SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc...

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Guitarmech111
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2013/01/30 11:20:04 (permalink)

SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc...

I will start with I have no issue with IDE mode on my system with the setup I have. I recently bought a CORSAIR GS series SSD and wanted to make sure I was getting the best performance forom it. I know almost nothing about AHCI and what I am supposed to be getting.
 
I have the following system config:
 
ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX
amd fx-8150 8 core processor am3+
16G Corsair 1066 DDR3
PNY GTX670 2g gddr5
Corsair Force GS 240G SSD
2 - Samsung HD103UJ SATA drives
WDC WD100FALS SATA
RME FireFace 800 UFX - USB drivers
SONY DVD+-R/RW
LG BR+HD Multi ROM
SONAR Producer 8.5+, X1, X2 + hotfixes
Win7 Ultimate 64
 
I changed to AHCI in the BIOS and the system is rock solid stable and has a performance rating of 7.6 in the windows control panel. It was 5.6 so I know I have an improvement.
 
I have all of the latest ASMedia 106 drivers for the SATA controller. I have zero IDE native components in this machine.
 
I have the latest driver for my UFX too. Rock solid in IDE mode with all versions of SONAR.
 
When I setup AHCI, the system is rock solid, but all versions of SONAR dropout. I even have the ASIO buffers up to 2048 during playback and still get dropouts. The 8 cores are showing no load whatsoever and there is plenty of room on the drives that the project is coming from. The drive has 1% fragmentation so the files are pretty much lined up.
 
Any help/thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I searched the forums, but nothing recent seems to apply that I have found. TIA!
 
 
 
 

Peace,
Conley Shepherd
Joyful Noise Productions
PC config: (Win performance base score = 7.7) ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX -amd fx-8150 - core processor am3+ - 32G Corsair 1066 DDR3 - PNY GTX670 2g gddr5 - Corsair Force SSD 120G - Samsung 750G SATA drives - WD 1tb Black (Audio files) - WD 2TB for storage - RME UFX - USB ASIO 2/2016 drivers Win8 

 
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    tlw
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 13:02:15 (permalink)
    Assuming you installed Windows with the BIOS set to IDE, then as well as enabling AHCI in the BIOS, did you make the necessary registry change in Windows?

    Sonar Platinum 64bit, Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit, I7 3770K Ivybridge, 16GB Ram, Gigabyte Z77-D3H m/board,
    ATI 7750 graphics+ 1GB RAM, 2xIntel 520 series 220GB SSDs, 1 TB Samsung F3 + 1 TB WD HDDs, Seasonic fanless 460W psu, RME Fireface UFX, Focusrite Octopre.
    Assorted real synths, guitars, mandolins, diatonic accordions, percussion, fx and other stuff.
    #2
    Guitarmech111
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 14:14:16 (permalink)
    Thanks for the reply. yes, the registry was changed with the windows fix-it utility from M$.


    Peace,
    Conley Shepherd
    Joyful Noise Productions
    PC config: (Win performance base score = 7.7) ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX -amd fx-8150 - core processor am3+ - 32G Corsair 1066 DDR3 - PNY GTX670 2g gddr5 - Corsair Force SSD 120G - Samsung 750G SATA drives - WD 1tb Black (Audio files) - WD 2TB for storage - RME UFX - USB ASIO 2/2016 drivers Win8 

     
    Without a mess, there is no message
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    tlw
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 17:34:36 (permalink)
    In which case, sorry but I'm out of ideas at the moment, other than suggesting (if you;ve not already done it) checking the Windows event log to see if there are disc read/write errors logged, running checkdisk on everything and seeing if any drive's SMART is reporting any problems, especially the new drive.
     
    Just because a drive is new doesn't mean it isn't faulty......

    A switch to AHCI shouldn't in itself cause problems as far as I can see - I've done it myself on this computer (I failed to notice IDE was enabled in the BIOS by default) with no ill effects on anything whatsoever.

    Sonar Platinum 64bit, Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit, I7 3770K Ivybridge, 16GB Ram, Gigabyte Z77-D3H m/board,
    ATI 7750 graphics+ 1GB RAM, 2xIntel 520 series 220GB SSDs, 1 TB Samsung F3 + 1 TB WD HDDs, Seasonic fanless 460W psu, RME Fireface UFX, Focusrite Octopre.
    Assorted real synths, guitars, mandolins, diatonic accordions, percussion, fx and other stuff.
    #4
    Guitarmech111
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 19:15:21 (permalink)
    thanks, I have found that a latency viewer shows USBPORT.SYS ans causing spikes. I downloaded the hotfix mentioned, but said it did not apply to my application. My USBPORT drivers for Win7 are dated 2k6 so they have never been updated. Don't know what is going there either.

