problem. What about Hyper-threading? This should be disabled as I've read many threads elsewhere that this 'feature' reaks havoc. By the way, re the ATA comments earlier in this thread, I always thought that all the ATA protocols are backwards compatable - all that happens is that the speed falls back to the slowest speed allowed by all the components of your system, so again I don't think the ATA issue is the problem, unless of course you are maxing out on tracks and overloading your system capability.

anonymous Fri, 08/29/2003 - 15:37

Hi,

- All peripheral devices (LAN, onboard sound, USB, Serial port 2, RAID 2, etc.) are disabled from bios from the very begining.

- NO Virus software (or any other background software) is running

- I also tried the 5.10.00.27 driver... the problem is still there...

- Memory modules are currently on their DEFAULT timings that are written in their onboard EPROM...

I'm begining to become sure that the problem is PCI/CPU/MEMORY - chipset related,... I'll try to change the memory modules, and let you know if I acomplish anything... meanwhile, any other suggestion is HIGHLY appreciated... Does anyone of you run a DAW with Intel 875P chipset / Delta1010.... THANKZ AGAIN PPL !!!

Jon Best Fri, 08/29/2003 - 17:23

Originally posted by Opus2000:
Well, first off the difference between ATA100 and ATA133 are so minimal. It's only like a 3-5% increase if that. Dont waorry about that issue.

That's until you find a really good deal on a 200G drive only to find out your ASUS P4T-E only supports ATA100, which only recognizes 127G of your drive... what kind of asshole would make that mistake...

:)

anonymous Fri, 08/29/2003 - 18:28

Opus, would going through your DAW optimization guide enhance the performance considerably, or am I stuck with what I have now (concenrnging CPU power) ?

I really think that you should do the OPUS-tweaks since I think they fix a lot of things that "you never thought about".
Spending 1-2 hours on that is in my opinion the best upgrade you can do.
After doing the tweaks and getting the ASIO right, I never had any problems running Audio on my DAW.

anonymous Fri, 08/29/2003 - 20:06

There is a site Black Viper that is great for this kind of registry tweaking stuff. He even has some 'one-click' registry edit files that make going from Default, Safe, Gamer & SuperTweak mode very easy. You can even modify these files to your taste. I can go from extreme tweak to gamer tweak so I can download updates etc.

Check it out:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

He gives very detail explanations of all of the services and the consequences of turning them off.

hope this might be of some help for you,

Robert

anonymous Sat, 08/30/2003 - 06:19

I hope I won't offend anyone with my reply, but I have not found any benefit at all to doing all the exotic things people on these "optomization" websites say to do. Some of these people, whom I know, are now admitting that the extended tweaks are not required at all for running XP machines, and many of the websites have not been updated in quite some time.

I have not found any requirement to do any installation other than the default installation of Windows XP. In many case the so-called "Standard PC" install recommended by many actually made performance and interrupt issues worse, and I think I've tried them all by now and in almost every instance, I had more trouble afterwards than before.

The Tascam guide many will refer to is dated and should be read with caution if you get directed to it.

Tweaking is not always required for stability, but it will improve performance. XP is really quite good at managing resources, which is unlike previous versions. I use to not recommend the Service Pack 1 update, but SP1 or SP1a can now be used without much concern with the exception of where you have an IBM Deskstar drive. In a few instances, the installation of XP SP1a with a IBM Deskstar drive will create a condition whereby the boot process will be extremley slow. It will eventually boot, but it may take as long as 10 minutes on certain combinations of hardware. The only known solution is to revert back to a non SP1 service pack version of XP. So if you convert, make sure you allow the archiving of original files.

