I've had some unexplained problems with dropouts - audio dropouts, but mostly puzzling midi dropouts and erratic loss of focus with softsynths. I'm thinking about doing a clean install of Win 7, then doing all the motherboard updates. Win updates, video driver updates, then start adding hardware like my Layla PCI cards, midi interface, then Sonar.
 
What is the best order I should do all these things? Like when should I start customization of Win 7, of which I have a lot, like optimizations? I'm an avid Acronis image creator and already have tons of images at different phases of a clean install already. I was thinking of stating with a clean install I did last year with X3. There is little installed besides X3.
 
My goal is to have Sonar 8.53 and Platinum, plus all the other things I have installed like Ivory, Superior Drummer, Vienna Instruments, VSampler, Finale 2012.
 
Any suggestions?

FWIW, I like to take a "foundation" type approach.
Start with the fundamentals (OS/Hardware)... and build out/up (Apps/Plugins)
 

• Clean install of OS
• Apply Windows updates
• Install drivers for motherboard
• Install drivers for audio interface and other hardware (MIDI controllers, etc)
• Install DAW applications
• Install plugins

Jim Roseberry
FWIW, I like to take a "foundation" type approach.
Start with the fundamentals (OS/Hardware)... and build out/up (Apps/Plugins)
 

• Clean install of OS
• Apply Windows updates
• Install drivers for motherboard
• Install drivers for audio interface and other hardware (MIDI controllers, etc)
• Install DAW applications
• Install plugins

Thanks Jim, it's a tribute to your rock solid computer building that this has lasted me 6 years. I realize I may be getting to the end of it's use, but should I be getting these kind of results from LatencyMon in Win7?
http://forum.cakewalk.com/LatencyMon-how-to-interpret-results-m3205730.aspx
 
 
When I first got it I was using XP and only recently found this LatencyMon for Win7 tool, so I never tried it with XP. If I do a clean install, do you think I still may get these kind of results with LatencyMon?
 
Thanks for all your help through the years,

Hi Gerry,
 
Run Latency Mon while the system is idle.
What's the highest peak reported?

Jim I left my computer for about 1:15 with Sonar 8.5 open, but idle. I didn't get a failing report, which is usual for idle. When you say idle, do you really mean not even Sonar open? Is idle the correct way to run LatencyMon? Or should you try it with a full load recording with Sonar? Most of the tests I ran in that post were just recording Ivory with Superior Drummer playing a loop and 2 vocal tracks. Here's a snip of LatencyMon and also the complete Stats report below. Thanks, man.
 

 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  1:17:50  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        Q9450
OS version:                                           Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware:                                             EP45-DS3R, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9450 @ 2.66GHz
Logical processors:                                   4
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  4094 MB total
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3200.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   1947.0 MHz (approx.)
 
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
 
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   958.663247
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   3.996017
 
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       319.981057
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0.929498
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
 
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              357.2450
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       ataport.SYS - ATAPI Driver Extension, Microsoft Corporation
 
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.070803
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
 
Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.088288
 
ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   7385510
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                1
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
 
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              234.02750
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation
 
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          1.116648
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation
 
Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          1.367165
 
DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   47198337
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
 
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
 
Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe
 
Total number of hard pagefaults                       4280
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          3333
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          267492.630
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              0.124485
Number of processes hit:                              21
 
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       143.026217
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                121.670
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   5.508193
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      5347557
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                234.02750
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   93.958321
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      36471589
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       69.100261
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                357.2450
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   3.496595
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      679557
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                192.72250
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   49.472060
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      3569923
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       103.196193
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                118.55750
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   3.957995
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      679029
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                171.2750
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   61.877458
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      3568874
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       84.732416
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                118.480
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   3.531480
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      679368
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                162.02250
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   50.109285
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      3587951
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi Gerry,
 
I'd run Latency Mon while the machine is completely idle (no open programs).
What's the highest reported DPC Latency?

Jim Roseberry
Hi Gerry,
 
I'd run Latency Mon while the machine is completely idle (no open programs).
What's the highest reported DPC Latency?

 
Thanks for your advice on the clean install. I did it and installed Platinum only plus Ivory and Superior Drummer. I recorded piano, bass, and drums on several songs today, did lots of punching in and didn't have one dropout or loss of focus like I had been having. With the other Win7 install I'd been having a dropout about every 20 min doing this sort of recording, so this is a definite huge improvement.
 
I'm amazed at how fast everything is, Win7 had gotten sluggish. I did very few tweaks, just "no sounds" in Windows, made sure my onboard Realtek audio was playing wav files with Win Media Player, etc, turned off Power Options. I left indexing on for my C drive and left Windows Search on. This time I let Windows Update handle my Nvidia driver instead of downloading the file from Nvidia.  IS that a better way for installing a video driver?
 
As I install others things I need I'll watch things closely and keep making new image files, in case I need to revert.
 
Thanks again,

Hi Gerry,
 
Windows Updates will install Nvidia drivers... they might not be as up-to-date as downloading from www.nvidia.com
If everything is working well... and you've got low/consistent DPC Latency, I wouldn't worry about updating the nvidia driver.