i'm going to try to make this as brief as possible.
i use a the scope project card, p4 @3.2ghz, 1gb ram, WinXPsp2. before you ask, SP2 came preinstalled on the machine.
i use cubase SX3.
i had a lot of problems initially with popping and skipping during audio playback, and audio mixdown, which came to a glorious crescendo when, a few nights ago, on boot i got an error that the driver for the card could not be initialized. this went to the windows "blue screen" and when i booted up again, windows wouldn't even boot, instead i go an error saying that "hal.dll is corrupt or missing, please re-install"
i booted the XP recovery cd that came with the machine, and was able to restore hal. after, it seemed that every time i booted the machine, i had to re-install the scope driver. BUT - the skipping, popping was totally gone.
i contacted creamware again, to see what i could do about having to re-install the driver. a bit more irritated this time, they suggested that it was a problem with my pc, and not with their hardware/software/drivers. he insisted that if i disabled ACPI and instead went with "standard pc" then all my troubles would dissapear.
so tonight, i followed the directions to a T. it seems that in doing so, it solved the problem of the driver needing to be re-installed, but the Popping and skipping is back!
i've performed tweaks care of musicxp.net. i've set the latency as far up as it can go. the attitude that i'm getting from creamware support now (which at first was the best customer support i had ever known) is "thousands of people don't have this problem, so you shouldn't either."
they seem to think that the problem is a result of SP2, and that i should just remove it. my understanding is that because it was preinstalled on the machine, that this is not possible. am i wrong? if i removed SP2, would this fix it?
i've got a deadline (march 25th) approaching and could really REALLY use some help here. if anyone else has experienced these problems and knows how to fix them, please let me know.
please help! very frustrated user, popping/skipping, etc
trust me, i'm not the one blaming SP2. that's the guy at creamware's response, and i think it's just because he is stumped and doesn't want to admit it.
this machine is for music only. i've disabled the parallel port, serial port, and nic in the bios. it has no other software installed, and no hacked warez either.
this machine is for music only. i've disabled the parallel port, serial port, and nic in the bios. it has no other software installed, and no hacked warez either.
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next to nothing
- Posts: 2521
- Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2002 4:00 pm
- Location: Bergen, Norway
checklist:
- did you add/remove any hard/software when this occured? or have you been using the system before flawlessly earlier then suddenly this started happening?
- You say you have a machine with P4@3.2. does this mean the CPU is overclocked? in that case, did you make sure the PCI MHz hasent changed, and that system temp is OK?
- If this is a NEW machine (as i think it is since you said it was shipped with SP2 pre-installed, did you check that you have the latest BIOS version?
And heres a universal solution that have solved many a mysterious creamware problem:
- try another PCI slot
just a few general hints.
- did you add/remove any hard/software when this occured? or have you been using the system before flawlessly earlier then suddenly this started happening?
- You say you have a machine with P4@3.2. does this mean the CPU is overclocked? in that case, did you make sure the PCI MHz hasent changed, and that system temp is OK?
- If this is a NEW machine (as i think it is since you said it was shipped with SP2 pre-installed, did you check that you have the latest BIOS version?
And heres a universal solution that have solved many a mysterious creamware problem:
- try another PCI slot
just a few general hints.
-
Guest
what is your IRQ for the Scope Card?
Did you try another PCI Slot?
Is your system bios up to date? AGP drivers up to date?
any IRQ sharing between the Scope and other devices?
every system need some tweaking eventhough it is new. An Audio system is very different from an internet system.
you need to give a bit more detailed info about your system settings as every system behaves differently.
I read somewhere on this forum that SP2 has some security features that need to be turned off.
*** Data Execution Prevention may cause other software on your system that has not been specifically designed for SP2 compatibility to fail. For more information on DEP, please read more about Windows XP Service Pack 2 on MSDN.
Disabling DEP in Windows XP Service Pack 2
A short-term solution to DEP incompatibility is to disable DEP. Disabling DEP is a security risk, and will increase the vulnerability of your computer to certain types of attacks, but no more so than was possible under Windows XP Service Pack 1, which did not include the DEP feature.
