Alesis IO26: Strange behaviour

[Bone_Bonce]

Through trial and error I have found that my Alesis is causing 'System Interrupt' activity. When no other processes are going on the CPU jumps around frantically from anything between 8% and 25%. When I unplug the Alesis the CPU drops to a steady 1%.

Do you know something about this issue?

I'm using:
- TI Firewire 3-port card
- The original Alesis power supply
- Windows 7 Ultimate 32
- Up-to-date Alesis drivers

No other devices are plugged into my machine...

 

[oretez]

Something like Process Explorer from here could help trouble shooting specifics. But in all likelihood what you are seeing is a function of DICE-II (chip) implementation. There should be a lot of internet chatter of possible DICE-II behavior going back at least 5-6 yr.

Generally what you're seeing should not present a problem under most recording scenarios (that is CPU will not scale up as a function of the 25% spikes seen with 0 use of the f/w device, I've been able to record 24 tracks with IO26 into a 2001 vintage laptop & external F/W card)

 

[Bone_Bonce]

Something like Process Explorer from could help trouble shooting specifics. But in all likelihood what you are seeing is a function of DICE-II (chip) implementation. There should be a lot of internet chatter of possible DICE-II behavior going back at least 5-6 yr.

Generally what you're seeing should not present a problem under most recording scenarios (that is CPU will not scale up as a function of the 25% spikes seen with 0 use of the f/w device, I've been able to record 24 tracks with IO26 into a 2001 vintage laptop & external F/W card)

Thanks a lot for the response, and the great link! It's a shame there isn't a real bona fide resolution for the problem.

I am going to downgrade and install XP 64 and see if the Alesis drivers function any better with that. But, are you basically saying that the CPU spikes shouldn't affect performance at all or am I missing the point? Sorry, I'm not the most jargon literate guy ever!

My main problem is when I'm mixing tracks and the CPU load gets too heavy with plug-ins, so I'm obviously concerned as to whether the CPU spikes from the Alesis are affecting this!

 

[oretez]

Can't say that in your particular situation that the CPU spikes mean that you don't have a problem, merely that that CPU spikes are an artifact of DICE II chips (should be lots of discussion from back in '05/06 for example) and do not necessarily mean you are going to have a problem.

Use IO26 on quite a few lap tops, primarily Dell latitudes and Lenovo (formerly IBM), with greatest frequency & highest CPU momentary 'spiking' on Dell Inspiron, lowest on IBM A31s (at least two different ones with two different patterns); recording in excess of 20 tracks simultaneously (both in studio and live environments) and did not experience difficulties related to the CPU spikes. (now the machines in most cases were 'configured' specifically for audio work (as much as it is possible with general purpose off the shelf machines) with 7200 rpm external drives reformatted for each new project. I do not tend to record at higher rates then 24/48 unless a clients requests it and @ 24/48 recording even 24 tracks does not place particularly heavy demands on the CPU.

 

[wearestation]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but is anyone still getting the problem with the alesis io26 firewire not working? I'm running 10.7.3 with 2.2 Ghz Core i7, 4GB... 800 firewire etc with lion. I downloaded alesis' new drivers, tried the 32 bit business, but nothing seems to work. I don't think its the unit itself because there are other people with very similar problems that seemed to come out of no where, but no forums are conclusive that I've seen. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Ninja_Drummer]

IO26 has a reputation for issues with software. I've had my plethora of some myself. It would seem that the io26 is picky about what systems it works for. Before I ran it on my current custom pc build, I had it working through a Dell Studio laptop with 4 gb ram and a core duo dual processor. I had cpu spikes up to 70% on mine (it was vista). And when I read the troubleshoot and consistent problems report, I found that they've had constant issues with Dell pc's.