this is a question for computer gurus ONLY...oh yeah for reason users also.

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czar of bizarre

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hello fellow members i have a slight problem and questions. i have a pc which is an amd k6, 475 mhz,13 gig 5400rpm drive and 376mb of ram. i was running windows 98se about 1 month ago. i took it off because it would ALWAYS crash. it would NEVER crash while i worked a music application. it would crash when i would hit an MSN SIGHT or scrash starting up or shuting down. blue screen fatal exception stuff.

i took the pc in and had 98se yanked off and the guy installed 98. it still crashes on the msn sights but it doesnt crash in audio programs. so here is the first question i have. i checked for ram leaks and faulty directories. should i yank out the amd and get a pIII with 2000?

two of my programs seem to have ram issues with my setup. reason and acid. i exceed the basic requirements to run those programs. however with acid i CANT play back my wav files without stutter lag and gargle. if it is an acid file its cool. if its my file and i have a lot playing it acts up. at the bottom of the screen in acid i can see the ram and it isnt even going past 12mb.

i installed reason on my brothers pc. he is running windows me with 128 mb of ram and a 5400rpm hard drive with a pII. we ran each drum sound to its on channel on the reason mixer. the cpu usage meter barely moved. however when i start reason on my pc and just use the presets my cpu usage meter peaks. so my second question is what exactly is going on with my pc and reason vs his pc and reason? shouldnt my pc exceed his as far as performance? my resources are always between 92% and 96% when i boot up.

so heres a recap of questions:

1.should i remove the amd and get somthing else and install 2000?

2.why is my brothers pc handling the software better than my pc?

thanx guyz.
 
short answer

well.... you don't yank off an amd processor and add a pentium 3. They use differant motherboards. You most likely didn't have to yank off 98se and put on 98 (how did that happen) because 98se is made to be more stable than it's predecessor. you are most likely having a hardware conflict. It could be one of your cards is not in love with your mobo's chipset (probably a VIA) and also you must make sure to have the latest firmware from your mobo's company. You should also get all updates to all your softwares and harwares. Follow instructions and dont just yank this and that around. Sounds like you'll need a faster and larger hard drive too. Thats a lot of ram in a system with such a small hard drive. I'm not too keen on Monorail but the little I've heard wasn't exactly flattering when it came to digital audio. I know Soundblaster Live has issues with the VIA chipset. Look you might be better off getting a cheap PIII or PII or Celeron box from your local bargain store and using the Monorail for office work and such... for all the tweaking you might have to do to it. Until all the companies (audio soft and hardware) catch up to Win2000 I'd stick with Win98.
That's my short answer.
 
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Put 98se back on, 1st. Don't go backwards!
Next, consider moving from the K6 to the Thunderbird, if your board supports it. You have plenty of Ram but a slow harddrive. Check for any conflicts. If you have problems booting, you could have a boot sector virus or other similar problem. Almost impossible to say without getting to poke around in it. Consider getting a meatier processor and harddrive, and definatly get 98se back on.
 
well.... you don't yank off an amd processor and add a pentium 3. They use differant motherboards.

i would change mother boards as well and if the ram needed to be changed i would do that also.

You most likely didn't have to yank off 98se and put on 98 (how did that happen) because 98se is made to be more stable than it's predecessor.

i yanked off 98se and had him reformat the HD and reinstall the os. i dont know how in the hell 98 got installed.

you are most likely having a hardware conflict.

hardware as in peripherals or something internal? this machine has acted up before i even added my soundcard or midi interface to the usb port.

Follow instructions and dont just yank this and that around.

only the guy who built the pc has this task. not me. however i have been told to check for faulty ram,boot setups,virus,conflicts and just about anything you can name. i have been told to back up and reformat.

Sounds like you'll need a faster and larger hard drive too. Thats a lot of ram in a system with such a small hard drive.

i back up to an external cdr,roland hard disc recorder and roland burner. so i dont NEED a large hard drive because im not storing the stuff on it for long. a faster one yes. 10,000 rpms? hmmmmm
i need a lot of ram because i have a lot of tracks and plug ins.

I'm not too keen on Monorail but the little I've heard wasn't exactly flattering when it came to digital audio.I know Soundblaster Live has issues with the VIA chipset.

is that the company who made my guts? monorail? last i checked amd and monorail were seperate entities and monorail was supplying comp usa with all the pcs with different setups(i could be wrong).

i had the pc made from the ground up. my digital audio sounds great. i dont have a soundblaster live. they dont even sell those in music stores.however i drop it on reel. then go back digital. sounds great. cant wait to post mp3s when im finished.

basically im going to get a new motherboard,processor,hard drive and more ram.
thanx 4 your advice. any more insight is welcomed friend.


czar
 
guys i HONESTLY dont know why windows 98 was installed. i had 98se at first. took it in had the drive backed up. reformated and POW!!!!!!!! 98 comes up.
QUOTE]Next, consider moving from the K6 to the Thunderbird, if your board supports it. [/QUOTE]
i think it does.however i do think a p3 with a compatible motherboard would provide optimum performance.

