" explosive " static...and play stoppage...

[Eddie N]

friends ,

im posting this question here rather then in the cakewalk forum because im pretty sure its a computer problem and not a cakewalk problem... when playing back my recordings in cakewalk rarely will it make it through with out either A. just stopping playback for no reason , or B. suddenly making an explosive staticy noise louder than the playback itself...which wont stop until i stop playback... now , the latter happens not only in cakewalk , but when using winamp or just playing a wav...

my computer is a compaq ( yuck ).. 300 mmx amd k6 , 64 mb of ram ( simm style )and a 4 gig hard drive with 3 gigs free space...im also only using the cakewalk 8 demo and the sound card built in to my motherboard..( yes , built in )

someone pleeeaassee diagnose this problem for me...

one last question...what is the determining factor when it comes to processor usage ? what do you upgrade to lower the processor usage and make it more efficient ? the cpu ? or the memory ?

- eddie -



[This message has been edited by Eddie N (edited 08-11-1999).]

 

[Emeric]

I'm assuming you have closed all unnecessary programs, screen savers, task managers, norton stuff, and generally optimized your PC for recording.

Did this problem just happen or has it been doing it for awhile? Did you install some other software since it started?

Check for a loose or defective cable which could randomly generate this static sound. Possible your soundcard is done. Hopefully you can disable it in the BIOS or work around it if you have to install a soundcard.

As for your processor question - This relates to the first paragraph. Anything you can do to optimize your PC will leave more resources, both CPU and memory for your recording software. Upgrading the CPU will certainly give you more processing power. Upgrading the memory will increase the performance of the software, less hard drive caching, overall better performance.

BTW Cakewalk would stop for playing for no reason for me as well. Perhaps if you post this in the Cakewalk forum, someone familiar with Cakewalk can diagnose at least that part of the problem.

Emeric




[This message has been edited by Emeric (edited 08-11-1999).]

 

[Eddie N]

emeric ,

i wasnt multitasking at the time. everything was closed...i believe it probably is my sound card.... i just started tooling with the demo...and its been doing this regularly.. eeek.. i just dont understand it..my computer sucks.. but people get by with worse... the metronome is sparatic , the playback stops... numerous times ive armed a track and recorded , and when i stopped recording...there was no audio present.. overall the program does not run smoothly on my computer... unless its me...
thanks for the info...

- eddie -

 

[Dragon]

Do you have Norton Utilities? You might check for Windows errors...it can be scary how much a computer in normal usage accumulates...

 

[Eddie N]

friends ,

i dont have norton.. and i ran scandisk and defragmented not too long ago... but thats hard drive stuff... ill do it again anyway... how else can i check for errors ? i try to keep this computer as clean as possible.. no pretty desktop themes or screen savers.. im in the process of getting parts together for another computer just for recording .. but until then..i need to use this machine...

im gonna give it another whirl...i like the program..ive made the most progress with it than the other s/w.. i just wish it worked right..

- eddie -