Ableton Forum

i know this is probably not live enough related to be on this forum.....but folk here seem pretty knowledgeable so here goes......whenever i'm inactive in live for i'd say five minutes or more.......windows pops up a dialog saying "unsafe removal of device" as if i'd removed the usb cable of the ozone from the computer,...and then live says it cant recognize the audio interface......i'd heard about bad m-audio drivers so i thought it might be the ozone drivers,...but then windows pops a dialog saying "usb controller bandwidth exceeded",.."the controller does not have enough bandwidth available for the composite device"...when i click for help to fix the problem,...it says the controller does not have enough bandwidth as the usb composite device has requested 23% of bus bandwidth"....i thought the controller was the usb composite device?......the system is also reserving 14%......the only other usb device i have connected is an external cdrw.....but is never running when this dropout occurs.............after investigating i see that windows 2000 has assigned my nic card, my video card, and the "Intel AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller" to the same IRQ......BUT WIN2K wont let me manually change them in properties and i'm administrator.....my particular BIOS wont let me manually change them there either......i figured this is probably the problem,...I was wondering would XP fix this?......but then i notice that the ozone ejects itself and drops out of live not only from inactivity, but exactly when the heat or a/c kicks in or out.....down to the second even as i'm playing.....is this some type of ground issue?......in that case XP wouldn't help......anybody have a clue whats going on?.......

Bermuda,

If you're not getting consistent power to your machine, you're always going to struggle with your USB devices (and your OS as well, really). The machine playing up when the heat or aircon kicks in is a signal that you're getting a downward power spike when there's a sharp drain on the domestic power connection in your house/flat. you might notice a quick dimming of the lights or TV as well. What's probably happening is that a down spike, while not long enough to cause your machine to shutoff, is enough to cause a drop in the power being supplied by the USB bus to your device, which makes it think it's not connected, hence the popup.

what you (probably) need is a small UPS (uninterruptable power supply), which is basically a small motorbike battery in a housing which connects to the mains, then you connect your computer to the UPS. The computer actually runs off the battery, and the battery is constantly recharged by the mains. In this way, the UPS supplies a constant, clean power stream to your machine. Be careful of cheap "power conditioners", as they'll trap up spikes but not help when the line voltage drops.

Sadly these things are'nt cheap, but have a look on ebay. You don't need a 4 port monster, those things are for servers, just look for something small and compact. You can get "personal" versions in most of the big computer chains.

To verify that it's your house power at fault, you could get an electrician to check the line voltage as your appliances kick in. Needless to say don't try this yourself!

good luck.

matt

EXCELLENT ANALYSIS.......much appreciated mj.......i'll have to look for a ups......the only thing that seems strange is that the ozone has a power supply, so I assumed it wasn't powered by the usb bus......but same theory makes sense.....i hooked up the ozone to a friends laptop plugged into the same powerstrip and kept trying to manipulate the thermostat to try and replicate the problem,..but it didn't seem to occur......hmmm.....but a ups sounds good.....any idea if XP will better assign IRQ's or let me do it and whether that will fix the bus bandwidth popups that kick the ozone out?......anyway, thanks again.....good lookin out

No worries bermuda. You're right, the Ozone has a power block, but of course the same holds true... if the block doesn't get power, the pc senses the Ozone has dissappeared, and you get the popup.

You mention you get a dropout after periods of inactivity, so I'd also check your power settings in control panel. For audio work, you want the "Always On" setting, as the defaults allow your drives to shut off after a period of quiet, and in some systems, the processor can ease down to conserve power (if you're on batteries).

The fact that you can't replicate the problem on your friends laptop is a bit of a worry, and does tend to point to a config problem in your machine. I'll be honest and say I havn't tweaked an IRQ assignment since Windows 98, XP's handling of bus resources is so much improved.

Maybe you can post the details of your setup (pc wise). Failing that, make sure you have the latest SP release and drivers for your hardware.

Matthew