The best 5 tips I have are simple and easily reversible, unlike many of the other offereings out there. They are:
[list]

  • Set your computer for background optimization under System/Advanced/Performance Settings set to "Adjust for best performance".
  • Then go to System/Advanced/Performance Settings/Advanced and set under Adjust for best performance of: Background Services and then set Memory Usage to System Cache. The reason why "cache" is used is because all analog/digital/analog conversion takes place at the cache level and you want the converters to get the max time out of the CPU. I know to some this breaks convention but almost all who have gone this way report and increase in track and effect count and less glitches.
  • Next get rid of windows Messenger. There are several difficult ways of doing this, but the easiest way to try first is to go to your Windows/INF directory and search out a file called "SYSOC.INF" Make a copy of it called "Copy of SYSOC.inf", just cut and paste within the INF directory, it will rename it. Then using Notepad, open SYSOC.inf and using the FIND and REPLACE function, replace every instance of the word "Hide" with nothing. So in the FIND feild you want "Hide" and in the REPLACE Feild you want a total blank. Say REPLACE ALL. Then save the file and reboot. Now in Control Panel under Add Programs you will have access to all the little unlisted program appletts in windows under the tab to the side ADD REMOVE WINDOWS COMPONENTS. Scroll down and uncheck every item that you will not use. Doing it this way fully enables you to reinstall any single app that you find you may want later. If you still have problems, more detailed and complete methods are given below.
  • (This probably doesn't apply to you) If you are to use the computer for things other than DAW, buy PowerQuest Partition Magic and do a dual boot installation where you have XP installed on two different partitions and leve everything that is non-audio related off the DAW startup partition, like MS Office, WORKS, Photoshop, etc. Having access to the internet from the DAW partition is not an issue in most cases, just leave all the games etc. off.
  • Don't have anything scheduled to run in the background that will initiate itself based upon a date and or time. These are programs like Windows Update, Norton Update, an Anti-Virus scan, Defragmentations, Clear out temporary files, etc. The reason is first the system constantly polls to see if there is a scheduled event and that dramatically robs resources and can lead to glitches in audio. Second is, the last thing you want is for the system to initiate something during a recording.

    The second thought I had is that of Virtual Memory and to suggest that you really don't want to use much if any Virtual Memory for true Hard Disk intensive tasks, such as audio applications.

    What I have found is if you configure a drive for larger virtual memory (or let the system manage it) you are telling Windows that its OK to try to place all these large blocks of data onto a drive as a substitute for memory when physical RAM is full or overly burdened. If the drive is the same as the AUDIO drive (GOD forbid) then you are forcing more interrupts and more glitches will occur because you are getting further and further away from real time data streaming. The drive is the slowest form of storage for a memory substitute.

    Physical RAM on the otherhand is the fastest and the storage of data is extrmely efficent and relieves the disk burden, thus better data conversion and more tracks, less glitches, etc.

    SO...assuming you have the small RAM amounts say 256-512MB, it is customary to configure the VM at a 1.5 factor of RAM. The end result will probably not give great performance gains and may very well create more problems in some memory intensive instances.

    On the other hand, if you have say 512-1.0GB RAM, then you need to go the other way and config VM for a factor of about .6-.7 times that of physical RAM, or you can even try to eliminate it and many times performance will improve. This in effect forces the machine to use and dump RAM more often and utilize VM much less with large blocks of data that prefetch and burst from the conversion process.

    I’ve done it both ways, but usually choose not to disable it all together but rather minimize it to the fixed .6 factor because the programs that are not doing digital conversion can use VM. VM should not reside on the audio drive, it should be on the programs drive.

    Third thought is, how are you drives connected? Are they all on their own channel as Master devices, or is one or more set as Slaves, are they jumpered? etc. I really doubt this has anything at all to do with your motherboard choice?

    You may also want to read about [[url=http://[/URL]="http://acapella.har…"]NTFS vs FAT32[/]="http://acapella.har…"]NTFS vs FAT32[/] for the issues surrounding same? http://www.ntfs.com is another decent source.

    And then finally, disabling Messenger can be a be problem, so here's another way to stop Windows Messenger from starting up every time you boot up the computer? (I used this way as well, so far, never a problem).

    Referance http://www.bootstrike.com

    If you're running Pro, you can use GPEDIT.MSC to prevent Messenger from loading. Otherwise, even disabling it in startup won't cause it to "always" not run. Outlook, Outlook Express and some Microsoft web pages can still make it load. Especially after an Update.

    [list]

  • Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
  • Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Messenger
  • You can now modify whether it starts initially and/or whether it is to run at all.
    If you don't have Pro, run Windows Messenger, Tools, Options and uncheck "Run this program when Windows starts". Run Outlook Express, go to Options and check to see if your version has the section "Automatically logon to Windows Messenger". If it does, disable it.

