Strange DSP Problem!PLEASE HELP ME!!

dbl · Post by **dbl** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 10:10 am

Hi.
I have been on this forum for a year but first to write.
I have a problem in using multiple CW's card.

I install one Plusar2 & two powersampler on my pc.
I gave same IRQ,5,to thise cards.

I install winXP in standard PC mode ,then SFP3.1a and then SFP3.1c.

In the sample rate setting,Pulsar2 is shown as the first board.

The problem is :the SFP software recognizes right numbers of DSP(12, In this case),but the DSP load shows ZERO DSP loads,and I cannot use anything!

What is strange is that when I uninstall the SFP & then I install the SFP again,I can use DSPs.But after a while,I cannot use anything.

I have checked this forum,especially about STDM error,but I can't find any clue!

I'm very suffering from this trouble,because I love CW's sound!!
I cannot make music without CW's sound,so please help me!

sorry for my poor English,
dbl

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 3:48 am

Overheating - that's the possible cause...

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 7:29 pm

Is it really overheating? Then you should be able to work a time after booting.
I've had a real problem because of overheating: After 2 hours the computer crashed down, it didn't reboot correctly. I turned it out completely, and after 3 hours I could boot and continue working.
I have an Athlon 1,4 GHz, a Pulsar1 and a Luna2. The Athlon grows very hot, even with new and powerful coolers. My computer dealer setted the frequency down on 1,04 GHz. Maybe not the best solution, but now I can work as long as I want.
Try it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Herr Voigt on 2002-12-16 19:30 ]</font>

dbl · Post by **dbl** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 2:18 am

Well,thank you for the reply!

But I don't think it is due to overheating.

I formatted my HD and re-installed everything yesterday!
It worked fine two times,but today,they go bad after used for 30 minutes.
Last night,I could play them for two hours.

I think this problem is a rare case,but please tell me anything.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 7:33 am

CPUs overheat internally within milliseconds, wich has nothing to do with the temperature sensors on the mobo.
If an application puts a lot of load on the CPU, this may develope significantly more heat which the cooler (most are crap btw) can't move away.
If the CPU messes up some controlling stuff for the DSPs (which is 'administered' outside the Pulsar board, see the 'dsp' directory) then even a single (wrong) instruction might break the thing.

good luck, Tom

Post by **hubird** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 8:26 am

intersting story Astro, good to know this, thanks!

Jngaelin · Post by **Jngaelin** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 3:26 pm

If this is an "overheating" problem you should get extra "cooling fans".
The type that you can put in a PCI port.
They will "suck" the heat away from your CW cards.

I have a few of those installed and my CW cards works better now.

And how many watts are your power supply at ?
I got a new power supply for my system at 550 watts and the system doesen't overwork itself anymore.

More "cooling fans" is recomended.
There is one problem though.
The noise that comes from the coling fans...it made me crazy.
So i got a cabinet for the Computer.

Im up to uppgrading the whole system now...and this time i'll build the system inside a refridgerator.
(I don't know if i spelled that one correctly)

Well...good luck !!!

_________________
Love to you all =)
(I Praise JAH)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jngaelin on 2002-12-19 15:27 ]</font>

dbl · Post by **dbl** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 9:55 pm

Hi.
>>astroman
I haven't imagined that CPU overheat has something to do with the problems of DSPs!
Interesting.Thanks!(it's still a bit difficult for me,though)

>>Jngaelin
Well,power supply of mine is 420watts.
I run HD

dbl · Post by **dbl** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 10:33 pm

Hi,everyone.

I finally solved the problem!
The cause is not a kind of overheat.

I checked a large number of logs,and found a few which seems to be related to this case.

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 32&forum=1
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 51&forum=1

I tried :
unscrewed the plastic screws of the i/o daughterboard and then tighten them again

and the problem really went away!!

I can now make music again,thanks to this forum.

THANKS TO ALL!
dbl

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Dec 25, 2002 6:48 am

hi dbl,

congrats to your strange christmas gift

to explain the CPU thing (no big deal):
the DSP code (stored on the harddisk) is loaded and unloaded as needed by your projects. The controlling app runs on the main CPU. It doesn't do much but moving some chunks of bytes, so there's (nearly) no CPU load at all.
But if something gets messed, the DSPs run the wrong code or code with wrong parameters.
Processing on an overheating CPU is totally unpredictable, so if something wiered happens, heat should be considered.
Even more as modern CPUs are much more sensitive to this than their predecessors.
how about the following:
Oracle Server crashes on startup with 'error in loading blabla.dll'. Exchanged the disk with a backup image, ready for that purpose. Same error - panic - both disks screwed ?
It was: CPU fan died, overheating CPU set BIOS date

beyond 2050 which caused the DLL to fail. After resetting the clock all up and running again.

happy pulsaring, Tom