Ableton Forum

I have just sold my g5 imac and got a pc as per my stats below. I have had INCREDIBLE CPU improvement. But i am having some problems:
1 . Midi not being recognised intermittently, it IS showing up in the preferences though not as Keystation 88 as on the mac.

2 Very slow editing of any buttons and settings on live interface. + Not playing clips.

This is strange as wwhen it was running last night I hadd at least 5 times the CPU capability as the imac. I actually could not get the cPU to freeze or stutter by throwing more instruments and effects (I gave up after 9 tracks with heaps of reverbs on 1st class, the imac would pac it in on 2 of these).

Is it possibly an issue of waiting for Live 6 for full dual core support?

It has been doing a weird thing which might explain- when i close and reopen after the forementioned freezing, a box comes up saying that Live has detected another rewire device- please close application etc.. i am running no plug ins but wonder if there is a mirroring going on with the 2 cores?
Any help would be appreciated.

Ta!

I have fixed it myself, i reinstalled windows and i have tracked the problem to a NVidia windows display program which i removed and have not had this problem since.
I have had audio crakling and dropouts on restarting which i have traced to I-Cool, a program that came with the motherboard to control fan noise. Since removed no problems.
All is running smooth as silk. ANd live 6 is supposed to be twice as efficient! When i get that i think this beast that cost $1700 aus ( half the price of my previous mediocre imac g5 12 months previous), i can't see an upgrade really needed for years. It is about 4-5 times more efficient than the mac. Yet Windows is a tad tedious and ugly.
This did not work, please see later post.

Please, anyone having pc issues- Check with the shop, what i have thought was software or system setting faults was actually a faulty cable connecting the hard drive.
Really, you have no idea how much time i have spent searching forums, changing settings, reinstalling windows etc.......... Well, maybe you do, by the looks of it i am not alone.
Incidently, i checked the error log in the task manager (ctrl/alt/del) and traced the issue through windows support.
Now my pc is stable and quicker than ever, phew!!!
And now Live 6 is making life even easier!!! Automap and takeup mode- no need for endless knobs and flying faders now!!! I won't have to throw my keystation 88 out now, well not for that reason, still has squeaky keys and a long action!

hey gavscope,

thanks for the advice. i'm running a duo core PC (not core 2 duo) and have been having some problems as well. I have a Pentium D duo core 3ghz, 3 gigs of RAM, and at times (not all the time) when i load up a project (i'm using Live 5.2.2) my CPU meter shoots up above 100%, before i even hit play. half the time i can work on these projects (20+ audio/midi tracks), and most of the time my desktop can handle much more than my P4 toshiba laptop (3.33ghz/1.5RAM), but it's been freezing more and more lately. I haven't installed any new/pirated software. i recently got a new CPU fan because my previous one was not strong enough and my computer would freeze about 5 minutes after being turned on.

the other thing is i've noticed turning on hyperthreading definitely crashes my computer. i'm not so technical so i have a hard time tracing the source of these problems. if you or anyone can shed some light it would be much much appreciated!!

hi mr electrosmith,
i don't know if yours is the same problem, pc's are so finicky.
i have learnt alot about them whilst trying to solve my problem though.
What can be really annoying is that when you try something it seems to work and then plays up again a short time later!
How I eventually fixed mine ( and it is fixed, it has been running perfectly for a week and a half now), was by opening control panel, then administrative tools, then event manager, then selected system. A list comes up of errors including what time, what part etc. If you see alot of errors or warnings coming up, you can right click on one, select properties and click on the link to go straight to microsoft help and support site for info on that specific error.
Mine was coming up with error id's 9 and 51. It suggested checking cables and voila! it was fixed.javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy
If it is a sata hard drive you can unplug them and replug even while the computer is running (i wouldn't try that though!). My pc was detecting it as an ata 100 drive so had a really slow transfer speed. i changed the plug and the port (making sure it was still on the sata2 port on the motherboard), when i booted up windows recognised it as an scsi hard disk- this is totally normal from what i have read- windows hasn't been designed to rcognise sata drives yet. Also you don't have to worry about master/ slaves with other drives on your pc, sata drives don't work like that and you will most likely find that your bios already configures it appropriately.
Hope this is of assistance to anyone.
However, after the many, many, many frustrating hours i spent trying to fix mine, i couldn't recommend taking a pc with constant issues to the shop- where i bought mine would have picked it up in 2 minutes i reckon.
i thought i didn't want the inconvenience of transporting it, but REALLY i got much more trying to fix it myself.

all the best,
gavin scope

By the way, disregard my previous posts except for the fact that these are examples of how frustrating it is when trying to fix things yourself, the previous attempts worked for a day or two, but all can really be traced to the faulty hard drive cable!

hi gavscope,

that's a very cool tip. going to check event manager page tonight.

i know this is not an ableton-related question but.....has anybody else's PC run into crashing issues when you have hyperthreading turned on? when it was running smoothly at one point with HT on i did notice a significant improvement in handling my Live projects, and now without HT I have to split a song into two separate Live sets (1st half/2nd half) so that it wouldn't halt every time I open it.

hey gav,

just a little update - i just checked my error log tonight. tons of error 7 and 11...it's something wrong with my hard drive. it said i have a bad block in my drive (7) and to replace it, and that i have a failing cable (11) connecting my drive. gonna check right now.

just wanna say thanks again soooo much for the tip!

fantastic, i hope all goes well, post how you went.
By the way, i just swapped my keystation 88 for an axiom 61 today- very impressed!
Just finally laid down the beginnings of a track after tinkering for 15 months. I am very excited that it is all starting to come together.
Where would we be without the humble arpeggiator, I even use it on the impulse!

arp on the impulse....sweet! i've started using arpeggiator + random a lot. sometimes with beat repeat.

i know exactly how it feels to start working on a track again after not touching it for a long time. i like taking breaks from tracks on purpose just to go back to them later with fresh ears.

the axiom is great. i myself am a big fan of novation. post your track up when you're done! i'll do the same.