CPU meters shooting up without reason!

[Seviel]

I have this very annoying CPU problem on both my laptop and desktop I think it introduced itself since 8.3.

It is not a plug in problem, neither is it a system based problem unless*,

The meter just shoots up without a reason to clarify:

Desktop (with many plug-ins installed for producing)
- in a loop that is playing around 35% CPU load for minutes it sundenly shoots up to say 104% for a few seconds destroying and even stopping the sound... This especially happens often when I solo a synt. ??!?

Laptop (without any plug-ins installed I use it only for playing live)
- playing live with up to 8 loops and tracks + 4 synts running the meter is around 17%, then suddenly it shoots up without starting anything to 79-97 destroying the sound.

* The only things that both systems have in common are:
RME audio cards,
- Laptop Multiface Hammerfall II
- Desktop RME Hammerfall 9632 rev 154
CPU Quad core i7,
- Laptop i7-Q920
- Desktop i7-2600
OS
- both run Wind 7 64bit

On the laptop I have 8.3 and the beta 8.4, they both have this same problem.
On the desktop I have 8.3.

DPC latency meters showing nothing, network disabled doesnt stop the problem. On the 8.3 versions I turned off the automatic update and Usage data.

PS! I'm very very happy to see 64bit arriving soon as a stable version!

All the Best,
Tim

[[mal]]

Hi Tim,

There is a benchmark comparison project in this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=111880
And I would be interested if this would cause the same spike. And if the bursts you are seeing are project related.

- Can you reproduce the spikes unmuting only audio files (with no automation)?. I would assume unmuting a synth track with a lot of automation and at the known RME low latency could cause a spike as described.
- Can you reproduce it by raising the latency?.
- Can you reproduce it using the onboard soundcard?.
- Did you also disable the ACPI battery compliant method in devices?, this is known to also interfere with audio streaming capabilities that the DPC wont necessarily show.


Is anyone else experiencing CPU spikes as described in tim's post?.

best,
Mads

[Seviel]

Hi Mads,

Thanks for the quick reply!

On my desktop (8.3 32bit) running the benchmark nothing happens 8 tracks running at 512samples cpu load is 14%15 at 32samples its 27%.
To stress it I copyed the tracks multipel times, it stays perfectly stable till 90 of these tracks at 93% cpu load. There are no spikes at all not even 2% raise.

I will try the benchmark and the onboard sound later on laptop..

One thing I can add is that I always push 32bit ableton to memory limits.
I always ran the 32bit version as far as memory lets me without problems, when it crashes I know I got to stop building or wait for the 64 version to be stable. Also my laptop live set is around 400 records next to the synts.

But now I am seeing the same problem on both the totally different kinds of live-sets/ pc's. The cpu load more then doubles while there is nothing more going on then the minutes before. It is as if live start doing something what takes more cpu then the whole set together, or it runs into a error.

I cannot reproduce the problem as it is not related to action it just comes when it comes and goes when it goes, I am more then 100% sure its unrelated to what I do or happens in the set. Only thing that I find is that I seem to expierence the problem way more often when I solo listen to a synt track on my desktop.

Only things that changed lately on my desktop is that I went from HDD to SSD at the same time from 8.2 to 8.3.
On my laptop I went from 8.2 to 8.4 + 8.3 (that both have the same issue).

I just noticed there is a RME driver update from last month gonna try this and let you know.

greets,
Tim

[501dubz]

I'm afraid I'm having the same issue on my laptop.

On win 7 64 running both 8.3 and 8.4.b both reproduce the same thing. Every 30 minutes or so in to a session the CPU hits up to 100-500 % and Ableton freezes.

Win CPU meters or Speccy/reatemp show nothing similar they seem as the problem doesnt exist (temperatures acceptable and no CPU hits. This only happens inside Ableton.

Also, both the current 8.3 and 64 beta seem to crash my desktop as well, at least 4-5 times a day (bsod type).

I dont know whats up but I'm hoping its something in my setup rather than Ableton. Oh and I'm running RME FF400 (been solid for years).

[Seviel]

A new RME driver seems to have solved the issue on my Desktop with 8.3! (only other thing i have changed is the virtual memory that was on a SSD disk its on a HDD now)

Didnt have the time to test my laptop propely I had to finish some production work on the desktop and it was perfect kite weather ... This weekend I will also test the laptop with the new rme driver on 8.3 and 8.4..

[[mal]]

Hi Seviel,

Did you see the problem on the laptop with 8.4b4?.

501dubz, did you try updating the RME driver?, can you reproduce this error with the onboard soundcard - you both seem to have RME cards. BSOD are usually due to driver errors, so if you have any midi remote controls connected please disconnect and re-test.


Best,
Mads

[Seviel]

Hi Mads,

I tryed the new beta and the problem still exists for 8.4b4, CPU meter shoots up to 103% after 4 min of just 1 track playing... 8.3 had exactly the same issue on my laptop with the old rme driver, now with the new one it is running perfectly for hours of excessive use...

Another bug came up on 8.4b4 "memory corruption, please contact ableton" right after starting ableton with a clean set, then it closes.

Greets,
Tim

[square7]

Been having this same problem since updating to 8.3.3 but on 32 bit not 64 bit.

Same project that used to run fine around 40% CPU, same computer same everything, now randomly will shoot up to 90-101% for no reason. Start glitching/stuttering and become unusable. For no reason! Happens everytime now after working on a project for 15 minutes or so. I don't get it....

[Seviel]

Hi square7 what are you running as OS? are you also using a RME-audiocard?
gr Tim

[square7]

I'm using osx 10.7.4 and no external audio interface