Ableton Forum

HEy guys,

i am going crazy....

Dont know what to do anymore.
Its an Audiocard-problem, less an Ableton problem,
but i hope that somebody can help.

I got a new DELL Laptop Latitude D830
2x2,2 Ghz 2GB Ram, 160GB HD, nice unit.

If i want to use my external audio device, i got crackles over crackles while playing audiofiles from my liveset. (crackles too, if i play tracks with quicktime) If i use the internal audio, its working !
The Audiofire2 runs great with my old laptop, no problem.
Now i am thinking about some XP/Windows specific options, they are not correctly adjusted ?! I am using Audio-software since 10 years, and i never had these crackle-problems. I configured the System, optimized for audio (musicXP.com) and i don´t know what to do more...
hope somebody has an idea.

Thanks

System:

Dell Latitude D830
T7500 Intel Core 2x2,2Ghz
2x1024GB Ram
160GB HD / 7200upm
Windows Prof. SP2
Ableton Live 601/701
Echo Audio Audiofire2 (latest driver)
UC33 Evolution Controller 2x

Nobody an idea ?

If i deactivate the DVD/RW, it works !

But thats not the solution!!!
What kind of Notebook is it, when i always have to deactivate the DVD-Drive to get a clean audio signal ?

Dell sucks or what ?

it's always a bit tricky to configure a proper set-up. how about to deactivate your internal network-card? does that help?

Is the dvd drive connected via an internal usb controller? I saw that implementation on some notebooks. Maybe the usb controller of the dvd drive shares an interrupt with the firewire controller. You can look this up in the device manager (-> view -> sort ressources by connection).

Which brand is the firewire controller? A lot of problems of firewire based audio interfaces are related to the fw controller. Texas Instruments controllers are the most reliable, with differents brands (Agere, VIA,...) ymmv.

firstly, are you using the latest drivers for everything? [edit - whoops, just noticed you mention you're using the latests driver...] and have you adjusted the soundcards latency settings? maybe tried the asio4all driver (http://www.asio4all.com) to see if that changes things?

strange that disabling the dvd drive fixes it though - that does make it sound like an IRQ problem which may be a difficult thing to fix...

hey guys,

thanks for your posts.

It seems to be a incompatibility-problem with Santa Rosa and some other components, drivers affecting audio-output via firewire.
I really tried EVERYTHING:
New XP Clean Installation, all XP tuning tips, Bios Settings (deactivation wlan/int.sound/bluetooth), IRQ ok, latest Driver, firmwareupdate...and so many more...
I spoke with the Echo-Support, Ableton Support, Dell Support,,,,
a odyssee...Nothing helped.

I found this thread but all these ideas won´t help too.
I decided to send the LATITUDE back.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=73829

I Found "musikcomputer.de" - a german store. they are building and optimizing notebooks especially for AUDIO ! Think, thats what i need...
(recommend from ableton)

Greetz&THX
A.

would be nice if you could let us know how your new laptop works out, seems like a nice company and their customization rocks!

i will !!

Having similar problem with a Dell notebook and a FW410 - heard recommendations to get a cardbus FW card... looking into it, can get em pretty cheap.

unfortunately "musikcomputer.de" is not the solution.
they are only using glare (mirroring) displays.
Think is horrorable in a club ?! Or am i wrong ??

Don´t know which Laptop i have to buy, think NO new one with SANTA ROSA, better AMD ? Who knows....
I ordered a 200GB for my old Inspiron6400 and i hope this will be MY solution for now

Dont understand why this problem is not more public.
It seems to be a incompatibility-problem with Intel and firewire !

cheers...

i dont think that glare type displays would be that of a big problem. At least if the rest of the machine works smoothly i wouldnt hesitate to try it out. Dont they have some kind of 30 day refund policy or something? You could easily test it for yourself then.

But its true, finding a reliable machine that's working perfectly out of the box is quite a task, thats why i am still gigging with my 4 year old dell tank . It worked perfectly from day one and still does...

what about AMD processors ?!
this could be a solution ?!Its much more cheaper and i think its running like a intel (without problems) ?!