ORIGINAL: juca

Intel D945Gnt

I don´t know if the chipset 945G have the same structure as the old 865, the one I have in my Asus P4P800-E motherboard. In my scenario, I have two SATA ports which are controlled by the chipset itself and two ports which are controlled by the onboard Promise controller. The problem is which the Promise use the PCI bus and this can to be problematic. To use the ports directly controlled by the chipset is the way to go.
As i saw in the MB specs, all four SATA slots are controlled by the chipset, so this advice can not make difference.

juca (and Brian) here is the spec for the MOBO. As you said, all four SATA ports come right off the Southbridge. But don't knock your own advice, juca. It worked for Nash, and if I am not mistaken his board also had all four SATA coming off the Southbridge, so it could still work here.

However, if it doesn't work, it may be for a different reason. It could be that all four SATA share an IRQ with something, in which case switching to Native mode might help. But it may be a deeper problem due to PCIe itself. Brian really needs to take it one step at a time, starting with the easiest/cheapest thing first. Anyway, thanks for chiming in. (Since you are Brazilero, can I call you a Southbridge? Sorry, maybe better not...)

[edited for typos and clarity]

ORIGINAL: losguy
Since you are Brazilero, can I call you a Southbridge? Sorry, maybe better not...)

Carlos:
No problem if the south side of the bridge is the "side of the well" . (Sorry, maybe better also, no?).
Greetings and good weekend.

ORIGINAL: juca

ORIGINAL: losguy
Since you are Brazilero, can I call you a Southbridge? Sorry, maybe better not...)

Carlos:
No problem if the south side of the bridge is the "side of the well" . (Sorry, maybe better also, no?).
Greetings and good weekend.

Ha ha! I have no problem with that, especially since I was born in Argentina!

I was actually thinking of a "bridge" being more like an "ambassador" who helps cross the "gap" between different peoples. So in that sense, you are the bridge to SA.

Thanks guys. I am trying to implement some of these suggestions but for some reasons I lost the connection to the Gina cards outputs and re-installing the driver is not fixing the problem

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
Thanks guys. I am trying to implement some of these suggestions but for some reasons I lost the connection to the Gina cards outputs and re-installing the driver is not fixing the problem

It may be something simple. You could always try power-cycling. Hope you get it sorted...

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
Let me ask you guys something. You think a USB or Firewire Audio interface on its own IRQ would solve my problems? I may just do that and leave the Gina on my old XP.

Besides the solutions already offered to you, that is another of many possible options. What you choose depends on what kind of configuration you prefer to end up with, and how much money you want to spend.

BTW, what's an "old XP"?

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
Thanks guys. I am trying to implement some of these suggestions but for some reasons I lost the connection to the Gina cards outputs and re-installing the driver is not fixing the problem

Hi Brian:
In the meantime, have you landed a solution for that problem? What did occur?
Greetings.

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
I'm not sure why I lost the outputs?? I moved the card to another slot and got it up and running again. By the way, moving the SATA drives to the other slots did not fix my issue. I'm not sure if I really want to get a downgrade on graphics to fix this. I'll see what the guy that built this computer can do for me.

Could you try installing a PCI Latency tool and report back what you find for the latencies? Of particular interest are all nonzero entries, plus your graphics adapter, whatever it says.

So I switched the SATA drives to the other two slots and I switched the ATA mode from Enhanced to Legacy (I assume this is the setting you were referring to as Native). I thought at first it was a huge improvement but after playing around a bit with Latency settings I'm not so sure. It's a crapshoot. One moment at 10ms latency is halfway decent then it's crappy. I just had it at 2.9ms and it was decent (still pops and clicks like playing a phonograph record) but then I ran the wave profiler and 2.9 was near total distortion.

I ran the PCI Latency Tool and everthing is at 000 latency except my Gina Card (192) and the Intel PRO 100 VE Network Connection (032). I assume the PRO 100 VE is my LAN connection which at this point I don't plan on using.

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
So I switched the SATA drives to the other two slots and I switched the ATA mode from Enhanced to Legacy (I assume this is the setting you were referring to as Native).

Actually, it's a little hard to tell because the nomenclature doesn't quite exactly match up. In addition, ATA usually suggests PATA, not SATA, but these days they're getting more and more interchangeable as BIOS'es increasingly support SATA and RAID. The only word in common with the Intel Spec is "Legacy", which is actually the one to avoid. Based on that, you had it right to begin with, and you should switch it back.

I ran the PCI Latency Tool and everthing is at 000 latency except my Gina Card (192) and the Intel PRO 100 VE Network Connection (032).

