Lean Drivers for mixing???

[HotShot]

For Windows users:

Have you people with this problem updated all your drivers, motherboard BIOS. and have all Windows updates? All these are very important. esp. updated motherboard BIOS and updated motherboard drivers!

It really seems ridiculous that you have high CPU usage because of the MOTU drivers. I doubt it is the drivers fault. If you're using windows XP or older, what service pack/s do you have installed?

Is your Audio interface (or if using Firewire, your IEEE bus controller) and graphics card on a IRQ alone (by itself)? If not disable things such as serial ports, onboard sound. etc. in the BIOS to try to get these two devices each on an IRQ alone. esp the audio interface (IEEE bus controller).

Sound like you need to optimize your system for audio, and I really doubt your issue is a matter with the MOTU drivers, esp if you have a firewire device.

What Anti-virus program are you using? McAfee, Norton, and select others are resource hogs! Use Avast Home Edition or AVG free, both are free and lightweight programs.

And read and follow the tips in this guide: http://www.audioforums.com/resource_center.php

If using ASIO driver mode, especially important for Steinberg DAW software users is the tweak to set CPU processing for "Background services" in Advanced System Settings under the Performance section.

Goodluck.

[DJ Synchro]

For Windows users:

Have you people with this problem updated all your drivers, motherboard BIOS. and have all Windows updates? All these are very important. esp. updated motherboard BIOS and updated motherboard drivers!

It really seems ridiculous that you have high CPU usage because of the MOTU drivers. I doubt it is the drivers fault. If you're using windows XP or older, what service pack/s do you have installed?

Is your Audio interface (or if using Firewire, your IEEE bus controller) and graphics card on a IRQ alone (by itself)? If not disable things such as serial ports, onboard sound. etc. in the BIOS to try to get these two devices each on an IRQ alone. esp the audio interface (IEEE bus controller).

Sound like you need to optimize your system for audio, and I really doubt your issue is a matter with the MOTU drivers, esp if you have a firewire device.

What Anti-virus program are you using? McAfee, Norton, and select others are resource hogs! Use Avast Home Edition or AVG free, both are free and lightweight programs.

And read and follow the tips in this guide: http://www.audioforums.com/resource_center.php

If using ASIO driver mode, especially important for Steinberg DAW software users is the tweak to set CPU processing for "Background services" in Advanced System Settings under the Performance section.

Goodluck.

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Done that, all of that. There is nothing I haven't tried! There must be something seriously wrong with my configuration, I have no other explanation.
I even tried removing some memory banks. No luck there either. I can't figure out what is causing this and it's making me crazy! It's making me buy a complete new system. And trusstme, I'm not a quiter when it comes to solving problems. But right now, I'm stuck... I tried asking people on different forums, all drivers, latest bios of motherboard and graphics card. I have no more idea's...

[HotShot]

So is your Audio interface (IEEE bus controller) on an IRQ by itself? This is very important because bad performance can be a result of the audio interface sharing an IRQ with other stuff!

I have the exact same processor as you, but I don't know what motherboard you have. Mine is a ASUS M2N-E. There is a Cool n Quiet feature it is disabled in my BIOS as it caused me troulble with pops and clicks when tracking in ASIO driver mode. If you have cool n quiet is it disabled? What motherboard do you have?

Do you have PCIe grapphic card? if so is it set to PCIe in the BIOS? Are your Grahic hardware set to Full Excelleration (in Win XP)? Doess your power supply have enough power to handle your system hardware?

You may need to test your Motherboard and Processor to see if one or both are faulty. I would take my PC into a local PC shop to see if any of my hardware is faulty.

Then, from there, I would consider getting a new PC if this bad performance can't be overcome.

Goodluck, and cya around.

[TheRealRoach]

DJ,
The DPC latency readings are the most telling factor: something is requesting too much time on the PCI bus. Also since the same DPC readings occur upon fresh install it makes me think it's a hardware issue.

Could you post an exhaustive list of your whole system hardware list?

[DJ Synchro]

So is your Audio interface (IEEE bus controller) on an IRQ by itself? This is very important because bad performance can be a result of the audio interface sharing an IRQ with other stuff!

I have the exact same processor as you, but I don't know what motherboard you have. Mine is a ASUS M2N-E. There is a Cool n Quiet feature it is disabled in my BIOS as it caused me trouble with pops and clicks when tracking in ASIO driver mode. If you have cool n quiet is it disabled? What motherboard do you have?

Do you have PCIe graphics card? if so is it set to PCIe in the BIOS? Are your Graphic hardware set to Full Acceleration (in Win XP)? Does your power supply have enough power to handle your system hardware?

