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[some material copied from post in other thread - old prob solved, new one arises!]

In clean Pulsar3.01 install on clean XP install, Pulsar locks up very easily, usually within 20-30 mouse-clicks, or a minute or two after starting the app.

When this happens, the my mouse still moves the cursor in pulsar, and cursor changes correctly over modules versus background, but no click response at all, either menus or module controls. Only way out is to kill pulsar in task manager and restart.

This occurs merely when clicking around within pulsar environment, such as setting up projects and looking at dialogues boxes. New setup; I have not even started streaming to audio software, though I have successfully tested synth modules triggered through hardware MIDI-in, and played through Pulsar hardware audio-out. The lockup can happen while doing this, but also with no signals travelling through card at all, merely while clicking around various Pulsar controls. Also, this lack of response to clicks is only in pulsar - I can move cursor to non-pulsar parts of desktop and all is fine.

Can't yet identify a specific series of actions causing this.

I have: clean XP install, with no other apps in yet, virgin installs of 3.0 pulsar drivers and software, followed by 3.01. ACPI disabled at beginning of XP install, only other tweaks to XP involve disabling sexier GUI stuff. I run a CUSL2, 512, bios v1002, Matrox dual on AGP, IBM 14.5G on one onboard channel, plex 12/10/32 on other, 2x30G IBMs on Promise Fastrack100 on slot 3.

my CW cards (P2 and Luna) are in slots 2 and 6, respectively. I have both on IRQ4, forced in BIOS, with no conflicts indicated on this IRQ or any other.

My best guess would be that my problem involves XP or BIOS settings. Any suggestions what to try to remedy this??

TIA

Owning a CUSL2 myself, i would first sugest moving the cards to PCI slot 1 and 5, as they are the only two sharing each other.

This should solve the problem by itself. I've tryed XP with Luna & PPulsar1, and had no problem like this at all. Just remember to check your BIOS seting back to normal, and gie an assign IRQ to PCI1 in BIOS, since 1&5 are sharing together, the PCI5 should be the same as what you setted the PCI1 slot IRQ to.

Try this a tell us your results!

Also consider upgrading your bios.
And maybe try without the Promise card ?

Kim.

Tried re-assiging IRQs in bios, and got Pulsar working fine. BUT, then my PlexWriter CD-R started misbehaving.

CD-R is on IDE Ch2 slave. With PnP OS checked as "No" in Bios (which is necessary to prevent "Hardware Version 30 Detected" error on Pulsar startup), CD-R driver disappears from Dev Mngr, and nothing works. With PnP OS check yes, CD-R re-appears, but still behaves poorly. Reads data CDs okay, but on audio CDs it only reads Index, won't read audio files under Win Media Player.

This seems funny, because under first attempt to install with earlier IRQ settings I could play audio CDs with WinMedPlyr through Pulsar card no prob.

Infuriating. Squash one problem, another pops up!

Next I plan to try these steps:

1) update BIOS from 1002. (I started to do this before but then not sure I had correct bios update version. Can' tell if I have With or Without Audio version of CUSL2 by looking at board. My current BIOS settings page includes an entry for On-Board Audio - currently diabled. Does this mean my board indeed has the audio?)

2) Switch Pulsar/Luna cards from Slots 2-6 to 1-5. I earlier used 2 because I wanted the Pulsar well away from the Matrox in AGP slot - worried about cooling. By using slots 2 and 6 I have been able to reserve an single IRQ in the BIOS for these two slots to share, and get everything up without conflicts showing in dev mngr- but, as we have seen - system still not working right. Maybe 1-5 will do the trick. If so, any advice on exactly how to set IRQs for everything else given my hardware and MOBO? Force in BIOS Settings?