If you choose to disable DEP, we recommend that you try to update all your software and drivers to Windows XP SP2-compatible versions as soon as they are released, and then re-enable the DEP feature.
How to disable DEP
IMPORTANT: Save a copy of your original Boot.ini file as a backup before you make changes!
To disable DEP, perform the following actions:
Click Start -> Run
Enter Attrib C:Boot.ini -r -h -s
Click Start -> Run
Enter Notepad C:Boot.ini
Under [operating systems] replace the parameter /NoExecute=xxxxx with /Execute
Save the Boot.ini file
Click Start -> Run
Enter Attrib C:Boot.ini +r +h +s
Restart your computer
IMPORTANT: Save a copy of your original Boot.ini file as a backup before you make changes!*********
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: antar on 2005-03-17 22:57 ]</font>
Did you try another PCI Slot?
Is your system bios up to date? AGP drivers up to date?
any IRQ sharing between the Scope and other devices?
every system need some tweaking eventhough it is new. An Audio system is very different from an internet system.
you need to give a bit more detailed info about your system settings as every system behaves differently.
I read somewhere on this forum that SP2 has some security features that need to be turned off.
*** Data Execution Prevention may cause other software on your system that has not been specifically designed for SP2 compatibility to fail. For more information on DEP, please read more about Windows XP Service Pack 2 on MSDN.
Disabling DEP in Windows XP Service Pack 2
A short-term solution to DEP incompatibility is to disable DEP. Disabling DEP is a security risk, and will increase the vulnerability of your computer to certain types of attacks, but no more so than was possible under Windows XP Service Pack 1, which did not include the DEP feature.
If you choose to disable DEP, we recommend that you try to update all your software and drivers to Windows XP SP2-compatible versions as soon as they are released, and then re-enable the DEP feature.
How to disable DEP
IMPORTANT: Save a copy of your original Boot.ini file as a backup before you make changes!
To disable DEP, perform the following actions:
Click Start -> Run
Enter Attrib C:Boot.ini -r -h -s
Click Start -> Run
Enter Notepad C:Boot.ini
Under [operating systems] replace the parameter /NoExecute=xxxxx with /Execute
Save the Boot.ini file
Click Start -> Run
Enter Attrib C:Boot.ini +r +h +s
Restart your computer
IMPORTANT: Save a copy of your original Boot.ini file as a backup before you make changes!*********
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: antar on 2005-03-17 22:57 ]</font>
it's DEFINITELY not sp2 and cwa was probably right, it's your computer. it sounds like a hardware problem, maybe irq related(what ARE your irq assignments?) or even scarier, a bad motherboard or memory (what motherboard is it, anyway? or if you don't know that, then what's the make/model of the machine?). you can try this app to check your memory.. http://www.memtest86.com/
daws are very resource intensive and require a very good(not nessessarily fast)quality machine(stable is better than fast). when you know and use the best parts, a pc is as reliable and as easy as a mac. unfortunately, many prefab pcs are less than fit for the job. the first bad sign is a restore cd INSTEAD of the full install version of xp. do you have an agp video card? if not, that could really be your problem. you want a video processor other than the cpu running, and even more important, you don't want sytem memory allocated to video.
daws are very resource intensive and require a very good(not nessessarily fast)quality machine(stable is better than fast). when you know and use the best parts, a pc is as reliable and as easy as a mac. unfortunately, many prefab pcs are less than fit for the job. the first bad sign is a restore cd INSTEAD of the full install version of xp. do you have an agp video card? if not, that could really be your problem. you want a video processor other than the cpu running, and even more important, you don't want sytem memory allocated to video.
to the person that suggested DEP -
i'd read about this already, and had heard that the fix was to change the line to
/NoExecute=AlwaysOff
but i'll try your fix as well.
to everyone else, thanks for your responses. yes i have tried a different PCI slot. no, so far as i can tell there is no IRQ sharing.
yes i've got the latest drivers for the video card (radeon x300)
this problem occurs with hyperthreading enabled *and* disabled.
the thing that doesn't make sense (to me) is that the CPU and Disk Usage meteres in cubase don't move in the slightest when this problem occurs.
i'm going to try the DEP fix as well as the memtest. any other suggestions?
