Dell laptop problem

Hi There

I'm having some serious sound issues with my new laptop. I'm getting a lot of pops/dropouts and skips. I've turned off wireless (F2) and done the usual Vista tweaks giving priority to background services and power management, but no luck so far.

I've upgraded to a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop so I can do some basic music production work. I've been happily working with a pretty basic Inspiron 531 desktop with 1 gig RAM, Vista Home Ultimate, an Edirol UA-4FX soundcard and Sonar LE, and had no problems with latency and audio dropouts. This is our home workhorse and has worked well even when connected to the internet etc.

The problem definitely isn't the software, as I've tried Reaper and even Windows Media Player and am getting the same issues. I've tried changing buffer sizes in device manager.

I've been so impressed with this particular forum (and Home Studio) that I'd decided to check out my new laptop with Sonar LE and go for Music Creator 4 (if I'm quick!), MC5, or Sonar Home Studio.

Spec is: Pentium Core 2 Duo T6400, 3 Gig Ram, 250G hard drive (only 5400rpm, but dropouts are happening with all audio). I know I should get an external hard drive at some point.

Thanks in advance
Paul

Hi - I've re-downloaded & re-installed the Edirol driver for the UA-4FX on the laptop. I've switched the Sonar settings to asio as you suggest and on a 30 second clip with two guitars, there's no glitches at all! The Edirol manual does suggest using WDM/KS rather than ASIO with Sonar LE, but it wasn't working, although it works perfectly on an 18 month old Dell desktop.

The Asio buffers have defaulted to about half way between min and max and the default audio settings are now on 441000 for the sampling rate and 16 for the file bit depth. Would you recommend adjusting file bit to 24?

Sorry to go slightly off topic, but would anyone recommend MC5 over Sonar LE? I've tried a few different products, including (a registered copy) of Reaper and Sony Acid Music Studio and Sonar LE has an interface and feel that seems to work well for me.

Anyway, thanks very much for your help. I feel much more positive about the purchase than I did at 7am this morning!
Paul

Ah - I see what you're saying re 16 and 24 bit.

I've had an hour or so to try some settings and now I've re-installed the driver the WDM settings seem to work as well. Maybe the copy on my memory stick was corrupted.

With the soundcard I've got I can't record more than two inputs anyway, so maybe the more streamlined MC5 (or HS7) interface would suit me better. I don't think I can go wrong for £35, even if it were just for the cut down Amplitube and the included instruments.

Thanks for your help and advice.
Paul

I think LE can be pretty good if you use various free VSTs etc., but I know what you mean - I think it'd be better to keep things within one programme on the laptop, so I spend time recording and learning the software, rather than trying out loads of vst effects/instruments, enjoying it, but not ending up recording anything in the spare couple of hours I'd put aside!

You should update your Dell laptop drivers again then try you can take Dell technical support for proper solution.