clickety click!

[applemax]

I've just put my DAW together:

AMD 3200
asus a7n8x
1 Gb ram
xp pro
m-audio 1010lt
uad-1 dsp
cubase sx2.1

blew all my savings on it; for the chance at getting some work creating audio samples+ loops. But it don't work! I get clicks and pops on play back and audio mixdown on more than 4-5 tracks of audio. The longer cubase is running the worse it seems to get. I have installed a second hard drive, checked pci latency with powerstrip, switched off internal sound + midi, lan, modem, serial + parallel ports. The uad -1 is sharing IRQ 19 w. video card - I can't seem to move this despite uninstalling+ re installing. When the uad is uninstalled I get less clicking, but still some. Uad said it was the soundcard... m-audio blamed cubase etc etc. In the meantime I'm stony broke with a £1600 paper weight. My only final option is to re install windows disabling the acpi, but i have read that if apic is installed, this shouldn't be necessary. Aaaargh!
Any comments, suggestions or even a quick + painless death would be appreciated,
cheers,
maxx

[macouno]

Ehm... sounds like you'd have checked your buffer sizes already no?

And the M-audio card doesn't share an IRQ?

Since you still get clicks with the UAD uninstalled it can't be that.

It must be something in how the data gets to the 1010lt.... so buffers and IRQ issues there sound most likely?

Are they really the little digital clicks or is it more a humm like thing?

It may be a good idea to try to install the delta in a different pci slot... that could solve IRQ issues, but somehow helps with other issues as well sometimes.

[Lost Studios]

M-audio used to be great when they first came out. They had me move my cards around until I had no sharing of IRQs and it finally worked. More than likely its a hardware issue. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your Delta. That significantly helped me. As far as the uad try different combinations of PCI slots. it takes a while to try every combination but it should work. Also if you have any other cards you dont need remove them. Disable any usb, printer ports, etc. you are not using.
Good luck

[applemax]

thanks guys but no joy
tried every combination of cards + pci slots. gonna try my dmx 6fire instead. have read there are issues with nvidia video cards + nforce chipset. Anyone else read this?
Still looks like my only option is complete re install without acpi. Has any one tried this?
thanks again for your suggestions,
maxxx

[applemax]

more details - definite clicks in otherwise perfect sounding audio, only on 1 channel. cranked up audio buffers to 1024 w. no difference. when I try real time export in cubase the whole thing crashes - may suggest the video card but I can't afford to replace components that may or may not work... Should've stuck to frying burgers for a living...:confused:

[axeman69]

You do have the most recent drivers for your audio card? The ones on the CD are probably pretty old.

[akapaws]

Here is another approach - does your unit have an on-board audio card? If so, how does your on-board card perform compared to your M-Audio unit? If there is a difference, you either have audio card or driver issues. If not its probably system issues.

[applemax]

got all latest drivers for the audio card: tried using the internal mobo audio + less clicks were produced, but still a significant amount.
HOWEVER - I have just read elsewhere on this site that tnt2 m64 graphics cards cause lots of probs, which is what I have - I'll let you know - thanks for all your suggestions

[dawboxpro]

Do you have a buddies system or an alt setup to install the Delta 1010LT in? If so try it to see if it is the card....

I would go for the re-do os route myself and keep it as bare aspossible. If you have a second record drive un-plug it.

Dissable all features in the board like Lan ect....

May I ask what drives your using?

Are they S-ATA or regular ATA?


Notice any strange noises from them?

1.Pull out all cards
2.Dissalbe Lan, Firewire on-board sound in bios.
3.Re-do os
4.Load chipset drivers for MB
5.Tweak OS
6.Instal 1010LT and drivers
7.Install SX 2.0

If you still have issues at this point with a clean install then try a different VGA card like a ATI Radeon. Also try pulling one stick of ram and see if that changes anything.....

These are all things that have worked for me on a number of systems time and time again.

When you get it all working then try the UAD-1 if that messes it all up then you know there is something going on with the UAD-1 and a resouce or compatibilty problem......

Good Luck.....If I could just get my hands on that system I know I could fix it!!

www.dawbox.com

[applemax]

sorry, been away trying to sort my life out. thanks for the advice
for your Q's-
main drive is a seagate ata 100 7200rpm, clicking before added second drive (unnamed korean job)
next step is to try s/card in my athlon 650. tried the terratec 6fire (old s/card) in the new machine but it wouldn't have it.
have done the re install + disabled acpi - no change
added new graphics card gefore mx440 - no change
tested both ram sticks individually - no change
I've downloaded the latest bios which asus says has fixed problems w. certain memory modules (I have kingmax). so next step appears to be to flash the bios - scary stuff! (plan B is to pay someone else to do it...)
thanks for taking the time to advise me on my problem- it gets a little lonely here sometimes!
Max

[applemax]

:) SORTED!
I went for the complete rebuild + set bios parameters back to default values - no clicks! Bit of a no-brainer - don't try to increase your cpu multiplier too much without increasing the voltage -
barton 3200+ runs at 2.2G 1.65v, with the stock fan. Reckon I can get 2.5G with a decent fan?
Thanks for all your suggestions + advice
Maxxx

[dawboxpro]

Glad to hear it!!! Good Job!!!

[applemax]

OH Dear - spoke too soon, now I'm getting some kind of wierd artifact on the same channel that the clicks were appearing on - when I should have silence, there is a second 'line', below the 0 line. although the cubase mixer indicates an output I hear nothing although stopping/starting playback resuts in a loud click/thump, as does hitting the start of this 'artifact'. Seems like the problem is still there, just changed somewhat.

[applemax]

Nope - just left a noisy plugin running! - system now working great, love the UAD compressors + eq's.