This is strong evidence that, despite what they (don't) say in the Intel spec, the onboard graphics are interfaced internally through a high-bandwidth system, either internal PCIe or something else at an internal level of priority equivalent to PCIe or higher. Regardless of whether it's PCIe or AGP internally, they've left no option for throttling bandwidth through the PCI latency parameter. So, it appears that your options have narrowed somewhat.

Based on Nash's prior success, you may have success by moving to a USB2 and/or Firewire audio interface. It might be worth a try, if you can budget it (and have the time to return it if it doesn't work). If you do that, you may need to play with parameters or connections to get IRQs isolated (like Nash did).

Either that, or move down to a PCI graphics card. It's not as bad as it sounds. DAWs generally don't need a lot of graphics performance or bandwidth. And PCI graphics can be tamed with a PCI utility.

I assume the PRO 100 VE is my LAN connection which at this point I don't plan on using.

Right, during DAW use you could disable the LAN if you want.

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
Here's what I don't get about the Firewire fix though. I would have to add a PCI Firewire card. Wouldn't that put me in the same boat as the PCI Audio card?

I wasn't aware that your MOBO didn't have an integrated Firewire port. The Intel spec shows it as optional, but I didn't know for sure. If you don't, then you are right, you would want to try a PCIe (PCI Express) Firewire card to at least have a fighting chance.

I may slap in a PCI graphics card. It kills me to have to go from PCI to USB if that's what I have to do. Who knows, perhaps USB is sufficient for my needs (I only record 1 to 2 simultaneous tracks).

You most likely have USB2 integrated on your MOBO, in which case you could probably support all the simultaneous channels of audio I/O that you need to. It's worth a shot, maybe before going with the PCI graphics.

Cakewalk Tech support gave me a couple of things to try as well. (1) disable ACPI. (2) Chnage the Mode of my IDE devices form PIO to DMA or vis-versa.

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
Cakewalk Tech support gave me a couple of things to try as well. (1) disable ACPI. (2) Chnage the Mode of my IDE devices form PIO to DMA or vis-versa.

Hi Brian:
1- Disable ACPI isn´t a good advice, mainly with modern motherboards. If I was you I still with ACPI and only apply it as a last resource;
2- I ever did think you had the HDs working at DMA. Never work with it at PIO mode (poor performance). So, the vice-versa is only aplicable in an intermediary condition, as when is impossible turn DMA to work, uninstalling and re-installing the devices (now in PIO mode) and setting it to DMA. For audio, only DMA is acceptable.
I can to give other advice:
3- With Sonar closed, delete the Aud.ini and TTSSeq.ini files from the Sonar folder. Open Sonar and permit it to run the Waveprofiler procedure. Go to Options/Audio/Advanced and set I/O Buffer size to 256 or 512 (make tests with the two numbers). Go to Options/Global/Audio Data and re-select the folders for Global Audio Folder and Picture Folder. Open a project which did show problems and verify if the problemas was gone.
Good luck!

On Edit: hey losguy, you was very fast . But our advices was very closed ...

I've tried it all but the PCI graphics card which I'm about to do now. I actually had Sonar up and running with 2.9 ms latency playing clean audio. I even played two different projects. Then I closed Sonar and opened it again and it was near full blown distortion.

In the BIOS I do see a PCI Latency Timer setting. Currently it is set to 32.

Is it still possible that if I go with Ultra DMA drives this problem could go away. My PC maker is willing to buy back the SATA drives.

I have disabled LAN, Sound, and Parallel ports. I have the Gina on its own IRQ (Slot 2).

I'll report back after I have installed the graphics card.

ORIGINAL: bdevlin
I actually had Sonar up and running with 2.9 ms latency playing clean audio. I even played two different projects. Then I closed Sonar and opened it again and it was near full blown distortion.

And your problem with that is? Oh, sorry, you're not doing Death Metal? OK... (sorry, I couldn't resist)

Distortion like that is different from glitching. That's probably a bitrate or sync problem with your audio driver(s). I'm assuming by your later posts that the distortion went away and you're now back to glitching.

I have the Gina on its own IRQ (Slot 2).

OK, good.

Is it still possible that if I go with Ultra DMA drives this problem could go away. My PC maker is willing to buy back the SATA drives.

I suppose that it could be possible that going with IDE drives (I think that's what you meant to say) might fix it... but I doubt it. The glitching issues that started this thread were for a completely different reason that is not applicable to your MOBO.

Graphics card was installed and I disabled the onboard graphics. No changes. Still had the horrific glitching.

I assume that it's a PCI graphics card? What kind? If so, did you make sure to:

1) Lower the PCI latency of the graphics card to something like 32 or 64?
2) Check your IRQ map again to make sure the audio card is still on its own IRQ?