Sudden, very short, very random cpu spikes

[Calagan]

hum hum...
Actually, my CPU spikes could come from some bloody Plugin Alliance plugins (in particular Black Box HG2-MS)...
They did some stupide update recently that were supposed to fix some issues with AU plugins and they did bring some more issues with all versions...

[Nrk12345]

I bought a £1400 MSI laptop last January for use with my live set and up until a few weeks ago, it was performing fine, with no apparent issues.

I had gigs in November and December and played both sets without issue, however, for no apparent reason my laptop has become a complete disaster when using Ableton in any way, shape or form.

Even on a session with literally 1 midi clip playing an external synth, the CPU load within Ableton sits at about 2% for 10 or 15 seconds then starts to randomly spike, jumping up to 22%, 30%, 18% etc etc.... each time glitching the audio and messing up Ableton's clock.

It is an absolute nightmare as I can't perform the most basic of tasks within Ableton now, let alone play an hour long live set.

I uninstalled recent Windows 11 updates, uninstalled Ableton and re-installed it, then un-installed it again and re-installed a previous version, in case a recent update caused the issue. No joy, still a mess to use.

I removed all plugins, no change, I uninstalled all of my Adobe software (not that I expected that to have any affect) and no change, still hugely problematic. Updated my Motu Ultralite MK5, no joy.

I spoke to a friend who said that I should have gone with a Macbook instead of another PC laptop and I may not have run into such issues. Feeling so frustrated and exhausted at trying to get to the bottom of this, seems mad that my laptop somehow can't cope with playing back a midi file and monitoring the audio within loads of glitching, even at 1024 buffer size.

Here are my laptop specs;

MSI
12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H 2.70 GHz
16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Absolutely fed up

Any help much appreciated!

[c1c2]

I am late to the party. Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXzM60ad8I&t=599s

Do _all_ of the tricks. I fixed my Laptop and my PC with it.
Running like a charm both at ultralow latency..

HTH!

[MGrzybowski]

You can try use ThrottleStop device to change CPU maximum temperature, it's possible that your CPU goes max to 70*C and then just throttle, because system is programmed like that. You can change it there to let's say 85*C (in options - prochot offset 15) and take a look I know that today's CPU's may handle even 100*C without crashing, but I don't recommend to try.
Change your power plan to performance, turn off other audio drivers, update everything/install older versions. Reinstall system to older windows (win 11 is a lot heavier than 10), change thermal paste and btw clean dust from inside. There are a loooot of things that you can do to improve your cpu.

I have post on reddit about similar issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/ableton/commen ... th_proper/
It's still not perfect, but it improved A LOT

Little CPU overclocking is also worth to mention, but:

"WARNING: ThrottleStop is an Intel Core 2 and Core i performance monitoring and modification tool. Some manufacturers throttle CPU performance to protect their motherboards or the power adapter from being damaged so keep that in mind before making any changes. Using ThrottleStop to overclock or over volt your CPU or to disable a laptop manufacturer's throttling scheme may damage your computer and is at your own risk. "

[somewhatsam]

I´m so mad right now, I´ve had this issue forever now, fixed it today with the help of ChatGPT.

I had already done intense troubleshooting, so I already knew it was related to playing some stock ableton midi drumclips, but only today I got it finally sorted out.

Forget ALL other advice about dealing with CPU and latency and clean drivers and all that shit, its SOO much simpler....and SOOO much more annoying.

1. Disable all devices on the track playing your midi trick. This way you avoid showing envelope tracks that have nothing to do with the issue.
2. open your midi clip and switch to envelopes view.
3. Delete all envelope automation on it.
4. DONE. No more crackling audio due to CPU spike
5. Come back to this forum and post this ON EVERY POST ABOUT "random cpu spikes".

There are PROBABLY other causes for other issues and latency in general is something to be aware of, but the fact that this comes from STOCK ABLETON MIDI clips, which I would NEVER have suspected to be the issue and which is something you cannot find ANYWHERE, when just googling "cpu spikes" in ableton, is SOOO infuriating...

I love ableton for its instrument racks and session view and nice stock instruments, but this is some next level diabolical oversight from someone....

Oh, and please DO verify this information, using for example:

THIS track:
https://imgur.com/cxi1y2D

("Rock_Backbeat_90_bpm")

And then delete ALL automations in the envelope view:

https://imgur.com/f701DV2

(In this clip its "Midi CTRL 11: Expresssion Controller","Midi CTRL 16: General Purpose 1", "Midi CTRL 88: Undefined")

[Swedra]

Im having issues as well, which seem to mostly go away when I put the energy plan to High Performance while using Live 11, it feels like Live or Windows doesnt properly allocate resources to Ableton since a year or so or something.

EDIT: I have to do more testing, but unlocking the option in power settings to be able to set a minimum amount of unparked cores and then setting it to 80% instead of the default 4% looks very promising!