Ableton Forum

goddamn cpu spikes all of a sudden! no matter what i'm doing! running live, running reason, or just something as simple as listening to stuff winamp, or itunes, etc... the cpu gets these sudden spikes that get my audio stuttering, glitching, and doing all sorts of funny stuff... and not in a stylish, cool sounding, pre-meditated, rythmic way like BT does with his music, but the total opposite... totally random, and extremely annoying.

I've done everything. Registry and disk cleanups, uninstalled a bunch of useless crap, turned off visual FX, disabled unnecessary services... THE WORKS!!

and still i get the ever so annoying glitches. Any other suggestions?

I have a MBP which gives me NO trouble at all, so of course the natural reaction would be to just say F*** this PC, lets just use the MBP.

but i still like to go back to my PC every once in a while, for old times sake. I really dont want to give up on it entirely.

So... any suggestions as to what might be causing this and how to get rid of the issue? It happens with both my soundcards, so I know it must be an issue with the pc itself.

PLEASE HELP!! Help me to conserve the last little bit of hope I have left for PC's before I write them off for good!!

aqua_tek wrote:goddamn cpu spikes all of a sudden! no matter what i'm doing! running live, running reason, or just something as simple as listening to stuff winamp, or itunes, etc... the cpu gets these sudden spikes that get my audio stuttering, glitching, and doing all sorts of funny stuff... and not in a stylish, cool sounding, pre-meditated, rythmic way like BT does with his music, but the total opposite... totally random, and extremely annoying.

I've done everything. Registry and disk cleanups, uninstalled a bunch of useless crap, turned off visual FX, disabled unnecessary services... THE WORKS!!

and still i get the ever so annoying glitches. Any other suggestions?

I have a MBP which gives me NO trouble at all, so of course the natural reaction would be to just say F*** this PC, lets just use the MBP.

but i still like to go back to my PC every once in a while, for old times sake. I really dont want to give up on it entirely.

So... any suggestions as to what might be causing this and how to get rid of the issue? It happens with both my soundcards, so I know it must be an issue with the pc itself.

PLEASE HELP!! Help me to conserve the last little bit of hope I have left for PC's before I write them off for good!!

Standard answers might ask about your disk maintenence habits, the number of tasks running at start-up, and then finally suggest reformatting the harddrive and reinstalling.

if it's down to hardware problems then it seems like maybe a really disciplined troubleshooting session, which sux

swap out the video card, the ram, etc., one at a time?

do yo have heat issues?

do you have a lot of things running on usb or firewire?

insane cpu spikes usually = a virus
if not a virus it could be many things.
when you drag a window do you get a cpu spike, if so ....ya know what.. its probablly a virus.. im just ending it there...
man im so sick of windows..

maybe is itunes! try uninstall it
also telling us some computer specs ,
for example, OS version, soundcard's brands, drivers versions, weird program's names in the taskmanager,
would help instead of screaming around like a pussy!

from what little bit of info you've given it sounds like soundcard issues, buffer size? or it could be fixin' to die.

thanks for the answers.

I have to mention that this problem has started showing only recently... say 3 to 4 weeks. Before that i was having no real issues with my laptop

i have turned off all automatic startups, and unnecessary background services.

nothing running on USB. Just 2 soundcards, 1 of them pcmcia and the other one firewire... both have the same problem.

Buffer size wasnt giving me trouble before... but i've tried adjusting it a bit... no improvements.

Could be heat problems, as it is a small laptop and it actually does heat up quite a bit. Could also be some other hardware problems. But i'm not a computer wiz, so I dont feel very confident opening it up and fiddling around with stuff without the slightest idea of what i'm doing.

@ njh no i dont get the spikes when i drag windows. they're very random and quick, and seem to happen for no reason. I've done countless virus and spyware scans with no detected infections, so i think its fair to write that off.

@ zappen, its not just itunes. its with every other audio-related program. winamp, WMP, reason, live, etc... oh and i'm not a pussy. i'm a pussy lover

anyways at the moment i think the most obvious reason is the overheating. Actually had this thing crash on me a coule of times these past few weeks after a few hours of play, and then had it work perfectly after a few hours of rest and cooling down.

Maybe it is indeed the end of the road for this little baby. I that is the case, then at least we had a good run.

So i guess i'll have to stick to my mac for music making, and keep my pc for word processing and other office-type tasks.

open it up and vacuum out the CPU fan and heatsink area. Laptops are notorious for clogging up over time - eventually making them prone to heat death.
it will probably be as simple as lifting the keyboard off (there will be some hidden clips)

Hard drive failure? I'd look into that, particularly in a small laptop.

Dust.

Like someone said, hoover it but be very careful and obviously do it when the machine is switched off.

Reformating Windows can solve problems. This is why I hate windows.

first: have you set your power saving options to "always on"?

then, could you give us more detail about your specs: what's your CPU, RAM, laptop brand, soundcard....

...once you go Mac you never go back.

I swear on everything that I know is true that all of the instability issues and software/hardware conflicts I experienced (still do as I have to use Windows at work sometimes) with PCs I rarely, if ever, have do deal with on my Macs. They're pretty much rock solid.

That stated, if you choose to switch I would still suggest waiting a bit until all the software manufacturers get their stuff updated to UB for the new Intel Macs. But even then, I have a new MacBook that's running Ableton just as smooth as you could want.

If you go as far as formatting the hard drive and clean install of Windows....

I suggest the following:



1. When you install Windows, do the custom install and select only the features you need.

2. After you install Windows, Immediately Install Service Pack 2. Do not allow Windows to auto-update. Manually run Service Pack 2 from the Microsoft website. (When you allow auto-update, it installs a bunch of small security patches which get cumulatively added by SP2. So you get a bunch of redundant installs)

3. Once SP2 is installed, the next thing you should install is WinPatrol. This is a free program which monitors your system for any changes. If any program is installed after WinPatrol, and it makes changes to your registry, startup, etc... it will alert you and ask for your permission. Only allow those programs you need to alter your system.


Once you've got those steps done, continue installing software as normal.


By doing those steps, you'll be in control over your registry and system startup. No programs will sneak by and make changes without your knowing.

reinstalling windows is the quickest solution for who don't know how to take care of his pc, i personally leave it as the last last last solution,

i never heard of audio hickups due to Cpu overheat..

and oh yea, once you switch to macbook you will find RSS, kernel panics, and slow performance with rosetta, you could be forced to use your macbook for word processing and other office-type tasks, if you can keep it on...

If you want to reinstall windows. just don't let the computer connect directly to internet, use a hardware firewall, a router, a shared connection, that will keep the evil viruses out untill you update the system

my suggestion about you laptop is to show it to some really expert pc guy and let him see it.. since you don't have a clue..

zappen wrote:my suggestion about you laptop is to show it to some really expert pc guy and let him see it.. since you don't have a clue..

exactly why macs are so popular. not all of us want to invest a lot of time learning how to deal with our computer.


.lm.