Check for any conflicts. If you have problems booting, you could have a boot sector virus or other similar problem.
i have checked for viruses,did disk scan,defrag you name it i did it.


im checking pricewatch.com for prices. however the guy who built the pc said it would cost between $600-$800 to upgrade. im checkin prices


thanx guyz


czar
 
i just put this together: asus cusl2-C mainboard, pentium III 1Ghz processor.......less than $300 on pricewatch....any conflicts in this system, if any ,, will be due to the soundcard or software.....i haven't loaded reason onto it yet, but i have no reason to think that i'll have a problem with a soundcard with asio support.....hope this helps.

ps...i'm using windows ME......gotta love the WMP and the pics of britney spears's ass cheeks. and i'm no computer guru.....a total dumbass, if ya need a category...;) but i have used reason...
 
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Your problem

This may or may not be helpful, but recently I have been having trouble using USB because the USB uses the same IRQ as one of my PCI slot. Windows will not report shared IRQs for PNP devices as conflicts because it thinks that IRQ steering will sort it out (HA!). It's worth checking by hand that no 2 physical devices (IE not an IRQ holder) share an IRQ (sound cards particularly don't like to share - every time I've had a souncard share IRQs with anything else, things go barmy). Do this by bringing up device manager (windows key and break key at the same time), selecting computer, then properties, This window will tell you which IRQs are used by which devices.

Don't know if this'll help, but it's probably worth a try.

Matthew
 
If its crashing during boot-up etc. it could very easily be a problem with your RAM. What brand of memory did you buy? Sometimes generic memory can cause your system to fart since its generally not burned in and tested to the same standards as name brand stuff like crucial (micron). Does your system recognize all 376MB, or does it show a different number? Also, what motherboard do you have? If you do have a VIA chipset, like someone else insinuated, it would be a good idea to go to their web site and see if their are any BIOS patches. Good luck. As far as the system resources thing goes, I'd probably ignore it. My CPU usage always says 100% in the task manager (win2k) when recording, but the cakewalk cpu meter has never gone over ~70%. I think its probably just a glitch. And to reiterate what Cakey2 said, always make sure your sound card is on its own IRQ and all non-essential apps are shut off during recording/playback.
 
The AMD K6 and Thunderbird (K7) are COMPLETELY different animals, with different motherboards. The K6 is comperable to the original Pentium chip except with much worse floating-point perfomance. The K7 is comperable to (except faster than) the Pentium III family.

You would also probably need to switch cases, most K6 motherboard use the AT design while all K-7's use ATX.

I would not waste time trying to do serious audio work with a K6 system. Working with digital audio is very floating-point intensive and you will never be happy with your results. Get a new motherboard / processor /ram, get a new case, keep your old hard drive / video card / etc. Then install Win98SE from scratch after your new componants are assembled.

Thats my opinion...
 
the ram is kingston or something like that. it does show when it boots up. i "think" the sound card is on its own irq. im "NOT" sure. i dont know what kind of chip set it is. however next time i post on this thread i will know.


so which is better a k7 or p3?

like i said my stuff NEVER crashed with audio. just when i boot up,shut down or hit an msn site.

i can sequence on my pc and record the midi from my xp60 to my vs machine. i dont have to record on the pc.

thanx 4 all the help guys i appreciate it.


czar.
 
The p3 vs k7 debate is open! I think it depends entirely on budget. You can get a much faster athlon chip for your money, and athlon chips even run faster than the equivalently rated p3 chip. On the other hand, most software is written for pentium machines, and hardware is sometime incompatible with athlon (though probably all your current kit is fine since it runs on a K6). For example, I bought an Aark 20/20 second hand and it stopped my athlon 600 from booting at all! It's the PCI bus apparently. Recently got a new mobo/processor and it works ok.

Mostly I'm very happy with the price and performance of my athlon systems.
 
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Don't assume the Athlon has anything to do with not running certain hardware. It should run anything a Pentuim will run. In most cases, damn near ALL cases, its the chipset that causes bus and other incompatibilities. If you want AMD , use the AMD 760 chipset and you'll be fine and dandy. Dont mess with the Via chipsets, nor the AMD 750 chipsets. If you want intel, go with an Intel board.
 
Tubedude is completely right, it wasn't the CPU per se that caused my problems, it was the mobo chipset. Hence the new mobo.
 
so maybe amd processor with amd chipset or intel pentium with intel chipset....whichever, it seems like the main thing to shop for is a good motherboard that will meet your needs, then calculate the cost of maxing it out for your purposes...:)
 
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