Stas
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/06 07:18:03
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Good tweak but my BIOS settings are too limited. Just realized that this HPET (High Precision Event Timer) could be disabled not only in BIOS but inside Windows in Devices under section System Devices, where it is presented as driver. Wonder, if disabled as driver is of the same effect for this HPET as beeing disabled in BIOS ?
post edited by Stas - 2010/04/06 07:23:51
Notebook Acer Aspire 7720G, IntelCore2Duo 2.2, NVIDIAGeForce9500MGS, M-AudioFW410, CreativeSoundBlasterX-FI Extreme ,XPProSP3 , Sonar851PE, Roland FP-4, CME U-key
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tuner
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/17 16:15:51
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Hi All,
I just wanted to express gratitude for this forum, this thread, and everyone who contributed. I'd been trying for a year to figure out why my quadcore computer was performing worse than my old single core machine, and y'all helped me finally figure it out. A special thanks to Jim (who I remember from years ago in the Samplitude forum) for his words of advice and encouragement.
These DCP issues can be mighty tricky, it seems. I tried every suggestion mentioned here, but couldn't get my latency below about 250 avg., with spikes of 2, sometimes even 4 milliseconds. It was apparently causing my Mackie Onyx to not just crackle and pop, but to lock up with a very high-pitched whine. A royal PITA.
Amusingly, my solution was found kind of by accident. Someone mentioned that enabling "ACPI" in BIOS could cause problems. I couldn't remember what ACPI stood for, but while looking for it I noticed that I had "AHCI" enabled on one of my SATA controllers. Just on intuition, I disabled it. Problem solved -- upon reboot my latency was about 10us, with no spikes!
I'm not sure why this AHCI was causing problems -- there's not even anything connected to that controller. But for those scouring the Internet for a solution to their DCP latency problem, this may be another area to look at. (For the record, this was the "gigabyte SATA 2" controller on a GA-EP45-UD3P board).
Thanks again everyone... Now back to the music  ...
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Phoenix
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/17 17:27:30
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Well, that's what makes horse races....I've just been giving AHCI a test run, and I think it's lowered my DPC latency a bit. For anyone who's curious, yes, you can enable AHCI in Windows 7 if you want after install. It requires a registry edit or two (as described here, under Resolution). It's probably a good idea to export the original registry key(s) for safekeeping in case you want to go back to IDE mode. I've just started my adventures in AHCI-land, and will report back with further info. (Update: system seems to run OK when just internal drives; eSata's weird. I have a feeling this way of switching is not the best) This sort of thing is likely to vary widely with hardware config, for example my mobo BIOS doesn't have per-controller settings for AHCI; it's all or nothing. I read up on ACPI when I installed Windows 7; on a modern system it should be a good thing (see here); if you are running Windows 7 I wouldn't disable it without consulting an expert.
post edited by Phoenix - 2010/04/21 20:13:51
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tuner
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/21 17:32:47
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It seems I'm not out of the woods yet. Although my average latency is down around 15us, I'm getting 2 and 4 ms spikes, which kill my Mackie Onyx drivers. The spikes occur when I access certain VST plug-ins -- particularly Altiverb 6 -- so they're pretty unavoidable.
The problem is that I don't know which is the problem -- the Mackie drivers or the spikes. I notice similar spikes when opening just about any Windows program, so this may be perfectly normal. And it wouldn't be a problem if the drivers weren't so sensitive to the spikes. I wouldn't be opening and closing windows in the middle of a critical recording session... 
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
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Phoenix
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/21 20:14:37
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Are there any other versions of the Mackie drivers that you can try?
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tuner
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/24 00:33:43
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There are only two driver versions that I know of, and they both do the same thing. I'm curious if other manufacturers' drivers behave this way. Can anyone comment?
Fortunately I finally got rid of the spikes, by disabling CS1 & 2, as well as my unused SATA controllers and some other stuff in BIOS.
Still, I'd prefer to be using an audio interface that isn't so "delicate". I can't imagine going on stage with something like this, trying to use a VST guitar rig live...
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Phoenix
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/04/24 11:44:50
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I should have thought of the C1E thing earlier; see this thread for a comprehensive explanation of how those things affect spikes and the tweaks. If you haven't done all of them you might want to try the rest and see how your Mackie drivers behave. I don't have firsthand experience cos my desktop DAW (a few years old now is AMD-based and doesn't have these BIOS settings, but I did do a good deal of reading on the subject before I got my Intel-based laptop. I got the laptop from ADK, so they did the tweaking, not me. Scott (from ADK) or Jim (from Studiocat) will be able to give you a better answer, but I get the impression that a lot of interfaces can be affected if these things are not adjusted right.
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MKS
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Re:tweak for windows 7/Vista 64 bit users experiencing high latency in dpc checker & crack
2010/05/02 20:29:13
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Attention Juca!!
Did your nVidia problem ever get fixed? I'm having the same problem.
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