3) Remove Promise Fastback100 card. I orginally went for this in order to have two IBM 30G drives on a RAID 0 setting, thinking this would provide a speedy 60G audio drive. Subsequent readings suggest to me that this is not really a good idea, risking PCI troubles but providing negligible speed gains. If I scrap my Promise 100, any recommendations on the best way to connect to a CUSL2 and configure my 14.5G, 2x30G IDE HDs and a Plex burner?

still hanging in there! I'll get this setup sooner or later! (but I'd rather be making music!)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dblbass on 2001-12-17 20:44 ]</font>

Sell the 14gig, have the 2x30gig in IDE0&IDE1 as master&Slave, put the PlexBurner in IDE3 as master...
Put your creamware card in PCI slot 1 & 5 (if you have 2) and set it in bios with IRQ 5 or 9...

tks alot for this advice marcuspocus

Since my board and other hardware is almost same as yours, I am asuming you are recommending what is for you a stable, workable arrangement on your rig.

With your recommended HD setup, would it matter performance-wise which HD (master/slave)is audio/which OS/apps? 30G sounds like a lot of HD for non-audio files needs - I currently have my 14G HD in three partitions (OS / apps / projects and other non-audio files) and the 2x30G for audio only.

what would you think about using the 14G for OS/apps, and one 30G for audio, with the other 30G connected behind the burner, used only for backup of the main audio HD (not as RAID, mind you, just a manual backup when I feel its timely). Would that get in the way of the performance of the other drives?

Finally, what BIOS rev are you on; does your cUSL2 have on-board audio, and does the Audio enable/disable show up in BOIS settings page as with mine? (I still want to get BIOS updated, but not sure how to confirm which BIOS rev to flash)





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dblbass on 2001-12-17 22:42 ]</font>

On 2001-12-17 22:38, dblbass wrote:
With your recommended HD setup, would it matter performance-wise which HD (master/slave)is audio/which OS/apps? 30G sounds like a lot of HD for non-audio files needs - I currently have my 14G HD in three partitions (OS / apps / projects and other non-audio files) and the 2x30G for audio only.

what would you think about using the 14G for OS/apps, and one 30G for audio, with the other 30G connected behind the burner, used only for backup of the main audio HD (not as RAID, mind you, just a manual backup when I feel its timely). Would that get in the way of the performance of the other drives?

Finally, what BIOS rev are you on; does your cUSL2 have on-board audio, and does the Audio enable/disable show up in BOIS settings page as with mine? (I still want to get BIOS updated, but not sure how to confirm which BIOS rev to flash)

Well, this will work, but i would not take chance... And yes, i am telling this cuz mine is working pretty well. My Bios is ver. 1006.a and i never updated it, maybe i should, i don't even know if there is a newer version, it was working right away, so i didn't change it. And no, my CUSL2-C is without audio, and i also have 2 network card and a SCSI card in also, along with my Luna2 and Pulsar1.

Really what i would do, is getting a DVD with the burner, so you'll be able to make CDtoCD copy using your burner, splitting the first 30gig in 2, first part for OS and second part for storing files, and ghost of the first part, and keeping the 2nd drive for audio files and samples only and making shure it is defragmented and skweaky clean.

There is no need for 3 drive splitted on two controlers.

BIOS is 1009a. Audio: Near Slot 1 is the AAPANEL=in/outputs. Or look if there is a chip (the codec) with a jumper (3-state) near Slot 3 (towards the back end).
If present: your board has audio.
For the rest I agree with marcuspocus.
Happy pulsaring
Micha

Update - all is well, finally!

went back to square one. scrapped Promise RAID controller PCI card. reformatted all drives. 14GHD on channel 1 master, three partitions: 2.5G for OS and Norton Utilities, 5G for all Apps, the rest for samples, projects, other data. 30GHD on channel 1 slave for audio media files. Plextor burner on Channel 2 master, 30GHD on Channel 2 slave for aux storage and on-the-fly backups.

Pulsar cards moved to slots 1/5 on my CUSL2, this IRQ forced in BIOS. BIOS upgraded to 1009. Clean installs of XP, followed by Pulsar 3.0 and 3.01 using tips in the XP/Win2K setup thread in PlanetX Tips and Tricks - all working very stably so far.

So, to any readers of this who are CUSL2 owners with multiple Pulsar cards, having problems which appear to involve interrupts, here is another satisfied user! Put your Pulsar cards on slots 1/5, otherwise follow the tips on the XP/Win2K setup thread. It worked for me.

and thanks Marcus

You're welcome, and glad i could help!