Slack.....help!

[Rusty K]

Hey.....sorry I'm taking up so much space in this forum but....

My skipping problem didn't go away with the upgrade to 3.0 as I had thought.

Since my last posts about the problem I have discovered that I am able to record 16bit ok. As I track 24bit I get about a minute, it varies, of good recording then it starts to skip.

To reiterate....I did not have this problem till I upgraded my CPU to an AMD Thunderbird 1G, and EPOX 8kta3 motherboard but for the life of me I can't understand how this upgrade could affect Ntrack but not Vegas.

I of course have an ongoing email to Flavio but I thought I'd try here too.

Any ideas would be greatly accepted.

Rusty K

[Gidge]

what size/speed hard drive(s) are u using?.....

[Rusty K]

Gidge,

It's 14.2 G hard disk, excuse my ignorance but I don't know what the size and speed of my hard drive is.....is there some place in my computer that will tell me?

I was looking in the device manager and found a couple of things that caught my eye......

First under sound,video and game controlers there was one device, MPU-401 compatible MIDI device, which had an alert sign saying that it was either not present, not functioning properly, or didn't have all the correct drivers installed. When I clicked on drivers and updated it said the best driver was already installed. Doesn't seem like this would have anything to do with my problem but...I was just wondering about it.

The other thing was under Hard Disk, I believe it was the "general" tab, under "Typical role of computer" Network Server was highlighted......it seemed to me the "desktop computer" was the most logical option. Again I don't see how this would be at the root of my problem but at this point I'm grasping at straws.

RK

[Rusty K]

update....

I'm hot on the trail of this @#$%ing gremlin.....I've discovered something new that I didn't notice after the upgrade to 3.0....all my wav files now have the widows media icon in front of them whereas before they had my wav editor icon. I clicked on one to play from the folder and windows media player came up then an error message that it does not recognize the file format.

I tried to reselect my wav editor in preferences but it won't open when I try to launch. It opens fine from the startup menu.

This change may have occured after my CPU/motherboard upgrade, I just didn't notice at the time.

Something is screwy!

Rusty K

[Rusty K]

further update....

Ok got my files converted back to my wav editor like they were although why/when this switch occured is still a mystery. I've also got Ntrack to recognize my wav editor and launch though finding the path is nothing like I remembered doing it in the first place.

As it stands now if I want to record 24bit I have to record in Vegas and import into Ntrack. Otherwise I'm back to 16bit with a 24bit LynxOne. Sometimes I'm not even getting 24bit playback. Sucks to say the least.

There must be some kind of incompatibility with Ntrack and something in my puter upgrade. Can anyone verify that the components I've added are in fact compatible?

Sorry but I'm stuck in the mud right now.

Rusty K

[Sangram]

Hi

I would try a fresh install of the OS. You might wanna put out as much system specs as possible, for anyone to get a grip on your config.

Try this: Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information: file/Export. Name the file and attach it here. Let's see if we can see something amiss...

sang

[Rusty K]

Sangram,

Here it is.....I really appreciate your time and trouble. I learn something from you ever time you post whether it's a problem solver or not, I still learn.

Rusty K

[Rusty K]

Sangram,

I forgot to mention that I had reinstalled my OS but I may have not done it correctly. During the install it prompted me for some files it couldn't locate and asked me to insert the disc which was already in there .....I wound up skipping them. I'd gladly do it again with a little instruction on how to accomplish it correctly.

My install problems didn't seem to affect the performance of the system and the recording problem was the same before and after.

RK

[Rusty K]

Me again...

Since I haven't been able to solve this N'Track nightmare........

I was just thinking about starting from scratch with 3.0. I downloaded it again into a new folder. I haven't run the exe. because I need to check for the possible pitfalls of doing it this way. I have my tracks backed in a separate folder. I would have to reinstall my plugs as well. Am I correct in believing that the old program, plugs songs and all would have to be deleted before installing the new one?

RK

[Sangram]

Hi there

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I was off for a few days. No. You shouldn't have to delete the old folder and songs, I think you can install into another or the same folder. n-track should register the new location as the correct one.

I'm on murky ground here, I'm not on 3.0 and not planning to be anytime soon. I'm not even a registered user, and I'm only using the demo. I've tinkered around with n-track extensively at a friend's place though, where we jam.

To answer an earlier question in the thread... Network server setting on computer role is actually way better than 'Desktop computer'. IT allows for smaller buffer sizes and manages caches more effectively. Don't touch it.

24 bit playback stresses a hard disk subsystem very much, as well as the PCI bus. The motherboard and CPU combination you've mentioned seem OK.

A few questions: Are you using the onboard sound? I guess that's problem No. 1. Try disabling it if you don't really need it. You'll find the option in your BIOS, under 'Onboard Peripheral Resource control' or something like that. I guess you're using the onboard for SB compatibility, which you may really not need if you don't use old DOS games.

Problem #2 is that the modem and the onboard sound are sharing the same IRQ. That can cause severe corruption in audio. To solve, either shift the modem to another slot, or get an external modem, or disable the onboard audio. I see COM2 is free, disabling that will free up an IRQ.


Problem #3 is the disabled Midi. Again, not a major problem and may not be causing the skipping. Try reinstalling the driver, use the CD that came with the motherboard and install the audio driver. Should be OK now... If you want the onboard for MIDI, there's no way you're going to be able to disable the onboard. disabling primary audio will disable the MIDI automatically...

