My Scenario:
I've had nightmares with working out conflicts but the worst of these was the Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 built into my dell laptop motherboard. Tried all the usual (checking for IRQ conflicts/battery power settings/background services setting/disabling potential confliting devices like bluetooth etc in device manager/changing asio setttings within ableton at different sample rates and latency settings to seek a premium setting) but none of them actually fixed the root problem or would address my Nvidia card causing white noise and crackles.
TEST YOUR GFX CARD + ASIO SETUP:
I realised my graphics card was the root of all evil by doing the following test:
- load up a tune with a few effects (filter for example on 1 or 2 tracks) which uses up CPU to about 15-20%.
- Make the ableton live window floating... and drag around the window around your desktop like a madman for as long as you can stand (1-2 mins) and see whether you can induce some unpleasant noises or a crash even whilst your tune is still playing.
- Got some hiss/crackles/pop/crash/other weird artifact? It could be the graphics card and if it is you may find it is behind all the problems you've been having with ASIO (as I did).
- ALTERNATIVE: You could also simply disable the graphics card drivers in device manager (start => settings => control panel => system => hardware => device manager) and see whether your crackles and pops disappear after rebooting... this was how I discovered my problem in the first place.
SOLUTION:
Option1: Using Official Drivers (Nvidia in my case but should apply to all types of graphics card)
- right-click on the desktop and select "properties".
- Click settings tab
- Click Advanced
- Click Troubleshoot
- Disable write combining (To answer the obvious "what is it?" question - "Write combining is a technique which buffers data so it can be send in one go instead of sending a lot of smaller pieces." - It's not neccessary though for music so turn it off! from what I have learnt I don't even think it's neccessary for games but haven't tested any games yet)
-Try turning off Hardware acceleration altogether (This setting worked for me using official nvidia drivers - none of the others did)
-Your system might allow you to use more acceleration so trying adjusting the setting, repeating my test inbetween to check for distortions in sound. Keep on till you find a setting that works!
- NB once you have turned off write combining then you can change the hardware accelerator settings at will without rebooting each time. So in essence you turn down the settings for music work and then turn them back up for games etc)
Option 2: This won't work for everyone and a DISCLAIMER... try at your own risk. For NVIDIA only. Using Modified Drivers.
- I chose to use DHzer0point ForceWare Drivers 0.9291 ( http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1496)
- This is an unofficial modified version of nvidia's driver that is supposed to improve graphics and overall performance of your graphics card.
- It is supposed to work on most Nvidia Geforce Go Series laptop cards but also a whole host of other nvidia cards. Check the guru3d link for more information.
- It allowed me to drastically improve my hardware accelerator setting by 2 notches to the one called "Disable Direct Draw and Direct 3d Applications..." -and allows for better video/display performance. It really has improved my setup beyond what the nvidia official drivers were offering so I am definitely sticking with this driver.
- FYI Overclockers use this driver to boost their games performances and 3d work etc.
A FEW ADDITIONAL EXTRA TIPS (UNRELATED TO GFX CARD FIX):
- Make sure before you start tampering with these things that you take a backup of your pc. Using a tool such as Acronis Trueimage (download the trial here - http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/) you can take disk images of your system in different states. Make a fatal mistake and quickly recover where you were before without reinstalling windows all over again. Once your system is purring and working a treat... take a snapshot and you'll be able to jump back to it even after a fatal crash with a bootable CD. Windows System restore is pretty unreliable and does not take disk images... just preserves the registry which won't help if windows has died.
- Laptop users should try speedswitch XP ( http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/) which will manage your battery settings brilliantly. I change the battery settings to max performance and CPU settings for C state all set to "no" (bottom row called "allowpromotion"). The rest I keep as default. Works a treat.
- You may need to tamper with you IRQ settings/PCI latency if you have certain types of conflicts... go here to read up on PCI Latency http://www.novationmusic.com/answerbase ... php?id=351 - you'll need to download the tool PCI Latency tool mentioned and try editing the values (usually 64,128,255) of devices... check for items sharing IRQ. You can always (on desktops) try plugging your soundcard/graphics card/conflicting device onto a different PCI slot on your motherboard (if you have a spare one). This can resolve issues quite often. Unfortunately... this doesn't help laptop users.
- Make sure to read for further standard windows XP optimisations - http://www.novationmusic.com/answerbase ... php?id=350 . You can ignore the power schemes item if you decide to use speedswitch as I have. (http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/)
- For any xstation users out there with a similar set up to mine using the ableton lite bundled with their xstation. My xstation initally would not get recognised at all for ASIO. I had to disable the logitech webcam drivers on my computer in the device manager (start => settings => control panel => system => Hardware). Only then did ASIO first come to life. Really be careful to disable everything you don't need for music in device manager (i.e. bluetooth etc)
FINAL COMMENT
I hope some of my ramblings help someone! ASIO can be a real pain but it's important to get it set up right. It's so nice when it works right... a moment of triumph (sad but true)...
Right well enough of this. Time to get back to writing music in the awesome Ableton Live and my now cherished Xstation (a brilliant brilliant piece of kit)... Cheers..
