Motu Ultralite Mk5 Dropouts

[Dlomb11]

Hello people,
I am an owner of the UL Mk5 and I signed up to share my experiences and ask for support.
In practice, occasionally and randomly the audio drops for about half a second (with the level indicator on the Mk5 indicating it).
My setup is Dell Latitude 3500 laptop with WIndows 11 and usb connection to the Mk5.
I have done any tests:
-tested every buffer (including safety buffer) and sample rate
- tried various playback software
- changed usb cable
- changed usb port
- put powered usb hub
-changed power supply
- tried Windows Audio driver instead of ASIO
- correctly set any power and energy saving options on Windows and on the bios
- updated firmware, drivers and sw versions of everything
- removed and reinstalled the drivers of Mk5 and relative CueMix5 sw
- tried Win10 clean install (instead of 11)
- applied all the advice given by Motu in the faqs relating to problems with Windows (disable Cortana, etc ...)
I just need to try another PC, or maybe Mac, but at that point I might as well change the interface.
Motu technical assistance has not been useful for now (in the sense that it has not directed me to anything new compared to what I have already tried) ... but we are in contact so let's see if they intend to solve the problem or not (especially considering that my Mk5 is under warranty).
I've seen on other forums that I'm not the only one having problems on Windows, but none seem to have solved it ... which puts me off a bit.
I don't want to abandon the Mk5, it's fantastic and unrivaled in my opinion.
Maybe someone here can help me.

[CharlzS]

I have a MK5 on order so I hope I don't run into any dropout issues. I've experimented with a couple of things while optimizing my HP Z workstation for an older interface. So some things to try:

Turn off Bluetooth if you're not using it.

Turn off WiFi (at least just to test).

Exit OneDrive, especially if sessions are being read/written in OneDrive locations.

Download the Wise Registry Cleaner here: https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-registry-cleaner.html . There is a System TuneUp tab that might suggest several options. Do all the optimize options except prioritize foreground processes. You can optimize background processes in the old System Control Panel.

Are you using any third party virus/malware apps? Best to use Windows Security. Create process exclusions for DP and other audio/DAW apps. Virus and Threats Protection settings -> Manage Settings -> Exclusions. Add an Exclusion, type is process, process name is DP.exe.

Turn off File History if configured.

Uninstall any Windows Store Apps (UWPs) you don't use to limit background processing. The ones you do keep, if you don't want them running in the background, disable that in the app's settings.

Uninstall any/all unwanted apps installed by te hardware provider.

Stop indexing contents on your hard drives. Right click drive in Explorer -> Properties -> uncheck allow contents to be indexed and apply to all sub-directories (will take a while to complete).

I'm sure there are probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting and MOTU most likely suggested several of these. Maybe something here that helps out.

[mikehalloran]

Any chance you have a plugin in Demo mode? Many cause random dropouts if unlicensed or the license cannot be found.

[Dlomb11]

Thanks for the answers.
On the software side, I have already tried to do anything, but there seems to be a DPC latency problem linked to various drivers typical of Windows environments, which however cannot be removed (unless you create a customized version of Windows with NTLite).
PS. I'm sure I don't have plugins that create dropouts because I took them all off ...

[CharlzS]

If it's a DPC thing, you can run LatencyMon (https://resplendence.com/latencymon) to find the offenders. Most likely power management ACPI.sys will be at the top. That seems to be the plague for laptops. Next would be network followed by DirectX drivers.

If you have a dual graphics machine, disable the high performance adapter (AMD or NVIDIA) in BIOS or the Device Manager. Disable any hardware devices you're not using, i.e. bluetooth, camera, etc.

You can also try starting your app with an Affinity setting to free up the first virtual core (or the entire first physical core) to service system interrupts. This example is for running DP with core 0 excluded (freed to service system) on an 8 core processor. Do Win-R, type cmd and hit enter. This will open a command prompt window. Copy and paste the following at the C:\ prompt:

Code: Select all

start /HIGH /AFFINITY 0xFE C:\"Program Files"\MOTU\"Digital Performer 11.02"\DP.exe

There's plenty available on Affinity with a search. Just something to investigate.

[Dlomb11]

If it's a DPC thing, you can run LatencyMon (https://resplendence.com/latencymon) to find the offenders. Most likely power management ACPI.sys will be at the top. That seems to be the plague for laptops. Next would be network followed by DirectX drivers.

If you have a dual graphics machine, disable the high performance adapter (AMD or NVIDIA) in BIOS or the Device Manager. Disable any hardware devices you're not using, i.e. bluetooth, camera, etc.

You can also try starting your app with an Affinity setting to free up the first virtual core (or the entire first physical core) to service system interrupts. This example is for running DP with core 0 excluded (freed to service system) on an 8 core processor. Do Win-R, type cmd and hit enter. This will open a command prompt window. Copy and paste the following at the C:\ prompt:

Code: Select all

start /HIGH /AFFINITY 0xFE C:\"Program Files"\MOTU\"Digital Performer 11.02"\DP.exe

There's plenty available on Affinity with a search. Just something to investigate.

Thanks for your reply.

dropouts occur regardless of the playback software and assigned priority.

I have already tried to diagnose with LatencyMon and the result is that my system is not adapted to real time, and the root cause appears to be ACPI.sys.

I've tried all of those settings you recommend (plus many many others), but nothing has worked so far, so the cause must really be ACPI.sys.

The problem is that you can't remove the ACPI component "on the fly" (disabling battery management is not enough).
Windows needs to be modded... and I'm inquiring about how to do it with NTLite.