    You can also try running this command (text may wrap):

    RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%INFmsmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

    This will remove Windows Messenger from your system.

    If you are having trouble with messages popping up after you disable Windows Messenger

    The likely culprit is the actual Messenger service that loads every time you start Windows. You can disable this by clicking Start, then Run, and type in "services.msc" and click OK. Scroll down to "Messenger", right-click, select Properties and change the Startup Type to “Disabled” and then select “Stop” service. The Messenger Service will no longer load upon starting Windows.

    Note that doing the above will not allow any person to message you, none. To me, this is a good thing.

    Hope I've helped in some small way. Sorry for being so long!

    [ August 30, 2003, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: jscott ]

    • anonymous Sat, 08/30/2003 - 07:13

    Speaking for myself, I am not offended at all and appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed post. As you may have seen from my post, I have a new dedicated DAW with a whooping 2gig of memory. I currently have the swap-file/VM set to the Windows minimum default of 2024, which I thought was excessive. Your explanation of making it smaller makes sense to me but hey, what do I know. I am going to try your suggestion and make it smaller, say 1024. I also will try your suggestion of setting Memory Usage to System Cache. I know, I tweak beyond reason.

    It's people like you and Opus helping others that makes this forum a joy to visit.

    Robert

    I hope the best for you Hypothesis.

    anonymous Sun, 08/31/2003 - 05:37

    Originally posted by MemphisMusic:
    OK jscott, you are correct my friend. I restored a non-tweaked configuration and all is joy now. Thanks to your efforts to help others, I am now a believer in NOT to over tweak. I'm off to load Cubase and make music.

    thanks again,
    Robert

    still wishing the best for you Hypothesis.

    Glad to have helped.

    anonymous Mon, 09/01/2003 - 07:43

    GOING BACK TO AMD !!! DEFINITELY !!! I'm really giving UP... I've tried EVERYTHING, but it just won't work... And even if it worked it still is considerably slower in Sonar than AMD (did all the tests), and 2 times more expencive... Anyways, thanks for all the GREAT advice, I really appreciate it ! I'll probably get the ABit NF7-S motherboard with AMD XP2800+ Barton core, and all the other components will remain the same... Any suggestions for an AMD motherboard with SATA & ATA133 ? CHEERS ! :p

    Opus2000 Mon, 09/01/2003 - 09:54

    Hypothesis...

    Im' amazed, you are the only person who has had a probelm with Intel in this way, seriously..

    I'll reread your post again on your system specs to truly see if I see something odd.

    As far as what Jscott posted, yes indeed. Overtweaking can get you nowhere yet somwhere somtimes....it's only for those who truly know what they're doing to be able to truly over teak with good results. I've done so many testing with different versions of the tweaking that I know what's going on. Then again I'm just a major geek you know! lol

    Take head to tweaks you don't understand. If you don't understand them, or have doubts...then don't do it!

    Cheers
    Opus :D

    anonymous Mon, 09/01/2003 - 10:56

    The only other thing I can think of for you to try is to start over and pull everything from the motherboard (including drives) except the graphics card. Reboot and go into the BIOS setup and under the "EXIT" menu, tell it to load setup defaults, SAVE and exit. Make sure Plug & Play is set to "No". Reboot again and check all settings. Change Plug & Play to "Yes" and Interrupt Mode to APIC. Save, Power off.

    What you just did was force the motherboard to reconfigure IRQ assignments. These are made at the motherboard, and "steered" via XP. The fact that you originally installed under "Standard PC" mode can cause the MB to hold the original assignments. Removing and rebooting clears those assignments.

    2. Then install minimal HD's, CD, etc. DO not put the sound card in SLOT A, but rather SLOT B or D. I have found typically Slot A and C can cause conflicts. Maybe someone else will comment?

    3. Now, reinstall XP normally by reformatting, etc. If you choose to do it with NTFS, take the defaults. Some report faster performance with FAT32 on volumes smaller than 80GB, but generally, its not much of an issue. You can referance my previous reply if you want to know more about that issue. I would suggest limiting yourself to 2 drives initially until you know things are running correctly. Specifically, leave out the SATA drive for now.

