Laptop+Onyx F400 = cpu overload

  • Thread starter Thread starter galvano
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galvano

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Hi guys!
I'm quite new to this digital domain and have recently purchased the Onyx F400 soundcard to go with my laptop wich is an LG. (specs below)

Model : LW75-S 1ZV

- Intel® Pentium® M 740 (1.73GHz)
- Genuine Windows® XP Home
- 1GB(1024MB x 1) DDR II
- ATI RADEON X700 (128 MB)
- 100GB SATA (5400RPM)

Now the problem I have is while multitracking, the computer can handle about 2 minutes worth of 8 tracks before it starts to lag and finally quit recording. In short, I get a cpu overload.
Since I don't monitor through the daw I have set a high latency so not to burden the computer.
I don't have an extra harddrive designated for recording unfortunatly and I'm sure that would be best. But I'm only running cubase sx3 and nothing else while recording.
My firewire port does share the irq resource 16 with quite a few things and maybe I should look into fix that.

I guess I'm feeling that I've tried most of the stuff I can think of including what's said on http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php and it hasn't done anything for me, so I'm asking for a few tips that'll help me start recoring and not screwing around.

I'm thankful for anything you've got.

/Matt
 
I've never used one myself but the way I understand it, the 100GB SATA (5400RPM) hard drive is not fast enough and could likely be your problem.
 
I've been thinking about getting an additional drive, though my firewire port is occupied by the soundcard.
Are usb ports fast enough for recording so I could get an external usb drive?
Any ideas?
Thanks.
 
galvano said:
I've been thinking about getting an additional drive, though my firewire port is occupied by the soundcard.
Are usb ports fast enough for recording so I could get an external usb drive?
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you are truly getting a CPU overload, using a USB drive will make things much worse; USB hard drives eat lots of CPU overhead compared to other drives.

Most FireWire drives have a built-in hub with more than one port. That would probably do reasonably well if disk performance is the problem.

I really don't have any idea what could cause the problem you're describing, though, unless it is trying to cache write data in RAM because of slow disk performance and is running out of RAM... but that would be pretty odd. Usually such a problem would cause it to just plain not be able to record even for a moment....
 
Well cubase gives me an alert popup that says cpu overload.

The weird thing is, we seem to be able to record calm slow music with no problem but as soon as we get loud the computer acts up and starts lagging.
The song we're trying to record gets heavy around 2 minutes and that's when it goes south.
I've got the levels in check and not going red so I can't figure this out.
 
The laptop probably has all sorts of programs running in the background eating up cpu time. Disable any wireless connections and shut down all unnecessary programs or processes. The Hard drive is an issue also but try the above first. If that doesnt work then I would piece together a desktop system that is dedicated to recording. I built a rig for under $600 and I can record 16 tracks at a time with no issue what so ever. My interface is 16 tracks. When mixing I have never gone over 50% cpu load and thats using multiple vst's and mixing over 20 tracks. My system is an Antec case (very quiet), with Gigibyte mainboard, 2 megs corsair memory, 320 gig 7200rpm, AMD3200, SB audigy (for computer based audio needs), PNY Nvidia 6800gt, and 17" Samsung LCD, and the esential cd/dvd roms.
 
I'll try and shut down as many processes I can, I seem to have quite a few running although I've shut all programs down.
Thanks for your input.
 
Try getting the FW on its own interrupt. Then go to www.answersthatwork.com and see about disabling as many backgtound processes as you can.

You should have no trouble recording 8 tracks with that rig. I have an older Pentium M lappy with a 5400 drive that does 8 tracks no problem
 
It seems like I can't change the irq for the FW, it's all greyed out.
Do you think it would get it's own Irq if I uninstall the FW and reinstall it?
I disabled a port I don't use so I have one Irq free.
 
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