Towards "A FLawless PC"

[ecc83]

Sorry, I'm late to the party as well but I fear the source of some of the problems may be the EMU 0404.

If you go to the EMU support forum on the Creative site you'll see that they stopped releasing new drivers almost two years ago and the only ones for Windows 7 are rather dodgy beta versions tons of users are complaining about.

Basically, Creative seem to have dumped their EMU section entirely and stopped providing any support for users.

I thought that as well Bobbs... The ESI Juli@ PCIe card got a good rep in SoS forum recently...
Was going to say that I installed FL 11 on a 64 bit W7 i3 HP lappy yesterday, seems fine.

Doc. You said earlier that you had changed the BIOS to boot from the hard drive? I prefer to have BIOS boot from CD initially. Makes no diff' normally but if you should get a ccrook HDD you can get diagnosing with a bootable disc.

Dave.

 

[rayc]

Well done Dr V,
I'm in the same camp as Steen in that I use XP optimised for audio & with all the extraneous stuff stripped from it.
I use the PC (a quite old ACER) only for audio & use reaper (though I do have occasion to use cakewalk proaudio9.3 so have that installed) as the DAW. It's perm offline & anything I tale to it is on a thumb drive that has been sussed out by AVG 1st. It boots really uickly and shuts down almost as fast. I have an external drive attached to back up everything frequqntly and a large USB2 thumb drive that I occasionally run current projects from (doesn't like 27 tracks of audio though).
I dumped just about everything I could from the windows suite except the OS, DAW, Office -word only, (for lyrics and tracking sheet) and a couple of media players as well as Waverepair. I recently installed BandinaBox as it was agift from my wife & I'll try to use it to do a couple of things here & there to show her that I appreciate the though. So far BITB hasn't caused any grief. I've tried and can upload from & interface with my Zoom R16 (it'll do control surface as well but I'm not interested) & can upload from my 4 track cassette machine. The only glitch at present is the software mixer for the Focusrite Scarlette 8i6o but that seems to be a VERY common prob. I've found much more success with older machines than newer - I had an oldie running W2000 & just 250 meg RAM & dd some big fun projects. I had a brand new specifically spec'd DELL that lasted less than 15 working hours before the motherboard crashed - it was out of the 1yr warranty by then - & replacement motherboards were rated as ticking timebombs so no point really! Though I've since discovered that Consumer Protection in Australia means I could've & should've pressed for a replacement board or computer as the act stated that an item should last a reasonable period given it's purpose.

 

[Doctor Varney]

Well done Dr V,
I'm in the same camp as Steen in that I use XP optimised for audio & with all the extraneous stuff stripped from it.
I use the PC (a quite old ACER) only for audio & use reaper (though I do have occasion to use cakewalk proaudio9.3 so have that installed) as the DAW. It's perm offline & anything I tale to it is on a thumb drive that has been sussed out by AVG 1st. It boots really uickly and shuts down almost as fast. I have an external drive attached to back up everything frequqntly and a large USB2 thumb drive that I occasionally run current projects from (doesn't like 27 tracks of audio though).
I dumped just about everything I could from the windows suite except the OS, DAW, Office -word only, (for lyrics and tracking sheet) and a couple of media players as well as Waverepair. I recently installed BandinaBox as it was agift from my wife & I'll try to use it to do a couple of things here & there to show her that I appreciate the though. So far BITB hasn't caused any grief. I've tried and can upload from & interface with my Zoom R16 (it'll do control surface as well but I'm not interested) & can upload from my 4 track cassette machine. The only glitch at present is the software mixer for the Focusrite Scarlette 8i6o but that seems to be a VERY common prob. I've found much more success with older machines than newer - I had an oldie running W2000 & just 250 meg RAM & dd some big fun projects. I had a brand new specifically spec'd DELL that lasted less than 15 working hours before the motherboard crashed - it was out of the 1yr warranty by then - & replacement motherboards were rated as ticking timebombs so no point really! Though I've since discovered that Consumer Protection in Australia means I could've & should've pressed for a replacement board or computer as the act stated that an item should last a reasonable period given it's purpose.

Thanks, Ray. It's getting there.

Well, it seems it really is a hit and miss affair with PCs, doesn't it? Works for some, mainly for others (with a bit of sticky tape & glue), sometimes not... &co. And to think, I actually set out to find evidence to falsify my own statements and opinions about the IBM/ PC platform.

 

[Doctor Varney]

I have a new question. Seems sensible to keep it all in one thread... since there are many more pending.

Back to the main office / media system now. The AMD Phenom X4.

It still has problems. Among others, it is still booting slowly while my old AMD Athlon 64 is up and running with Win7 within about a minute, from hitting the power button. I've chalked up the boot times for the X4 Phenom and they vary quite widely, seemingly at random.