    4. Install drivers, do not attempt to install the Intel Application Accelerator.

    5. Do the optomization tweaks previously given.

    6. Now install programs, data.

    Maybe this will all help, maybe not? I don;'t know what all you went through so far, but its usually best to strip the thing down, clear the setup screens and go again if the original install didn't work.

    Originally posted by Hypothesis:
    GOING BACK TO AMD !!! DEFINITELY !!! I'm really giving UP... I've tried EVERYTHING, but it just won't work... And even if it worked it still is considerably slower in Sonar than AMD (did all the tests), and 2 times more expencive... Anyways, thanks for all the GREAT advice, I really appreciate it ! I'll probably get the ABit NF7-S motherboard with AMD XP2800+ Barton core, and all the other components will remain the same... Any suggestions for an AMD motherboard with SATA & ATA133 ? CHEERS ! :p

    DO not assume because you are going the AMD route all will be problem free, especially with the NFORCE chipset. If you go that route, heed the warnings and pay close attention to PSU and Memory.

    (Dead Link Removed)

    [ September 03, 2003, 06:00 AM: Message edited by: jscott ]

    anonymous Mon, 09/01/2003 - 15:44

    Unfortunately Jscot, I've tried that route a couple of times, and each time with a new IDEA, thinking that the fresh instalation will solve the things out, but it keeps on CLICKING & POPING... and the main adut of this P4 technology - HYPERTHREADING makes the things even WORSE...(actually it works MUCH worse with hyperthreading ON) So I ask myself, why the hell do I spend hours and hours tweaking & reconfiguring the computer, when I have TONS of work to do... Not to mention the money I gave for this paticular configuration... AMD used to work "from the box", and I'll just try that route once more... If it dissapoints me like INTEL did, than I'm really desperate !!! Anywayz Thanks guyz, you're the BEST !

    anonymous Wed, 09/03/2003 - 03:31

    TURN OFF HYPERTHREADING!!!!!!!!!

    SONAR DOESN'T LIKE IT, GIGASAMPLER DOESN'T LIKE IT, AND JUST ABOUT EVERY OTHER DAW DOESN'T LIKE IT!
    Your probs will go away after this i promise! (well they should in theory!)
    You have a high spec system, all these little tweaks will do little to improve the audio streaming of a single audio file! Your prob is with the second virtual cpu and the fact that older programs don't have the code to properly utilise it, yet!
    Try it before u return ur computer.
    I wish you all the best,

    Toti.

    anonymous Sun, 09/21/2003 - 03:50

    NOW THIS IS HELL !!!!!!!!!

    I've returned the INTEL Configuration to the shop I bought it from confidently stating that the problem is somewhere between the 875P chipset & DELTA1010, and they replaced it (the second time) for an AMD board & CPU :
    ABIT NF7-S V2.0 with AthlonXP2500+ (barton) CPU... Then I proceeded home, did a fresh install of WinXP, apsolutely sure that everything is going to be as it was with my ex AMD... BUT THE FREEKING CLICKS ARE STILL THERE !!!!!! Then I installed the older XP version (without SP1), and it still was Clicking. Then I went completely mad, formated the drive & installed my old Windwos 98 SE, just to make sure everything is OK with the Hardware & Audio card, and EVERYTHING worked JUST FINE under WIN 98 SE, the only thing is, I really, really don't want to go back to WIN98........ SO if ANYONE has ANY NEW idea PLEASE SHOOT ! I'll give a hunderd bucks to the one who solves it !!! .... :) Thanks again guys !

    anonymous Sun, 09/21/2003 - 03:52

    Snooping around I found out that my Delta 1010 shares I/O Port 0x0000A000-0x0000CFFF with PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge, but I don't know how to change that... Moving the card through PCI slots didn't do it, and I can't change any of the parameters (IRQ,I/O) manually in Device Manager... (it's gray) Do you think that moving the Delta from that I/O port could solve the problem ? Also, I found out that that when I change the I/O buffer size in Sonar the clicks become more or less frequent (the lower the buffer size, the faster the clicks are)... It has definitely something to do with PCI / BUFFERING, so PLEASE if anybody has something to advise, I would be MORE than gratefull, else I am really going to have to sell the DELTA.......

    [ September 23, 2003, 03:59 AM: Message edited by: Hypothesis ]

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