random CPU usage spikes

jlambrou · Post by **jlambrou** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:57 am

Hi all,

I'm running ableton 6 on my PC and finding that even though my CPU usage is as low as 8% I get random spikes which cause the sound to stutter for a second or two before returning to normal. Immediately after this happens the CPU meter will flash to something ridiculous like 257% before returning to about 8% or whatever it was before.

I'm working on a Dell Inspiron, core duo processor 1.73 GHz, 1 gig of RAM. Normally I have no CPU issues, I can run five different instances of Reaktor 5 as a plug in and the CPU will stay under 50%. Whether I'm doing this or working solely with WAVs these CPU usage spikes happen about as often and in the same way. (although when running Reaktor plug ins like this the meter will read over 1000% after a spike - seems to be relative to the actual CPU usage at the time).

Any tips greatly appreciated, it seems like a totally unnecessary frustration if my computer has the capacity to run everything smoothly.

Thanks guys...

aeon · Post by **aeon** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:50 am

my all-time high score is 8624%

bdu · Post by **bdu** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:36 am

Yeah, I've been seeing these usage spikes in Live ever since I did a simultaneous update from OSX10.4.x/Live6.0.7 to OSX10.5.1/Live6.0.10. Currently on 10.5.2/7.0.2 with no luck making them go away. I did the live7 update hoping that would fix it

evilxsystems · Post by **evilxsystems** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:59 pm

I didn't have this problem on 6 but really really have it on 7 check this thread I posted here: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84926

I think this is due to how Live loads the processor, the processor isn't stepping up fast enough to deal with the burst in required CPU cycles, and so you get a cutout at first, then once the processor gets up to speed it's fine...really annoying...it's not clear to me if it's ableton or apple or intel who has the problem, but to get around it on the mac you can use coolbook...on the PC I'm not sure but look into disabling speed stepping in your bios or power managment settings.

Or you may be able to load up your processor more constantly in Live directly and get the same effect...drop in a half dozen reverbs on a channel, send something to it and route it to an output buss you aren't using and see what happens

bdu · Post by **bdu** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:21 am

evilxsystems wrote:I didn't have this problem on 6 but really really have it on 7 check this thread I posted here: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84926

Just installed it, helps a bit, though not completely

evilxsystems · Post by **evilxsystems** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:14 am

what settings are you using for your processor? I've got my minimum clock speed set at 1657 MHz and my throttling level set to very high...my only other clock speed is 2004 MHz...now I don't get any drop-outs until I get over ~70% which is what I had with Live 6...so I'm happy now

Professorquillam · Post by **Professorquillam** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:27 pm

I've got the same problem, but I'm running an HP, dual core processor, 1 GB ram (can't recall the processor speed).

Is there anyone out there with tips on how to solve the issue?
Many, many, many thanks if you do.

JochenB · Post by **JochenB** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:35 pm

I also have this problem when i'm using live in windows xp on my macbook pro (bootcamp).
In osx i have non of these strange cpu-spikes!
When i load the performance test from this forum my cpu starts jumping between 50-85% with stuttering and dropouts as result!
I use live 6.0.10, but when i try with the demo of 7.02 the problem is identical. Is there any solution for this?

my computer: macbook pro core2duo 2,16 ghz (november 2006), 2 gig ram.

proteron · Post by **proteron** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:39 pm

Ugh. i'm having this now on osx 10.5 . I can load up a simpler patch and have a single kick going on the downbeat, and it coughs and sputters now and then with the CPU going to 125%+

i've tried turning off multiproc support. I've tried a variety of things, but something is definitely rotten. I never had this issue on Live 6 OR 7 under 10.4.

--

update: Watching the glitch in Activity Monitor, i show a DISC ACTIVITY simultaneous with the cpu spike/audio hang. I'm not running anything that should be writing to the disc, at least not in the foreground. So live has become unusable for the first time since V2 for me. Very frustrating. Any ideas?

--

UPDATE2: solved by the good old WINDOWS method... reformat, reload :/

os · Post by os » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:22 pm

I'm having this problem in Live 7.0.2 & 6.0.10 on OS X 10.4.11. First time Live's let me down since... well, ever. I'm also seeing the disk activity write spikes at the same time as the audio dropouts.

Will check out the other thread mentioned above, but this is bad... really bad.

os · Post by os » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:11 am

Fixed here - it was a beta ReWire driver from another app. Removed it, now Live is happy again.

dj mush · Post by **dj mush** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:47 pm

soooo many peoples on this board, including me, have problems with this!

isn't it possible for the ableton headquarters to start a topic, with some Faq and tips to handle this situation?

i mean, adding a longlist to this forum with possibilities concerning settings or just anything which might help stopping this very annoying problem, can 't be that hard for the headquarters, not?

i'm not asking to hold our hand and helping us using live, because that clearly is not the issue.
Loads of peoples, with a good knowledge of these applications also experience these problems.
But it would help the users (customers) a lot if an official post gives tips. in stead of letting users fish in the dark....
i mean, i can't even go live with Live, just because of this.
imagine trying to record a jamsession in arrangement, with a glitch every 2 minutes!! I love Ableton, but i really don't want to be forced to start using another application for my purpose....

nq · Post by nq » Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:05 pm

for me it was the airport from my macbook pro. turned airport off and the crackles went away.

would not be the first time apple screwed something up with airport or network stuff taxing the system unreasonably

ian412 · Post by **ian412** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:16 pm

I'm also having the same problem on Live 6.0.10, MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB ram. I was having the problem on 1 gb of ram & installed another. This didn't help anything.

It also started happening when I updated to Live 6.0.10 from Live 6.0.7

timit · Post by **timit** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:27 am

Ah awesome,

It was airport causing my problems as well. I could tell it wasnt a Live problem as same thing happened when i ran Reaktor standalone. CPU would only be about 15% but kept overloading and getting audio dropouts.

Switched off airport and all is good again. Its better this way anyway as i'm always getting distracted by the net when using ableton!

random CPU usage spikes

random CPU usage spikes

Same problem...got at PC, anyone know the solution?