Choppy Audio after installing 2nd Hard Drive

Bartman

Bartman

I count on me
FYI.....I posted this question in the "Cool Edit Pro" forum as well.

Here's my situation:

I run Adobe Audition 1.5 on a Dell 2.66 P4, 512 RAM with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card and Waves Platinum Bundle for effects processing.

I installed a 2nd hard drive on my PC Friday evening and am now experiencing choppy audio playback on multi-track sessions.

Prior to the installation of this 2nd hard drive, everything worked perfectly....often mixing 20-30 tracks, each sometimes having multiple effects. I "lock" tracks to prevent heavy processor taxation.

I installed the 2nd drive (160 gig Western Digital) so I could archive more individual track, mix and session data. I am concerned that I unintentionally changed some system or software settings in the install process which has created some type of conflict.

I'd greatly appreciate any advice that might point me in the right direction or help me directly resolve this issue.

Thanks much,

Bart
 
DMA enabled

Carter,

I am positive that DMA is enabled on the first drive, but I have not investigated that for the new drive. Excellent suggestion. Thank you, I'll try that tonight.

If you can think of anything else that might help, please post it.

Let me also mention that I do not record direct to PC, I mixdown tracks that are recorded with my Yamaha AW16G stand alone DAW.

Bart
 
:D
That was exactly the problem I had when I put my data drive into my new Dell last year. It worked fine in my old machine, I popped it into my new tower and EVERY audio file would be choppy. Enabling DMA solved the problem.

You think this would be enabled by default??
Good luck!
 
Still not working...

All,

One additional piece of information that might make a difference....both drives are connected to the same IDE cable. The factory drive is set up as the master and the new drive is the slave (I verfied jumper settings as correct).

DMA was enabled for both drives on all setting except "Current Transfer Mode" for Device 1 under the Primary IDE Channel Properties (accessing this via....CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM/HARDWARE/DEVICE MANAGER) which indicates PIO (I believe that is a problem, yes?) and there is no drop down choice to make a change.

All other settings reflect DMA enabled.

When I disconnect the 2nd drive, everything works perfectly.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I really need the additional storage.

Bart
 
Try installing both as masters, one in the primary channel and one in the secondary channel. Install your CD-ROM, etc as slaves.

From what I read, a single channel can be used by just one device at a time, and the other one has to wait. So it makes sense to split both drives in deparate channels. Supposedly, this will bring you more problems with your CD-ROM, since you're mixing fast and slow devices. But since you control your CD-ROM yourself, I don't think it's much of a problem. Check this link:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Performance.htm
 
cordura21 said:
Try installing both as masters, one in the primary channel and one in the secondary channel. Install your CD-ROM, etc as slaves.

From what I read, a single channel can be used by just one device at a time, and the other one has to wait. So it makes sense to split both drives in deparate channels. Supposedly, this will bring you more problems with your CD-ROM, since you're mixing fast and slow devices. But since you control your CD-ROM yourself, I don't think it's much of a problem. Check this link:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Performance.htm
Click to expand...

I agree with this, I installed another PCI controller card so I could have all my drives on thier own channel, channel 1 OS drive, channel 2 music drive, and then on the controller card channel 1 CD-Rom, channel 2 CDRW drive. with all drives set to master.. :)
 
Response from the Computer Mfg...

The response received from my Computer Mfg is copied below:

This seems like bad advice to me. Would installing the OS and audio drivers on the 2nd drive resolve my problem? I like the one hard disk per channel solution.

"I would like to inform you that we would need to install
the operating system as well as its drivers on the second hard drive as
well. Once the audio drivers will be installed, the problem will not
occur again.

So please use the Windows XP CD to install Windows XP on this system.
Please visit the under mentioned link which explains the same procedure
in a stepwise manner.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1081757

Kindly follow the steps given below if you are unable to view the above
Dell website links : -
* Log on to www.support.dell.com
* Under 'Consumer' Section, click 'Home and Home Office'.
* If listed, click on 'Troubleshooting (Dell KB)'.
* Type in your Service Tag (Press Enter).
* Now copy and paste the links in the address bar of the browser and
click on 'Go'.

Use the Dell Dimension Resource CD to install the respective drivers.

* Log on to www.support.dell.com
* Under 'Consumer' Section, click 'Home and Home Office'.
* If listed, click on 'Troubleshooting (Dell KB)'.
* Type in your Service Tag (Press Enter).
* Click blue colored 'Product Support' option.
* Click 'Reinstall Guides'
* Select operating system as Windows XP and click 'Submit'.
* You will reach a link which will have sublinks, explaining the
respective procedure to install various drivers required for this
system.

Please use the instructions to install the drivers. Now try and play the
music files. I'm sure it will play fine."
 
:eek:

I think whoever gave you that advice (Dell Technical Support?) is an IDIOT!!!!

I would try the "each drive on its own IDE channel" solution :)
Good luck!
 
If Iam thinking correctly I think my operating system is also installed on my second drive or maybe some windows drivers, I know that some components are there and this all happened automatically when I installed my new drive.
 
No .... Windows and the programs should not be installed to the second drive.
However, Windows will place certain folders such as System Volume Information, Recycle bin and possibly a Pagefile.sys if you enabled paging to that drive (which you shouldn't ... not in the case of a DAW). There may be a few other odds and ends that get put on the drive depending on the file structure you use, but the OS is still operating solely from the original boot drive.
I would put the new drive on the Secondary IDE channel all by it's self, set as Master.
Put the CDROM as Slave on the Primary IDE channel or better yet, buy an add-in PCI IDE controller card for the CD drive/drives as has been suggested.
 
I will try to use the existing channels so you don't use PCI bandwidth or IRQ resources. A nice alternative is using an external USB/firewire enclosure for the CD/ROM and new drives.
 
I will try

Thanks very much to everyone for your suggestions. It is greatly appreciated.

Tonight I will try the following:

Connect the new hard drive to the Secondary IDE channel using the "Cable Select" jumper setting.

Connect the factory hard drive as a "master" to the Primary IDE channel with the CD-ROM set up as the "slave".

The OS, apps and drivers will stay on the factory drive with the new hard drive used for file storage only.

Since I transfer files from CD to hard disk, this set-up should allow me to perform that function without resource conflicts.

I'll post tomorrow morning with the results......if I don't "go Postal" from frustration.

Bart
 
Problem Resolved!!!

Thanks much to all who provided input!

Problem resolved by connecting the HD's to dedicated IDE cables. Factory HD on its own cable and the new HD as a "master" on another IDE cable with the CD ROM as a "slave".

After doing all that, I decided to take cordura21's advice and buy a $50 external Firewire enclosure which converts the internal HD to an external HD. In less than 5 minutes I was up and running perfectly and now have the added flexibility of quickly sharing this drive with my other PC.

In the infamous words of Tony Montana of Scarface..........(In a Cuban accent) "Say hallo to my leetle fren"! A sweet little device.

Bart
 
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