i'd read about this already, and had heard that the fix was to change the line to
/NoExecute=AlwaysOff
but i'll try your fix as well.
to everyone else, thanks for your responses. yes i have tried a different PCI slot. no, so far as i can tell there is no IRQ sharing.
yes i've got the latest drivers for the video card (radeon x300)
this problem occurs with hyperthreading enabled *and* disabled.
the thing that doesn't make sense (to me) is that the CPU and Disk Usage meteres in cubase don't move in the slightest when this problem occurs.
i'm going to try the DEP fix as well as the memtest. any other suggestions?
while i can respect the disdain lots of leet folks have for buying pre-built systems, let me point out again that:
after the HAL failure and reinstallation of the drivers, the problem dissapeared until i followed creamware's advice and disabled ACPI.
that means that there has to be a good fix somewhere, and all i'm hoping for is a more experienced user to point me in the correct direction.
thanks,
after the HAL failure and reinstallation of the drivers, the problem dissapeared until i followed creamware's advice and disabled ACPI.
that means that there has to be a good fix somewhere, and all i'm hoping for is a more experienced user to point me in the correct direction.
thanks,
so, what i'm hearing is:
there are No other users that have experienced this problem before.
there is no good way to fix the problem other than to reinstall windows with ACPI on (you can change a ACPI hal to a standard pc hal without re-installing windows, but not the other way around) and hope that the problem does not occur again.
have any other users of scope cards ever experienced the error on boot that says something to the effect of "unable to intialize card?"
if the fact that i'm using a pre-built Dell is *really* the problem, why didn't creamware mention that when i emailed them *before the purchase of the card* and asked if i would have compatibility problems?
there are No other users that have experienced this problem before.
there is no good way to fix the problem other than to reinstall windows with ACPI on (you can change a ACPI hal to a standard pc hal without re-installing windows, but not the other way around) and hope that the problem does not occur again.
have any other users of scope cards ever experienced the error on boot that says something to the effect of "unable to intialize card?"
if the fact that i'm using a pre-built Dell is *really* the problem, why didn't creamware mention that when i emailed them *before the purchase of the card* and asked if i would have compatibility problems?
It's not always wasy to tell with Dell, since they don't really advertise the kind of motherboards/hardware they put in their machines. I've had to fix some Dell machines a few times, and I had to note down all the chips' model numbers on the motherboard to track down the exact motherboard model to get proper drivers. The Dell site never listed anything, nor provided quality/working drivers, and had absolutely no information/detail on the motherboard manufacturer they used.
As for the clicks and pops, obviously some people have experienced this too. It can be IRQ sharing, ACPI, cheapo vid card drivers (especially if it's a onboard graphics card, which is the case with all Dell machines I've seen,) USB/USB2/Serial/Parallel ports stuff, ASIO/WDM buffer settings, improper ADAT sync settings (if you use ADAT,) HyperThreading, PCI Latency (ie card doesn't get enough PCI slices to service all its buffers/samples transfers, == clicks and pops.)
That's why people usually go with custom-built machine, this makes stuff much easier as there is already a fair bit of experience accumulated about which hardware components work well together. You can't really expect your sound hardware manufacturer to know how their hardware works on absolutely every hardware platform/combination around, they simply do not have time nor money nor amount of people to handle the testing, hardware and proper dissemination of information, altho I'm sure they do their best on that front.
As for the clicks and pops, obviously some people have experienced this too. It can be IRQ sharing, ACPI, cheapo vid card drivers (especially if it's a onboard graphics card, which is the case with all Dell machines I've seen,) USB/USB2/Serial/Parallel ports stuff, ASIO/WDM buffer settings, improper ADAT sync settings (if you use ADAT,) HyperThreading, PCI Latency (ie card doesn't get enough PCI slices to service all its buffers/samples transfers, == clicks and pops.)
That's why people usually go with custom-built machine, this makes stuff much easier as there is already a fair bit of experience accumulated about which hardware components work well together. You can't really expect your sound hardware manufacturer to know how their hardware works on absolutely every hardware platform/combination around, they simply do not have time nor money nor amount of people to handle the testing, hardware and proper dissemination of information, altho I'm sure they do their best on that front.
