Ableton Forum

My new windows laptop ( windows 7 64bit, 8 gigs ram, 1 T hard drive, 2.5ghz intel processor ) seems to be bogging down much more than I thought it would. It does not perform that much better than the computer it replaced, which was a 32bit 3g ram 2.4 ghz system. I thought my new system would far out perform my older computer.

But it does not. What can I do to tune it up for music production? What should I look for. This is strictly a studio computer. I have a separate computer for everything else.



Thanks

Brian

my process for this is:

* uninstall all applications not used.

* turn off all fancy visual stuff, windows 7 has a lot of it. there is a specific setting that says something like "change for optimum performance"

* turn of ALL services that i do not need for audio production. administrative tools -> services. all networking all wifi, etc, etc. i usually spend and evening going through the entire list and reading about them and shutting them down if they don't seem needed and if i'm not sure i shut it off, restart if necessary and see if my audio stuff works.

* on windows xp and windows 7 i sometimes kill explorer.exe to free up some resources. once you kill explorer you can get it back with ctrl+alt+delete -> task manager -> file -> run -> explorer.exe or you can just use task manager to run ableton or whatever.

The best way of of getting best performance out of a windows machine like this is to format the hard drive - then re-install windows!

Normally, can't be done as most machines use an OEM version of windows without the discs.

Of-course Apple users will say this sort of thing never happens of their love machines... however not true as my MAC ran like snail on a Morris Minor race track until I did the same.

check your power settings.

if you are running on battery some options will run at diminished levels to save power. it could cause a dip in performance.




i wouldn't worry too much about the visual/graphics in terms of the operating system on Windows 7 with 8 Gigs of Ram. i feel like this was an issue in the days of < 2 gigs of RAM being the norm, but that's just me.
*shrugs*


and yeah, a clean install of Windows without a bunch of bloatware and proprietary monitoring software running will run faster and smoother. it just will.
i think Apple releases an "update" and blows out all their user's temp files when they do - so that people will keep claiming they never have to clean up all the web and temp residue/turds.

You never mentioned hard drive for free and total space.

And what do you mean exactly when you say it is bogging down? In what manner? What things are you doing?

Power Management settings on the Presonus site, and is applicable for all Win7 machines running DAWs: http://support.presonus.com/entries/203 ... Studio-One

To turn off Aero:

- Right click the Desktop
- Choose 'Personalize'
- Scroll down to the 'Basic and High Contrast Themes' section
- Select 'Windows 7 Basic' or 'Windows Classic'

Most DAWs are not graphics intensive, so turning off Aero might not be needed. However, applying the Power Management settings can be like night and day, especially on laptops.

^ to add to this (and my earlier post regarding the same)... some processors are designed to behave differently based on the battery vs. wall power... an Intel Centrino processor is an example of one of these. they are designed to make mobile PC battery power last longer.

looking up the specs and "features" of your processor might shed some additional light on your plight.

WOW , setting the power for max performance instead of max battery life made a HUGE diference!!!.
The processor is running at less than half the load it was. I went from maxing out the cpu to running at under 50% while
running lots of instruments, effects, plug ins, and clips. For a minute I thought I wasted my money on the computer.

I would like to do a clean windows install. Do I have to go buy a copy of windows???
If I reformat the drive using just the computer with no disk copy of windows, will I end up with all
the same bloatware and bullshit that came with the computer ?

Another thing that I think is also causing some issues is the "Dell audio center".

ASIO 4all only works with headphones plugged in.And if I plug something into the line in,the computer speakers work, but not the
headphones??? There are all kinds of obnoxious quirks that slow me down. But if I erase the dell audio mixer, will I be able to
use the mic/line/speakers and headphones??

Fortunately I run a m audio 8X8 interface at my studio. But at home I have to deal with the dell audio if I want to record or play with ableton.

Thanks everyone for the input!
Brian

brian sansone wrote:I would like to do a clean windows install. Do I have to go buy a copy of windows???
If I reformat the drive using just the computer with no disk copy of windows, will I end up with all
the same bloatware and bullshit that came with the computer ?

this depends... if the install/recovery discs you got have the bloatware pre-installed then it will all be back. you could install fresh and uninstall unwanted add-ons though. on the other hand... PCs from companies like Dell typically come with 2 discs.. one for the OS and one for content (aka bloatware) so you just don't install disc 2.

you should be able to format the hard drive using the Windows install disc.

as far as "Dell Audio" is concerned... that will be more for the iTunes user type scenario where audio means .mp3 and .mp4 files and has no real emphasis on creating your own tracks with a good piece of software like Live. i would disable it and use the built in Windows audio... which will play nice with your interface/ASIO drivers and any DAWs you might use.

yur2die4 wrote:You never mentioned hard drive for free and total space.

And what do you mean exactly when you say it is bogging down? In what manner? What things are you doing?

The hard drive is about 80% free.
and by bogging down I mean that the processor was being overloaded up to 120% while running live sets.
The sets aren't small, but the sets are not huge by any means. ( maybe 10-20 audio tracks ) and 5-10 midi instruments running, with effects and plug ins.
Setting the battery options to max performance made an instant and enormous improvement. But I know there is plenty of room for more improvement.
Thanks