Sonar 4 skip

[dwdruman]

Just for thoughts out there, when i playback with sonar 4 sometimes it skips and then my cpu usage jumps to warning, i thought this was just a virus but when i got all them out it was still doing it. Then I thought it was my space( at the time it was low) so i deleted some stuff, still happens, defragged still happens, im running out of ideas!!! please help

[dwdruman]

Computer stuff,
cpu amd xp2200+
512 soon to be 1gig
20 gig hard drive with 7 gig free (don't laugh im getting a bigger one this week)

[manning1]

you should have no problems with your computer.
if dma is not enabled on your hard drive this can lead to skipping.
ideally 8 mb cache hard drives are preferable. as is two drives - both 7200
rpm. one small one for windows, and a larger one for your tracks.
you didnt say what sound card your using.
peace.

[dwdruman]

im just using a sound blaster till i find a good card i like, but dma is/was enabled last time i looked, needed it for dvd's. and the skipping just started to happen it was fine a 2,3 days ago. and thats what my new set up is going to be with the two hard drives
thanks

[manning1]

no - i'm not talking about a dvd drive - i'm talking about the hard drive in your amd pc. CHECK YOUR HARD DRIVE DMA IS ENANBLED.

also tell me if the hard drive is a newer one.
note...there has been an issue in xp where sometimes it can default back to
slower hard drive modes. are you using win xp ?

[ARMAVIR]

Cpu problem happen to me 2 days ago & i did some correction..Im using cakewalk sonar 3.0...When i go OPTION - AUDIO , i saw i did wrong selection.I selected my pc sound card & thats why my CPU was 98% & some times warning.I just change it to external sound card name & it helps 50%....

[dwdruman]

i have 2000 and the last time i checked was before i upgraded and now i can't find where that is, i went to where i found it last time and the only thing is write cache. and thats enabled, if thats not it (and i don't think it is) where would i find it, god i sound like a moron

[manning1]

dw. with respect you need to get a windows book.
this is basic stuff and very important. you have a wonderfull pc.
but it sounds not set up right. where did you get this system ?
anyway dma...Control panel>>>system>>>device mgr>>>double click on disc drives>>>hilite generic ide type then click PROPERTIES, and up comes a dialogue with a box showing dma is checked or not.
please tell me which. also while your there in device manager tell me if you have any "flags" against your devices.
also lets check out your system a bit. download diskbench from prorec.com and post results. it will help me help you .

[dwdruman]

yea yea i know, i did find it and it is enabled, and i do have one, its just in some box in the basement, i knew win98 like the back of my hand but 200 is really different ( yea i know "NO DUH") but anyway both the 1st and 2nd channles are enabled
can you think of anything else, might this be a conflict with 3?

and 2000 is different, the dma isn't in the hard disk property, its in this weird ata/atapi thing, thats why i cloudn't find it

[manning1]

dw. please run diskbench.
ok so dma is enabled.
next step. sorry - but i'm like a doctor diagnosing here remotely.
tell me what you have in your pci slots please.
any network cards for high speed internet ? tv tuner cards ?
any fancy gaming cards ?

[AGCurry]

With respect, your problem is less likely to be hardware-related and more likely to be related to one or more of the many background services which Windows 2000 and XP run by default.
There's more than one way to find out what's running: You can open the Task Manager, and/or you can run msconfig. Check the Startup tab in msconfig and uncheck those services which you don't need in a DAW. Also, have you checked for Spyware and Adware? Download Ad-Aware and SpyBot - they're both FREE - and run them. Task Manager might give you a hint that there's a lot of crap running that shouldn't be there.

[dwdruman]

Originally Posted by manning1

dw. please run diskbench.
ok so dma is enabled.
next step. sorry - but i'm like a doctor diagnosing here remotely.
tell me what you have in your pci slots please.
any network cards for high speed internet ? tv tuner cards ?
any fancy gaming cards ?

just a sound card in pci video in vga

[manning1]

al makes a very good point. and i concur.
its just that i see more problems these days with people putting all sorts of cards in their pci slots and some of these cards causing audio probs.
also do this for me. use windows search using *.tmp.
tell me if you have a wad of these. they can build up over time.
look in the windows temp folder as well.
peace.

[dwdruman]

Originally Posted by AGCurry

With respect, your problem is less likely to be hardware-related and more likely to be related to one or more of the many background services which Windows 2000 and XP run by default.
There's more than one way to find out what's running: You can open the Task Manager, and/or you can run msconfig. Check the Startup tab in msconfig and uncheck those services which you don't need in a DAW. Also, have you checked for Spyware and Adware? Download Ad-Aware and SpyBot - they're both FREE - and run them. Task Manager might give you a hint that there's a lot of crap running that shouldn't be there.

i have both spy bot and ad-aware, and my computer is clear, nothing in task manager, is there anyway this may be a conflict between sonar 3 pro and sonar 4, there both on my computer

[dwdruman]

53 *.tmp files

[manning1]

get rid of those temp files ! but NOT the windows temp folder.
look for any biggish one....something could be hiding in it.
get rid of it.
you must be stringent about cleaning up your system.
if you see a windows message not to delete one of them,
then move onto the next.
ive a suspicion it could be the video card. if you have on the motherboard video , try using that instead and disable the video card in the pci slot.
see if that cleans up your problem. ive a suspicion it will.
or if you MUST have a fancy video card demo a matrox. they are well behaved.
peace.

[dwdruman]

i have a geforce 3ti200

[manning1]

re..geforce.
made by jaton ? if so looks like an agp card.
you SHOULD be ok. but if you have a motherboard with on board video you might try that as well.
you said you had a vga card in an earlier post. this is confusing.
please confirm nothing else in a pci slot other than the sb card.
the only other thing i can think of is to try a second hard drive
on a seperate channel (preferably with 8mb cache) and see if your probs go away and use it for recording. at the present time you have one hard drive for both windows and your tracks thats getting pretty full.
thus - the problems your having might be purely disk drive head contention.
ie....windows wanting to use the drive while at the same time your multitrack app does as well.
how many tracks are you playing back when the skip anomoly occurs ?

[dwdruman]

yes only sb in pci slots video agp and around 14

[manning1]

you shouldnt be getting only 14 tracks .
your system should do easy 40 tracks.
you have a vgood processor.
a question.. all tracks at 16 bit 44.1 ?

[K-dub]

I have S4.01. The same thing happened to me a few times. Corrected by finding a latency setting that works well the project. Options>Audio>General>Latency

This subject is covered in the readme file w/ S4...as it explains the way S3 and S4 differ from each other.

That's how I knew to fool w/ the latency. It made the click/skip/CPU hammering problem go away.

Good luck-

K-

[dwdruman]

that latency seems to have done it for now, its working fine!!

thanks alot guys

[manning1]

kudos. kdub. well done.
dwd. at some point i would advise a better sound card than the sb.
look for a low latency sound card.

[dwdruman]

ok now that i fixed that my audio stoped recording in, it might just be my mixer being funkybut i was just wondering if me messing with the latency whatever had somethign to do with this?