If you need more help, a complete listing of your hardware, CPU, chipset, PCI configuration would really help, and also a clean XP install would certainly not hurt, as pre-installed versions of XP, especially when coming from Dell who use "custom" versions with their own (usually shitty, too) drivers for the hardware that usually don't work too well.
It would probably be a good idea to ghost/backup your current installation and start with a clean/fresh install, with proper motherboard drivers, an AGP card (if you currently use an on-board vid card,) all the onboard stuff turned off in the BIOS, proper IRQ settings and so on.
It would probably be a good idea to ghost/backup your current installation and start with a clean/fresh install, with proper motherboard drivers, an AGP card (if you currently use an on-board vid card,) all the onboard stuff turned off in the BIOS, proper IRQ settings and so on.
hi,
video card is a Radeon X300, not integrated card.
currently the scope card is on IRQ4. i realize that IRQ5 set aside for soundcards, and IRQ4 for serial ports, but before you start jumping on me about IRQ sharing, i have already disabled all the serial and parallel ports in the bios, so how can there still be a conflict?
i'm only finding out now that Dell uses some proprietary bios that doesn't allow you to manually set the IRQ. should have, could have, would have, etc, that's all pointless now, but maybe someone with a bit more experience can tell me if theres an alternate way (outside of the BIOS) to manually set IRQ.
on the subject of creamware not having time to check into compatibility with every make and model for every computer, you have a point, however, doesn't logic then say that if someone asks a compaitibility question that they should answer "i don't know," or "there's no way to be sure," instead of "yes?"
video card is a Radeon X300, not integrated card.
currently the scope card is on IRQ4. i realize that IRQ5 set aside for soundcards, and IRQ4 for serial ports, but before you start jumping on me about IRQ sharing, i have already disabled all the serial and parallel ports in the bios, so how can there still be a conflict?
i'm only finding out now that Dell uses some proprietary bios that doesn't allow you to manually set the IRQ. should have, could have, would have, etc, that's all pointless now, but maybe someone with a bit more experience can tell me if theres an alternate way (outside of the BIOS) to manually set IRQ.
on the subject of creamware not having time to check into compatibility with every make and model for every computer, you have a point, however, doesn't logic then say that if someone asks a compaitibility question that they should answer "i don't know," or "there's no way to be sure," instead of "yes?"
-
Guest
Found this on the net for you about the DELL in question.
------------------------------------------
Product Specifications
-----------------------------------------
Processor type Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 520, 530, 540, 550, or 560 with HT Technology
Intel Pentium 4 processor that runs at 3.2 GHz
NOTE Not all Pentium 4 processors support Hyper-Threading technology.
Level 1 (L1) cache 16 KB
Level 2 (L2) cache 1-MB (depending on your computer configuration) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM
Memory Type 400- and 533-MHz DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM
Memory connectors four
Memory capacities 128-, 256-, 512-, or 1-GB non-ECC
Installed Memory 256MB
Maximum memory 4 GB
NOTE See "Addressing Memory With 4-GB Configurations" to verify the amount of memory available to the operating system.
BIOS address F0000h
Chipset Intel 925X Express
DMA channels eight
Interrupt levels 24
BIOS chip (NVRAM) 4-Mb
NIC Integrated network interface capable of 10/100/1000 communication.
System clock 800-MHz data rate
Video Type PCI Express
AudioType ADI 1980 AC97 Codec
NOTE This audio type is present only on computers with integrated sound capabilities.
