How Much Processor...Seriously.

[BenignVanilla]

I've got a PC that has a AMD Sempron 3200+ running at 1.79GHz, with 2GB of RAM. I've run the thesycon.de latency checker and it has never gone above 500. Latency is nil.

However, when I run Sonar...even if I have one solo'ed track, no vst's...Sonar instantly chokes the CPU to 100%, and the audio drops out. It chokes the processor to the point that the mouse is not even responsive.

I've done the usual...gotten rid of unused services, hardware, etc. I've tried the internal sound card as well as an M-Audio Mobile-Pre USB.

Nothing seems to help.

I can't believe this machine is incapable of running 1 solo'd track. There has to be something afoot.

Any thoughts?

[mikemorgan]

It comes down to sample rate, number of buffers, and size of buffers.

Try running the automatic soundcard configuration again or your soundcard manufacturer may have specific settings for running Sonar.

What version of Sonar are you running?

[BenignVanilla]

My first thought was that it was the sound card, because its on the mobo. But I have the same issue when I use the Mobile Pre on this machine.

Sonar 7, all patches up to date.

[mikemorgan]

There's no one-answer solution here. You've got enough processor and ram, for sure.
Start by bumping up your buffer size to 512/1024/2048. On playback, it doesn't matter how much latency you have. The only time latency is a factor is when you record and monitor in realtime. Add more buffers 3/4/5/6 if you need to.