Glitches on my Dell (Not XX related)

[Chris V]

'Negotiations' with Dell are now concluded. I have to say they have been very helpful.

They have agreed a new replacement with:
1. Hard drive upgraded from 80 to 120 GB
2. RAM speed upgraded from 533 to 667 MHz
3. Faster, better processor 1.73 to 1.86 GHz
4. Vista Premium upgraded to Vista Ultimate.
About £200 worth for free. Pretty good if it works.

I'm off on hols for a couple of weeks soon, so it should be ready when I get back.

[Chris V]

Hi Peter

I'm back from my hols and ready to get stuck in again.

My replacement Dell computer was sitting on my doorstep. Have installed all softwares and drivers and am ready to give it a full test drive.

BUT, my activation code was for my other PC which is dead as dead can be. I have tried the code on the new PC but I guess I wouldn't have expected it to work.

What do I do now?

Thanks Chris

[PeterSt]

Test your glitches !!

Uhhmm ... I'll workout something. Must go now though. I hope you can wait till tomorrow ...

[SeVeReD]

Hi Peter

I'm back from my hols and ready to get stuck in again.

My replacement Dell computer was sitting on my doorstep. Have installed all softwares and drivers and am ready to give it a full test drive.

BUT, my activation code was for my other PC which is dead as dead can be. I have tried the code on the new PC but I guess I wouldn't have expected it to work.

What do I do now?

Thanks Chris

Hi Chris
If I understood correctly when reading about retaining activation....
Once you have activated XXHighEnd, you should then save the entire XXHighEnd program to another place and retain it.
If your machine/HardDrives crash or break, you then pull out your saved copied of XXHighEnd that was undemoed and start with it, then copy the lastest version (or the version you want to use) directly over your now installed XXHighEnd folder that was undemoed.  Do I understand this right?  (paranoia strikes deep for me, so I've got my original undemoed XXHighEnd saved on two different HardDrives and a cdr hehehe)  I don't think it matters what machine you pull it to.  I activated XXHighEnd on my Front End and then copied the whole XXHighEnd folder to another completely different machine in the house and it works on both. 
Do you have your original XXHighEnd undemoed player somewhere else (cdr/another HD)?  Peter, does entering in your activation code again in a new demo version of XXHighEnd work?

[Chris V]

Hi Peter

I'm back from my hols and ready to get stuck in again.

My replacement Dell computer was sitting on my doorstep. Have installed all softwares and drivers and am ready to give it a full test drive.

BUT, my activation code was for my other PC which is dead as dead can be. I have tried the code on the new PC but I guess I wouldn't have expected it to work.

What do I do now?

Thanks Chris

Hi Chris
If I understood correctly when reading about retaining activation....
Once you have activated XXHighEnd, you should then save the entire XXHighEnd program to another place and retain it.
If your machine/HardDrives crash or break, you then pull out your saved copied of XXHighEnd that was undemoed and start with it, then copy the lastest version (or the version you want to use) directly over your now installed XXHighEnd folder that was undemoed.  Do I understand this right?  (paranoia strikes deep for me, so I've got my original undemoed XXHighEnd saved on two different HardDrives and a cdr hehehe)  I don't think it matters what machine you pull it to.  I activated XXHighEnd on my Front End and then copied the whole XXHighEnd folder to another completely different machine in the house and it works on both. 
Do you have your original XXHighEnd undemoed player somewhere else (cdr/another HD)?  Peter, does entering in your activation code again in a new demo version of XXHighEnd work?

This is a lesson learnt in terms of back up, but the computer was so new this was just about the only thing that was on there.
The last thing I expected was for it to suffer a terminal illness in the loving arms of a Dell engineer

[Chris V]

Test your glitches !!

Well the good news is the glitches are about an order of magnitude better. I now get about 1 glitch every 4 tracks instead of 4 glitches per track.

256 is the safest Fireface latency I can work at without things going a bit pear shaped - at one time I had the blue screen of death, after which glitches were worse than ever until I turned off and on again.

I still have most of the earlier fixes to apply, such as updating all the Dell mobo drivers etc, so am optimistic things will be OK.

[Chris V]

Just an update.

The problem with glitches (drop outs) has never really gone way. At 48 samples on the Fireface 400 I get a recorded error about every 15-20 seconds (random) and at higher positions the rate of glitches gradually decreases. So I set the Fireface to 256 samples and all is well, though SQ may be compromised a bit.