Expansion Bus
Bus type PCI 2.3, PCI Express x1 and x16
Bus speed PCI: 33 MHz
PCI Express x1 slot bidirectional speed — 500 MB/s, x16 slot bidirectional speed — 8 GB/s
PCI connector three
connector size 120 pins
connector data width (maximum) 32 bits
PCI Express connector one x1
connector size 36 pins
connector data width (maximum) 1 PCI Express lane
PCI Express connectors one x16
connector size 164 pins
connector data width (maximum) 16 PCI Express lanes
Drives Externally accessible two 3.5-inch drive bays, two 5.25-inch drive bays
Available devices 160GB Serial ATA drive, CDRW & DVD+RW Drives
Internally accessible two bays for 1-inch high hard drives
Networking 10/100 Ethernet
Modem 56k Modem
External connectors
Serial 9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible
Parallel 25-hole connector (bidirectional)
Video 15-hole connector
Network adapter RJ45 connector
PS/2 (keyboard and mouse) two 6-pin mini-DIN connectors
USB two front-panel and six back-panel USB 2.0–compliant connectors
Audio five connectors for line-in, line-out, microphone, surround, and center/Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel; one front-panel connector for headphones
System board connectors
Primary IDE drive 40-pin connector on PCI local bus
Serial ATA four 7-pin connectors
Floppy drive 34-pin connector
Fan two 5-pin connectors
PCI 2.3 120-pin connector
PCI Express x1 36-pin connector
PCI Express x16 164-pin connector
Telephony (TAPI) 4-pin connector
DC power supply
Wattage 350 W
Heat dissipation 460.7 BTU/hr
Backup battery 3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell
Height 42.5 cm (16.7 inches)
Width 18.1 cm (7.1 inches)
Depth 44.7 cm (17.6 inches)
Weight 12.7 kg (28 lbs)
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home
Warranty
Factory Refurbished Warranty: 90 Days
------------------------------------------
Product Specifications
-----------------------------------------
Processor type Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 520, 530, 540, 550, or 560 with HT Technology
Intel Pentium 4 processor that runs at 3.2 GHz
NOTE Not all Pentium 4 processors support Hyper-Threading technology.
Level 1 (L1) cache 16 KB
Level 2 (L2) cache 1-MB (depending on your computer configuration) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM
Memory Type 400- and 533-MHz DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM
Memory connectors four
Memory capacities 128-, 256-, 512-, or 1-GB non-ECC
Installed Memory 256MB
Maximum memory 4 GB
NOTE See "Addressing Memory With 4-GB Configurations" to verify the amount of memory available to the operating system.
BIOS address F0000h
Chipset Intel 925X Express
DMA channels eight
Interrupt levels 24
BIOS chip (NVRAM) 4-Mb
NIC Integrated network interface capable of 10/100/1000 communication.
System clock 800-MHz data rate
Video Type PCI Express
AudioType ADI 1980 AC97 Codec
NOTE This audio type is present only on computers with integrated sound capabilities.
Expansion Bus
Bus type PCI 2.3, PCI Express x1 and x16
Bus speed PCI: 33 MHz
PCI Express x1 slot bidirectional speed — 500 MB/s, x16 slot bidirectional speed — 8 GB/s
PCI connector three
connector size 120 pins
connector data width (maximum) 32 bits
PCI Express connector one x1
connector size 36 pins
connector data width (maximum) 1 PCI Express lane
PCI Express connectors one x16
connector size 164 pins
connector data width (maximum) 16 PCI Express lanes
Drives Externally accessible two 3.5-inch drive bays, two 5.25-inch drive bays
Available devices 160GB Serial ATA drive, CDRW & DVD+RW Drives
Internally accessible two bays for 1-inch high hard drives
Networking 10/100 Ethernet
Modem 56k Modem
External connectors
Serial 9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible
Parallel 25-hole connector (bidirectional)
Video 15-hole connector
Network adapter RJ45 connector
PS/2 (keyboard and mouse) two 6-pin mini-DIN connectors
USB two front-panel and six back-panel USB 2.0–compliant connectors
Audio five connectors for line-in, line-out, microphone, surround, and center/Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel; one front-panel connector for headphones
System board connectors
Primary IDE drive 40-pin connector on PCI local bus
Serial ATA four 7-pin connectors
Floppy drive 34-pin connector
Fan two 5-pin connectors
PCI 2.3 120-pin connector
PCI Express x1 36-pin connector
PCI Express x16 164-pin connector
Telephony (TAPI) 4-pin connector
DC power supply
Wattage 350 W
Heat dissipation 460.7 BTU/hr
Backup battery 3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell
Height 42.5 cm (16.7 inches)
Width 18.1 cm (7.1 inches)
Depth 44.7 cm (17.6 inches)
Weight 12.7 kg (28 lbs)
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home
Warranty
Factory Refurbished Warranty: 90 Days