You may need to test your Motherboard and Processor to see if one or both are faulty. I would take my PC into a local PC shop to see if any of my hardware is faulty.

Then, from there, I would consider getting a new PC if this bad performance can't be overcome.

Goodluck, and cya around.

My audio interface is a MOTU 24i/o on a 424 PCI-e card. I have a Asus A8R32 MVP-Deluxe motherboard with a Asus HD2400 Pro graphics card (set to PCI-e in BIOS) also on the PCI-e bus. I equipped the board with 4 Gigs of RAM. My Power Supply is 500 Watts. I disabled all unnecessary devices in the bios such as on board audio, parallel and serial buses and I also disabled Cool 'n Quiet. I checked the device manager for IRQ conflicts. The sound card is on IRQ 16 and no other devices are using this IRQ as far as I can see. So no problems there. However, there are a couple of things I noticed; In System Devices there is a PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge device. There is no question mark beside it, but in the properties it says it uses no resources because it has a problem...
Also, in my system properties, it says that I have 4 gigs of ram installed, but only 2,97 GB is usable...? I run a 64 bit OS, so I would think the OS can utilize the full 4 Gigs of RAM right...? What's up with that??? Ow and by the way, when I start a project. The CPU load in Windows Task manager also raises to about 100%. Especially when I lower the ASIO buffer and the ASIO meter is bouncing around 100% as well... Sigh...

DJ,
The DPC latency readings are the most telling factor: something is requesting too much time on the PCI bus. Also since the same DPC readings occur upon fresh install it makes me think it's a hardware issue.

Could you post an exhaustive list of your whole system hardware list?

Ok, here it is:

AMD Athlon X2 4600+ (s939)
Asus A8RMVP Deluxe motherboard
Asus EAH2400 Pro graphics card
MOTU 24IO with 424 PCI-e card and latest drivers installed.
MOTU MIDI Express 128 USB and latest drivers installed.
Plextor DVD burner on ATA bus

[HotShot]

Hi DJ Synchro:

I don't know what else to say. You are on the ball.

Nice motherboard you have there. I don't know what can be the deal with that PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge device. but it does sound kinda suspect. I have this listed too (two instances), but both show resources used and show no conflicts and that they are working properly.

In Device Manager under Computer, I have ACPI x64-Based-PC listed. What do you have?

I really don't suspect what I'm about to write to be the case with you but......

Some of us used to have severe problems with MIDI/Audio sync and pops and clicks in our projects. This was back before ACPI was the common standard for self built custom built DAW machines. Some of us used to have to change are Computer from ACPI PC configuration (under the Compter section in Device Manager) to Standard PC configuration, or we wouldn't get rid of those problem, but changing to a Stand PC configuration solve the problem for us.

I'm not advising you to try this as newer PCs can run without DAW issues and more likely runs better with an ACPI configuration, but this problem you're having sure reminds me of the problem some of us had back then, which problem was resolve by going to a Standard PC configuration from an ACPI PC configuration.

Man you might wnat to contact Jim Roseberry (a respected DAW builder who frequents the SONAR forum) for some advice or help. It may cost you a reasonable fee for the advice, but with such a nice system as you have, it will be worth it. (Consultation fee is $40 for half an hour or $80 for an hour).

Jim could let you know what he thinks about your setup and components. and he can recommend hardware or troubleshooting info to fix the problem. He's been known to give a gear list of what to buy so you can install yourself, if needed.

You can contact Jim by phone, email, or by PMing him at the SONAR forum:

jim@studiocat.com

614-565-8924

And here's a link to his site: http://www.studiocat.com/

I hope you resolve your problem, and please let us know whatever happens?

[joefix413]

Whoa, hang on there, before you chuck your system in a box and send it to me cause I could use a new machine... http://www.motunation.com/forum/posting ... 14&t=36089# Try shutting down all unnecessary services( black Viper had a long list of things to shut down or change priority) I see you upped the buffer, you may want to try 1024 in addition to the previous suggestions.

[DJ Synchro]

Thank you guys for your efforts to help me. There is a couple of things I will try before buying a new system. I will try an older version of the Motherboards bios. I will also try to remove the MOTU card and see what Cubase runs like with the onboard soundcard (in combination with ASIO4ALL) Just to exclude the MOTU from the problems I have.
I also will try to remove all of the hardware devices like my harddrives, USB devices etc. I'll post here what I will come across during these tests. I'm fairly sure it's a hardware problem, so I will try to narrow it down to the parts which is causing the problems.

[Mark S]

can you set the pci latency timer on the macbook?

Peripheral devices often set them by default at max(200+) which uses an inordinate amount of bus cycles. try lowering it to 96.

1+ for Jim Roseberry too.