    I am running fine with IDE, but it would be nice to know why AHCI does not work well with SONAR and my audio interface.

    Peace,
    Conley Shepherd
    Joyful Noise Productions
    PC config: (Win performance base score = 7.7) ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX -amd fx-8150 - core processor am3+ - 32G Corsair 1066 DDR3 - PNY GTX670 2g gddr5 - Corsair Force SSD 120G - Samsung 750G SATA drives - WD 1tb Black (Audio files) - WD 2TB for storage - RME UFX - USB ASIO 2/2016 drivers Win8 

     
    Without a mess, there is no message
    #5
    Splat
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 19:43:25 (permalink)
    Turn off any AMD CPU power saving features in the BIOS and see if this makes a difference. Update your BIOS for your computer and firmware everywhere. Update drivers everywhere. Run Windows update.

    Sell by date at 9000 posts. Do not feed.
    @48/24 & 128 buffers latency is 367 with offset of 38.

    Sonar Platinum(64 bit),Win 8.1(64 bit),Saffire Pro 40(Firewire),Mix Control = 3.4,Firewire=VIA,Dell Studio XPS 8100(Intel Core i7 CPU 2.93 Ghz/16 Gb),4 x Seagate ST31500341AS (mirrored),GeForce GTX 460,Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard,Roland A-300PRO,Roland SPD-30 V2,FD-8,Triggera Krigg,Shure SM7B,Yamaha HS5.Maschine Studio+Komplete 9 Ultimate+Kontrol Z1.Addictive Keys,Izotope Nectar elements,Overloud Bundle,Geist.Acronis True Image 2014.
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    arachnaut
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 19:59:14 (permalink)

    Guitarmech111


    thanks, I have found that a latency viewer shows USBPORT.SYS ans causing spikes. I downloaded the hotfix mentioned, but said it did not apply to my application. My USBPORT drivers for Win7 are dated 2k6 so they have never been updated. Don't know what is going there either.

    I am running fine with IDE, but it would be nice to know why AHCI does not work well with SONAR and my audio interface.

    Since you are using RME FireFace 800 UFX - USB drivers and that is showing the latency spikes, my guess would be looking into the interface settings and drivers. A good audio interface should not have glitches.

    - Jim Hurley -
    SONAR Platinum - x64  - Windows 10 Pro 
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0;  Core i7-2600K@4.4GHz; 16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X;
    GeForce GT 740; Saffire Pro14 MixControl 3.7; Axiom 61
    64-Bit audio, SR: 48kHz, ASIO 256 samples latency, Rec/Play I/O Buffers 512k, Total Round Trip Latency 13 ms, Pow-r 3 dither 
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    Splat
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/30 20:05:56 (permalink)
    Oh and in addition to my previous post also update your motherboard chipset drivers...

    Sell by date at 9000 posts. Do not feed.
    @48/24 & 128 buffers latency is 367 with offset of 38.

    Sonar Platinum(64 bit),Win 8.1(64 bit),Saffire Pro 40(Firewire),Mix Control = 3.4,Firewire=VIA,Dell Studio XPS 8100(Intel Core i7 CPU 2.93 Ghz/16 Gb),4 x Seagate ST31500341AS (mirrored),GeForce GTX 460,Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard,Roland A-300PRO,Roland SPD-30 V2,FD-8,Triggera Krigg,Shure SM7B,Yamaha HS5.Maschine Studio+Komplete 9 Ultimate+Kontrol Z1.Addictive Keys,Izotope Nectar elements,Overloud Bundle,Geist.Acronis True Image 2014.
    #8
    Guitarmech111
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    Re:SONAR and AHCI dropouts - ASUS Sabertooth SATA3 SSD, etc... 2013/01/31 07:52:26 (permalink)
    I basically took all the ASUS provided utilities out of the mix, removed the 670 utilities and flashed my BIOS. My gut feeling is that the utilities were the culprit. I have just the basic drivers and no mainboard or video utilities running and my system is more stable in AHCI mode. What a PITA. I should have stuck to my real gut feeling that a DAW should not have to have all that other stuff installed.

    For a DAW - the KISS principle for utilities is a good start.

    Thanks for all the replies guys. Much appreciated that you took time to check up on this for me. Been gone for a bit, but I still like this place!  :)

    Peace,
    Conley Shepherd
    Joyful Noise Productions
    PC config: (Win performance base score = 7.7) ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX -amd fx-8150 - core processor am3+ - 32G Corsair 1066 DDR3 - PNY GTX670 2g gddr5 - Corsair Force SSD 120G - Samsung 750G SATA drives - WD 1tb Black (Audio files) - WD 2TB for storage - RME UFX - USB ASIO 2/2016 drivers Win8 

     
    Without a mess, there is no message
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