So, something has to be done here. I know we spoke about investigating a possibly dodgy drive but since I'll have to wipe this installation to get re-started with Windows 7, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try something, in line with a hunch myself and a friend have...

I'm now liking Windows Updates as a possible suspect. Why? Because I have an old rattler of a single core Athlon 64 running like a little gazelle, without so much as a single blip - on Win7, as is, straight off the disc. Without a single update.

Since I'll have to wipe and start fresh, I figured it could do no harm to remove as many updates as possible, just to see what happens. Turns out the process is a 'one by one' affair which will probably take forever at this rate. Outside of the list of 9 NET. Framework patches, there are like 132 of the things, all requiring a re-boot to take effect! I've googled for a faster removal method, than through the 'Programs and features' window - but does anyone know of a quicker way?

 

[ecc83]

You could look back for the earliest, viable Restore point (bolts for stable doors I know but ALWAYS set a Restore point when you get a PC at "ground zero")

Also, look in Disc Management to see if you have a Recovery partition. If you have you will be able to reset the PC to factory gate status.

But then, do you have/did you make a set of recovery discs on Day One?

Can I put in a good word for HP here? When I had a suspect hard drive in my new dual core desktop they sent me a new HDD plus a set of recovery discs. Cost me nowt!

Dave.

 

[Steenamaroo]

I've chalked up the boot times for the X4 Phenom and they vary quite widely, seemingly at random.

Which counters your idea about updates.
Some kind of power greedy application or update would most likely cause a consistent problem.
Generally speaking, Windows will perform better with updates.

I'm now liking Windows Updates as a possible suspect. Why? Because I have an old rattler of a single core Athlon 64 running like a little gazelle, without so much as a single blip - on Win7, as is, straight off the disc. Without a single update.

It's windows....Of course a new install runs well. Give it a few weeks.

Seriously though, I appreciate you're in a 'why not' situation but I don't get the fixation on windows updates.
Just get that hard drive tested and potentially put yourself out of your misery.

 

[Doctor Varney]

It's windows....Of course a new install runs well. Give it a few weeks.

Do Apple Macs need this many updates? Do they slow down after a few weeks as well?

Seriously though, I appreciate you're in a 'why not' situation but I don't get the fixation on windows updates.
Just get that hard drive tested and potentially put yourself out of your misery.

Because Windows Updates take forever and nag me with pop ups all the time. It's not a fixation, it's just a new idea I'm trying out.

I get your point about the drive and you could be right but I don't know how to test the drive other than to buy a new one to prove the old one faulty. I haven't got the money for that right now and what if it wasn't the drive? I'll have wasted my money.

Besides, I Googled the subject and it appears there are some suspicious updates coming in and people are having trouble with their computers since these updates were installed. I don't trust 'em. I don't trust Microsoft as far as I could spit 'em and never have.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Do Apple Macs need this many updates? Do they slow down after a few weeks as well?

No and no.

I get your point about the drive and you could be right but I don't know how to test the drive other than to buy a new one to prove the old one faulty.

Fair enough. There's a built in utility called check disk (chkdsk.exe).
I can't say for sure that it comes with the new m$ operating systems but there'll be some equivalent.
If you can't find it, give it a google.

You can schedule a disk check so it happens as your computer boots.
I'm sure you've seen it before; It happens automatically if your computer crashes or you pull the power or whatever.

 

[ecc83]

No and no.



Fair enough. There's a built in utility called check disk (chkdsk.exe).
I can't say for sure that it comes with the new m$ operating systems but there'll be some equivalent.
If you can't find it, give it a google.

You can schedule a disk check so it happens as your computer boots.
I'm sure you've seen it before; It happens automatically if your computer crashes or you pull the power or whatever.

AFAIK check disk only validates the DATA on the disc, it does not run a total diagnostic. I had a utilty link sent to me by Weston Digital I will see if I can dig it out. Meantime ChKdsk runs in W7 same as XP. Start>Computer>Rclick C>Properties>Tools...voila!

If you buy a second drive (and they are pretty cheap again now) it will not be wasted. If it proves out the fault. Laughing. If not you still have a second drive to use as a music only drive, best way to go.

Dave.

 

[Steenamaroo]

AFAIK check disk only validates the DATA on the disc, it does not run a total diagnostic. I had a utilty link sent to me by Weston Digital I will see if I can dig it out. Meantime ChKdsk runs in W7 same as XP. Start>Computer>Rclick C>Properties>Tools...voila!

Yeah, I think you're right. It'll check for data/file system errors and report, and I think maybe repair?
Either way, it'd be a good starting place. If it throws up errors you know to keep on down that path.