A couple of days ago I got the Expresscard firewire plug-in card to see if this will improve communication between the laptop and the Fireface.
Well the SQ improved a bit when switching to the Expresscard, but the rate of glitches is unchanged.

So I continue to run at 256 samples and continue to seek out the holy grail that will allow running at 48.

I have been reading Gerards thread (though he had different issues to me - clicks and distortions) and tried putting XXHighend on the same hard drive as my music is stored, but it made no difference to the glitches. 

On the positive side version q is wonderful

[PeterSt]

Hi Chris,

Since you reported (here) that offloading your Dell with some tasks helped, I Googled a bit, and you might get it much better when you offload all the unnecessary sh*t the Inspiron loads in the beginning. However ... it will not be you being able to do that ... (there are no official options for it).

Then, when you know how to Google for it ... many people have the same problem as you have, although often it is hard to judge because people report similar for the Sigmatel sound chip which is in there but ... which IMO is not used in your case.
Anyway, the solutions vary so much, that I personlly would give up in advance. But that's me ...

Might you Google yourself, note that the e1505 is the same as the Inspiron 6400.

Anyway, if you are really sure that offloading helps, go to a shop and let them eliminate all the unneeded stuff at startup.
One thing you can do yourself for trials :
If you go to Taskmanager - Processes, there (supposedly) will be a sqsvr (or something like that which starts with sq) process. If it is there indeed, kill it.
Note that at a reboot it will be back.
If it helps I'll tell you how to permanently shut it off.
It incurs for much harddisk I/O at regular intervals (60 seconds after the PC has hybernated once), and if these kind of things (offloading) help you, this will help too.

Whether this all is the right path to go ... I don't know. All of this should not bother in the first place ... but what to do ...

Peter

[Chris V]

Thanks Peter,

I really do appreciate your continued help in this, even though it is not an XX Highend problem.

Not being that gifted with computers I have to look at this simplistically. The underlying problem from what I have read is that some computers treat sound as a 'second class citizen' and its priority in the processors etc falls well behind video etc.

You did refer earlier to a PCI latency tool, which adjusts the internal relationship between sound and video. Unfortunately I have not found software for Vista yet.
http://www.theatertek.com/forums/showthread.php?p=58821

I will continue to turn off bits that aren't needed (with extreme care) and eventually I will find a configuration that does not distract the sound.

Meantime listening on a latency of 128 is not too bad 

[Chris V]

For those that were here early days this is the conclusion of a long running saga to remove glitches from my brand new audio dedicated Dell Vista computer bought in June 2007.

Service Pack 1 has been released for some time but was not until recently compatible with my computer which I guess had very early versions of Vista drivers.

A couple of weeks ago my computer informed me it was ready to take SP1, which I downloaded and YESSSSSSSSSS!!

I can now run the DPC latency checker and almost every reading falls into the green values. The read-out now says "This machine should be able to handle real time streaming of audio without drop outs" and its right.

As a consequence the Fireface can now be set on the smallest latency.

Everything comes to he who waits  -------- eventually.

[PeterSt]

Isn't that great !

I just checked mine (on SP1 since yesterday) and although I have more low green bars compared to before, there's still the "standard 1000 us" in there somewhere.
Luckily it doesn't bother me for the buffer size !

Anyway, great Chris !
Peter

[SeVeReD]

hiyall
For fun (??what the heck does sev think is fun??) I read through this thread.  The whole time I was reading I kept shouting out.  "Go buy a clean copy of Windows Vista (100 US here), format your HDD and reinstall Vista". ... well then also follow Peter's guide to tweak/shut off services; course I'm not sure the guide was around back then, but,,,  I mean really, I've never entered a PW on install of windows, always shut off UAC, defender, firewall (always put yourself behind a hardware firewall, not software), disable as many services as you can think of....I think this might have solved your issues much earlier.  Laptop manufacturers are infamous for slipping in cr*p (antivirus stuff which is just as bad as malware) on their Windows install; better to get your own Vista OEM/builders copy.

For 44.1 I run at 48 samples on the FF800 always...I shut off mixer and settings when not using too.  Last night I turned on settings to run 128 samples to listen to 24/96 stuff.

