I have a big problem - Please help me

[hrn]

Hi guys,

I have a big problem. How can it be like this? In the studio I have this setup:

Athlon 1.4 GHz (the old one)
IBM Ultra SCSI 160 10k 39 Mb disk for files
IBM IDE 7.5k 60 Mb for system
Matrox Millenium G450 Dual Head 32 Mb used with two monitors
500 Mb DDR
PlexWriter 16/10/40A CDRW Writer
Aopen CD-Rom
RME Hammerfall 9636
Asus A7M266 Motherboard
Logitech optical mouse
Dell Keyboard
Aopen AMD proved Chassi
Lightpipe to a Digimax and a Creamware A16 Ultra
Logic Audio Platinum 5.3
Win98 Lite

I cannot play 50 (maybe 25-30 at the same time) audio tracks with just some plugins without getting the "ASIO error or maybe your disc is to slow". After the problems occured I started to adjust the settings for the Matrox card but it only got worse. I copied the files for the song and took it home for a test to my computer with the following setup:

Athlon 1.2 GHz (the old one)
Western Digital IDE 7.5k 8 Mb cache 120 Mb for system and files in three partitions.
Asus Geforce 2 7700
250 Mb DDR
PlexWriter 16/10/40A CDRW Writer
Aopen CD-Rom
M-audio Audiophile 2496
Asus A7M266 Motherboard
Logitech optical mouse (same as in the studio)
Dell Keyboard (same as in the studio)
Chieftec AMD proved chassi
Logic Audio Platinum 5.3
WinXp Pro (no tweaks)

Everything works just perfect in this setup, and I can put in plug after plug...among them many heavy plugs like Waves Ren comp and Eq.

The computer at home would not be as powerful as the one in the studio. Where do you think I can find the solution for the problem? Think it has to do with the Matrox card, but I'm not shure. Or is WinXp so much better than Win98Lite?

The files disc were newly defraged by Norton Speed disk in the studio and at home both the system and the files partitions were newly defraged by Diskeeper.

Suggestions highly appreciated!

Hans,
www.hagen.nu

 

[Doug H]

Well, to start with you're comparing 98 to XP. XP is built on the NT kernel which I believe is unix based and is way better at memory management and handling multiple processes.

I would guess that the error you are getting means a sound driver somewhere has detected that the software can't keep the playback buffer full. Maybe you have different buffer settings between the two systems?

 

[Stealthtech]

XP over 98 ? XP far better.
ASUS video vs. Matrox ? possible factor depending on settings
And the metion of buffer settings above...possible as well

Is this the same Hans from Sonnickmatter ??

 

[hrn]

Stealthtech,
Yeah it's me

I have to take care of a mix urgently and have not been able to look at the studio computer. But I can say that I worked with my home computer (the second setup) even more and it's amazing. It's not built for heavy audio work, just thought I could do some editing and mastering with it, but it has proved to be a giant.

My next step will be to change to WinXp in the studio, think the problems can be found in the Win98Lite I have there. I got some suggestions from Matrix support of a utility to disable bus mastering which can be downloaded from their site. Possibly it can do other stuff too. It's called MTSTUtil.

Read their answer here: http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/Forum3/HTML/004306.html .Very fast support, cheers to those guys!

I will start trying WinXp first though.

See you,
Hans
www.hagen.nu