Ableton Forum

gjm wrote:

Arnold-Rimmer wrote:Sorry to maybe confuse the issue, but there could be something wrong with the RAM. I had a similar problem a few years ago with a desktop PC that was built for music. In my case it turned out to be a faulty RAM module.

Good luck.

I did notice that the 'Vitesta Extreme Edition' Ram I was supplied is not listed in the Qualified Vendors List in the Mobo's User Guide.

The System Properties does see the 2GB which was installed.

Not sure how to double check this. Thanks for the tip.

You could do a mem checkup :
http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Might be a stupid question, but have you definitely installed firewire drivers from the motherboard CD or manufacturer website? (if there are any on there)

Sometimes even without proper drivers installed certain devices will still operate with partial functionality, so I figured I would ask.

...and yeah do a memtest as well. Also make sure your ram is operating at its labeled timings in the bios and not being incorrectly auto-identified.

It absolutely sux that you have gone out of your way to get a hot machine, and you have to dig this deep. IRQ issues are *supposed* to be a thing of the past.

There are definitely issues with non-TI compliant firewire and some interfaces, when buying a card get a TI compliant one.

gjm wrote:A PCI card would occupy one of these IRQ's??

ava wrote:yes, i would image it would be 9,10, or 11. look at image 2.5.3 it's pci steering.

Cool, I wasn't sure what the word 'steering' meant.

ava wrote:Also, have you tried contacting the company that made your pc? they might help you.

The guy who made up the pc is one of the parents of two of my students. He is a nice guy. But for someone who runs a computer leasing business, and interestingly, he happens to supply boxes to a chain of Radio stations who use Protools, he has never put a Audio oriented PC together like this one. He was unaware of some of the finer details, like a TI FW chip set, which I specificly asked for. Any ways, its the weekend here and I usually see him Mondays when he brings his kids along. I'll slip it in the conversation then....

Thanks again for your help. Greg.

mikemc wrote:It absolutely sux that you have gone out of your way to get a hot machine, and you have to dig this deep. IRQ issues are *supposed* to be a thing of the past.

There are definitely issues with non-TI compliant firewire and some interfaces, when buying a card get a TI compliant one.

Yeah I know, my wife is even saying I should have just got a Mac
I did try last night your suggestion earlier of choosing the on board sound card and seeing if there was a difference. It was late and I only tinkered with playing files back. I tried the on board sound card, the Alesis, and an M-Audio Fast Track. I couldn't reproduce the glitching with any of them Today I will try and record and see what happens.

Thanks for your tips. Greg.

The strange thing is, the device that is sharing the same irq is your usb controller which is also part of your motherboard, there may be a bios setting that you can change the irq? just a guess, i would check this out first. You man even have to update your bios. Again just a guess...

ava wrote:The strange thing is, the device that is sharing the same irq is your usb controller which is also part of your motherboard, there may be a bios setting that you can change the irq? just a guess, i would check this out first. You man even have to update your bios. Again just a guess...

OK. I know there is quite a detailed (several pages) set of information in the User guide on managing the BIOS. I will try and make some sense of that today.

I didn't read the entire thread. I just read the OP and a few of the initial responses. All I can tell you is that I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3ghz, and I have had no problems at all. I bought my pc from Jim Roseberry. He also does tech support. I would try giving him a call if your problems persist. I think he charges a fee, but he may not if it's just something minor. He's a good guy and I'm sure he can get you up and running.

Here is a link to his website:

http://www.studiocat.com/


Just to let you know, he is a Sonar user. If you post a thread on Sonar's forum and pretend to be a Sonar user, he will probably help you out there for free. Here is a link to their forums:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tt.asp?forumi ... =1&smode=1



Just post a thread saying something like "Jim Roseberry Help Q6600 is glitching!"

gjm wrote:Yeah I know, my wife is even saying I should have just got a Mac

I like the way your wife is thinking.
She is obviously a deep and very wise woman.
You should listen to her more often.

That should be all i need to say on the matter.
Good luck with your endeavor.

gjm, seems like youre getting somewhere now.

have you tried disabling the usb controller in device manager, and see if that improves the latency spikes? It might help confirm the idea that its an IRQ conflict.

my current box is also a Q6600, and I had to buy a PCI-express TI Firewire card before i got my firebox playing nice. You should be able to get one for under fifty bucks. i got this one and it works a treat

https://www.lindy.com.au/online/arrshop ... rue&cat=b1

lola wrote:You could do a mem checkup :
http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Ummmmm......I took a look and there is quite a range of down loads. I am guessing its the top (21/02/2008) version, maybe in the zip.

Is it easy to use? Are there instructions? Given the steep learning curve to date, I'm looking at this with a big old blank stare....

I would:

1. Confirm the Alesis works well on another machine that works well w FW sound cards. Maybe even try it on a comp at the store?

Then (assuming #1 goes well):

2. Just spring $30 to pop in a known good (Belkin? IO Gear?) FW card in an open PCI slot.

why don't you just ditch Windows..

get OSX

put it on

evoid wrote:why don't you just ditch Windows..

get OSX

put it on

thanks for allowing us the priviledge of your obviously massive computer knowledge, and for making an excellent contribution to this thread.

I had the exact same thing happen with the alesis cards...I think they suck. If you can switch it out to a USB2 card, like the Native Instruments Audio Kontrol, you'll be in much better shape. If you have to stick with firewire, go with the Presonus Firepod. If you can recreate the problem with another firewire interface, then your firewire port might be the issue - is it the native port with the Asus board? If so, try the latest motherboard drivers and bios updates for the Asus. But I'm thinking it's the Alesis card, because this exact thing happened to me.

Also, you should do all the tweaks from MusicXP.net.