A new HDD shouldn't really cost you any money unless you want SSD and all the rest.
I only had a quick look but you couldn't be bad to this. (if it's needed)

 

[ecc83]

Yeah, I think you're right. It'll check for data/file system errors and report, and I think maybe repair?
Either way, it'd be a good starting place. If it throws up errors you know to keep on down that path.

A new HDD shouldn't really cost you any money unless you want SSD and all the rest.
I only had a quick look but you couldn't be bad to this. (if it's needed)

Oooo! I think I would want something like a HDD new, sealed in a pack!
I like to deal with CPC | CPC - Over 100, 000 products from one of the worlds leading distributors of electronic and related products. over here and thay have 500G SATAs at around £50.

That evil bay drive is also not 7200rpm.

Dave.

 

[Steenamaroo]

He says he's broke, man.

No kidding, I was gona tell him to bail down to his local amenity site and just lift one from there.

 

[Doctor Varney]

I think EC has a good point, when he puts it like that. Though my beer money's earmarked for make up supplies for an event I'm running soon, I may be able to find that amount for a drive. Either before or after. I'm strongly considering it now. First I should try wiping this one and formatting it from scratch, as you never know...

I've been promised a bunch old IDE drives for nowt. I plan to purchase an IDE-->USB converter dock and use them as big, fat floppies for storage. They don't have to run fast for data back up purposes and you can store bags of files on them.

I just have to get past this event, then I can start saving for computer parts.

 

[ecc83]

I think EC has a good point, when he puts it like that. Though my beer money's earmarked for make up supplies for an event I'm running soon, I may be able to find that amount for a drive. Either before or after. I'm strongly considering it now. First I should try wiping this one and formatting it from scratch, as you never know...

I've been promised a bunch old IDE drives for nowt. I plan to purchase an IDE-->USB converter dock and use them as big, fat floppies for storage. They don't have to run fast for data back up purposes and you can store bags of files on them.

I just have to get past this event, then I can start saving for computer parts.

Try this first: WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II)

I had a hard drive fail on me, new one! I found out when I wanted to re install XP. I was told I needed to format the drive but when I tried I was told the drive was faulty and could not be formatted. Catch 22 because I then could not get the drive to work at all and had I had any serious data on it I would have been stuffed!

Dave.

 

[Steenamaroo]

First I should try wiping this one and formatting it from scratch, as you never know...

It's totally your call, but the point of recommending just grabbing any old drive from anywhere was that you wouldn't have to format your drive.
Even if you have nothing to lose but the time you invested in it, why wipe the current one?

Lets not lose sight of the fact that your issues may still be nothing to do with hard drives.
I'd find a program that'll test your current drive, and if that proves difficult, grab and old working one from a friend, dump, ebay, whatever. Install win7 on it and if it flies you know something's up.

 

[Doctor Varney]

Okay, I'll take your advice. Thanks.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Sorry to keep beating at this,lol. I'd just feel awful if you wiped your drive to find out there was nothing wrong with it.
I know how much of a struggle it can be to get even this far.

 

[ShofB]

Helping your PC

Hi all.
Starting with my AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+ on MSI motherboard with 1GB RAM / Maxtor 320GB SATA drive for OS & programs / Western Digital SATA hard drive for storage / E-MU 0404 sound card / Windows 7 Home Premium / FL Studio 10 Signature Bundle.

I have disabled networking and disabled Internet Explorer 8 along with printer services and stuff I don't need. That's what you do, isn't it? So far so good...

So now onto installing a sound card. Fitted the E-MU 0404 card into the PCI slot and installed all the drivers and DSP Patchmix.

I have tried doing what it says but the same message comes up. How am I supposed to know what "ctouser.dll" means?

I have loads of questions as I go through this process but there's no point asking any more until this is fixed.

Is this my fault? I'm just following instructions and doing what I am told to. I'm trying to stay patient and positive. I am, honestly!

PS:
And my second hard drive isn't showing up anywhere but I suppose we can look at that later.

In the first place there is no way that computer is ever going to be worht anything without more memory. One of the easiest things you can do to help PC's run better is add more memory. I wouldn't try less that 4gig and would hope for more.

As far as the probelms installing the soudcard if you are having that much trouble this eary I would ditch it. It is not worth it. Get something that works.

 

[ecc83]

In the first place there is no way that computer is ever going to be worht anything without more memory. One of the easiest things you can do to help PC's run better is add more memory. I wouldn't try less that 4gig and would hope for more.

As far as the probelms installing the soudcard if you are having that much trouble this eary I would ditch it. It is not worth it. Get something that works.

I agree (a bit!) One gig is a bit borderline for W7. "A bit" because we ran a W7/64 desktop with just 2 G without any problems with audio and son was making up to 17tracks in Cubase LE6. The only time a memory problem surfaced was when using running video in Camtasia trial software.

As for ditching? Nay say I, there will always be problems, best to get to the bottom of them and learn.

Dave.