I've known networks can cause audio corruption sometimes. Try disconnecting the second computer (not really sure you have one connected, but looks like that) while recording/playback.

To try a reinstall, do this: Navigate to c:\windows\options\install, and click on setup.exe. Don't put in any CD-ROMs, drivers, nothing. Just let the computer look for files that are missing. Note down the names of these files (I'm guessing there won't be many, if any) and let me know.

You've got many devices crowding the computer up... The Sound is sharing with the USB, the SCSI controller (what's on this, BTW?)

Get the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers for the motherboard. Try www.viaarena.com or www.viahardware.com (you'll have to poke around a bit here). Your drivers aren't very old, but not very new either (drivers are dated April which would be 4.28 or 4.30 i think). Old versions of the driver can cause audio corruption, it's a known and common problem.

Try and disable some stuff you don't need. There's a huge number of mostly useless things running, and ME doesn't take much time fill your system with a load of bull. Try switching off some stuff in msconfig, etc. Display utilities are rarely needed unless you're in a business where you have to switch between modes frequently (web design, for example)...

Other examples would be System Restore (if you're comfortable with switching that off), Taskmonitor, Anti-virus programs (not that I can see any running), and Win Mgmt. All these can cause problems with audio.

Lastly, get all updates for your computer, from the microsoft website. Might help get some improvement in general performance.

More later, see if the above is any help. Also check out my reply to CPU redlining in the same forum. Lots of help for overburdened CPUs and generally bad playback. Specially note post on buffer sizes and driver issues, with WDM/ASIO drivers...

Sang

[Sangram]

Got this elsewhere on Homerec. Try it out.

http://www.tascam.com/support/faq/pc...6_optimize.cfm

[Slackmaster2K]

Rusty,

Well, I must say that I'm not a huge Epox fan...but let's just assume it's a good board.

I agree with Sangram's suggestions. First disable onboard sound from the BIOS. Then update to the latest 4in1 drivers. You might reinstall your soundcard at this point...make sure it's on its own IRQ...it's a delta, right? Snag the latest drivers for the onboard ATA controller as well (which will probably be listed in the device manager under SCSI devices).

Reinstalling windows from windows is not really reinstalling windows. Basically all you're doing is creating your own little DLL HELL. You mentioned that windows couldn't find the necessary files when trying to install, and this is quite common. Sometimes you have to re-specify the correct drive and path. Anyways, I don't consider re-copying files from CDROM reinstalling. On Windows ME any application can overwrite system files with whatever version it *thinks* should be installed. So then you recopy the originals and some programs stop working correctly and blah blah blah. This is where you start running into WEIRD problems where parts of applications seem to break.

You are at a point where you need to consider reinstalling windows, FOR REAL. Wipe the drive, and reinstall everything. And next time, create two partitions; one for windows and programs, and the other for data (you'll want 2-3GB for windows & software). It will make starting over much easier. A second drive would be even better of course.

Slackmaster 2000

[Rusty K]

Slack,


Well I'm going to go over Sangram's checklist but can you explain this?......................I downloaded 2.3 demo today and the program works perfectly. Recording everything although at 16bit. I then reinstalled 3.0 and I had no audio at all except for wild skipping when I tried switching to ASIO drivers.

My plan now is to reregister 2.3 24bit and check it out. I'd settle for that so I can get back to work.

My card is a LynxOne and I've downloaded a diagnostic program from their site and my card if functioning perfectly.

Something that was weird about going back to 2.3...my desktop was noticably darker. It's like it took the birghtness down.


RK

[Rusty K]

Well....I'm going nutz here!

Registered 2.3 24bit skipping is back so....it something in 24bit and N'Track? Vegas works. How can that be?

I'll just start at the top of Sangrams list.

Is installing a second hard drive a job I could do myself? Actually it's not the physical installation I'd be afraid of it's the setup.

ONWARD THROUGH THE FOG!

RK

Another weirdness. I couldn't print. The printer wasn't on the right port. I'm not sure where it was I could never find it so I just uninstalled and reinstalled on LPT1. Now it prints documents on in my system ok but nothing from the internet.

This is doubly curious since the "techs" that last worked on my puter claimed that it was my printer crashing the system just after the upgrade to the Thunderbird....they finally put in another motherboard.

RK

[Rusty K]

Hello Slack and Sangram, that sounds like a high powered law firm or something.

Checking the IRQ assignments....shows that my soundcard shares a space with the SCSI controller Sangram was curious about. Not good right? I found all the assignments in device manager but please tell this idiot how to open the "Computer Properties" dialog box so I can reassign.

I'll keep at it maybe I'll get lucky.

Also DMA was not selected in the one IDE device. When I checked it I got a warning to check with my puter mfg. to see if I'm DMA enabled. Should I worry about this?

Thanks,
I'm getting slap happy......

RK

[Rusty K]

Got it!

Sangram was right I have a lot of "stuff" sharing IRQ's.

itrerupt request 11-Adaptec-AIC-7850 PCI SCSI Controller
11-LynxOne (my sound card)
11-VIAtech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Cont.
11-Holder for PCI Steering
11-Holder for PCI Steering

It claims there are no conflicts.... and it would not allow me to move LynxOne. Many other spaces are shared as well. If there are any devices that the system can live without, I would be more than happy to remove them, like game stuff. Would a complete list help someone walk me through it?

Sangram...you said it looked as if COM-2 was open.....should I move it or try to move some of the other devices to that IRQ.

This thread is getting rediculous. It looks more like my own personal turorial and scratch pad.....sorry.

RK