On this new machine I built, I never go above 63 us and shows a constant 59 us with DPC latency checker...some of those idiots using cplay with xp claim ~5 us ... hmmm not sure what I could do to get down there with Vista, but I've never experienced a glitch. Edit: Just for fun I ran DPC on my xp machine which is fairly loaded with cr*p, (semi optimised when first built and Superantispyware [a good one to use occationally] cleans it) and it runs around 25 us with no programs running.... go figure.

So glad this long process seems over for you; but I'd still recommend doing a clean install of Vista if dell has any of their stuff running on there, or shutting off extraneous programs.  ps. At this point you probably don't even want to touch/change anything in your computer heh... it works YEA!

[Chris V]

Thanks Sev. I wish I was gifted in the art and could wipe my hard drive and reload fresh Vista, but on past form I would end up with a dead computer

I have turned off a few drivers, and will look at eradicating unwanted (Dell) programs. A question on this. Can I stop programs running or do I have to remove them from the PC.

I will also shut off UAC (whatever that is!) and have a look at defender.

I did start the Peter tweaks, but got lost in the foreign language (to me) illustrations.

BTW what does PW mean?   "I've never entered a PW on install of windows"

[PeterSt]

Hey Chris,

Regarding the things I can answer :

UAC can be found at Startbutton, Control Panel, User Accounts, Turn User Account Control (UAC !) on or off.
But you probably have done that long time ago because I created a topic about it back then.

Whether you have to remove programs from the PC depends on how persistent they are at restarting themselves at a next reboot. No general guidelines here, because it depends on the programs themselves. Especially laptops are prone to have lots of unnecessary stuff.

Btw, I would never go the route of installing a fresh Vista (if I were you) because each manufacturer adds his own propriatary drivers and things, and again with laptops this is excessive. This means that after such a fresh install (of a general Vista version ! -> otherwise it makes no sense in the firts place) you won't even have (e.g.) network access (propriatary ethernet driver is lacking) and you really have to be inventive to get all things, piece by piece, going. Note that everything will be downloadable from the internet, but *what* to download takes some experience (or name it skills). A good option would be to know in advance what you will need, which in the end may come down to saving the stuff concerned, in order to reload that as the first thing when something is running.
But better don't do it !

On the "Peter tweaks" ... since I have the english version running now, I will redo the pictures in English. Ehh, sometime when I can find some spare time.

Be careful with "super anti spyware" and such, because ususally they work counterproductive (generate I/O's, stall the system). Besides that, you'll only know once you bought them and it makes hardly sense to listen to others because most people just can't judge it. I'd dare say though that if someone in here has an advise on this, it should be trustworthy.

Peter

[Chris V]

UAC can be found at Startbutton, Control Panel, User Accounts, Turn User Account Control (UAC !) on or off.
But you probably have done that long time ago because I created a topic about it back then.

I think I went for the option of 'run as administrator', but I will check.

Whether you have to remove programs from the PC depends on how persistent they are at restarting themselves at a next reboot. No general guidelines here, because it depends on the programs themselves. Especially laptops are prone to have lots of unnecessary stuff.

If I uninstall a program and it turns out to be critical, I need a contingency. Is it possible to first transfer a copy of a program to an external hard drive for possible recovery if required.

Btw, I would never go the route of installing a fresh Vista (if I were you) because each manufacturer adds his own propriatary drivers and things, and again with laptops this is excessive. This means that after such a fresh install (of a general Vista version ! -> otherwise it makes no sense in the firts place) you won't even have (e.g.) network access (propriatary ethernet driver is lacking) and you really have to be inventive to get all things, piece by piece, going. Note that everything will be downloadable from the internet, but *what* to download takes some experience (or name it skills). A good option would be to know in advance what you will need, which in the end may come down to saving the stuff concerned, in order to reload that as the first thing when something is running.
But  better don't do it !

Dont worry, I wont. I think you need to be a real expert like some of the guys on here

On the "Peter tweaks"  ... since I have the english version running now, I will redo the pictures in English. Ehh, sometime when I can find some spare time.

That would be excellent. Thanks

Be careful with "super anti spyware" and such, because ususally they work counterproductive (generate I/O's, stall the system). Besides that, you'll only know once you bought them and it makes hardly sense to listen to others because most people just can't judge it. I'd dare say though that if someone in here has an advise on this, it should be trustworthy.

Computer came with McAfee software which seems OK. I only use this Dell computer to download XXHighend and for very secure bank/building society transactions, so it doesn't come under a lot of threat.