I bought a TASCAM US 1800 USB interface, it works great on my desktop. However on my laptop it'll be working fine and suddenly I'll start hearing these steady clicks/pops and can't get them to stop. I'll unplug the USB chord, turn off the Tascam unit but when I plug everything back in and turn the unit back on the pops return. I feel like I can't get anythign done b/c I'm always trouble shooting. I tried the interface on my buddy's mac desktop and it worked fine there too. Any thoughts on what could be causing the problem? I'm using Nuendo 4 and my operating system on the laptop is Windows 7 64 bit.
TASCAM US 1800 Clicking and Popping
- Thread starter Chris3411
- Start date
CoolCat
Well-known member
you know I was just messing about on this old laptop and started getting into the homesite to update everythng and several things were updated.
then I went to the computer>advanced system settings> selected "run best performance" not the what windows thinks is best and maybe its me but everything seems faster.
the reason I mention the laptop is your Tascam doesnt have issues on the other pc , which obviously makes the problem with the laptop as you know, so maybe doing some basics will help? disk cleanup, defrag...
shutoff all the background stuff.
I've heard everytime the CPU does other tasks it can cause clicks , especially other shared USB stuff thats being polled.
Windows 7 has the performance tool, computers> windows experience index which shows a rating in the large blue box u , can click on that and it wil help set things to the best settings too.
thats some bare basics stuff...(all I know).
then I went to the computer>advanced system settings> selected "run best performance" not the what windows thinks is best and maybe its me but everything seems faster.
the reason I mention the laptop is your Tascam doesnt have issues on the other pc , which obviously makes the problem with the laptop as you know, so maybe doing some basics will help? disk cleanup, defrag...
shutoff all the background stuff.
I've heard everytime the CPU does other tasks it can cause clicks , especially other shared USB stuff thats being polled.
Windows 7 has the performance tool, computers> windows experience index which shows a rating in the large blue box u , can click on that and it wil help set things to the best settings too.
thats some bare basics stuff...(all I know).
similar problem with worse results.. any ideas?
I had a similar thing happen to me with crazy different sounds spontaneously erupt from my tascam us-1800 and now when i plug it into either one of my computers, neither one even recognizes that it's plugged into it! any ideas? it's very upsetting, it's basically brand new.. only used it for a few hours..
thanks
I had a similar thing happen to me with crazy different sounds spontaneously erupt from my tascam us-1800 and now when i plug it into either one of my computers, neither one even recognizes that it's plugged into it! any ideas? it's very upsetting, it's basically brand new.. only used it for a few hours..
thanks
jimmys69
MOODerator
That would depend upon what you are using it with. PC/Mac, OS, DAW, Rubber duck, etc.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Please post back when you figure out the problem. I am just curious in case this ever happens to me or anyone else.
possible suggestion
I had similar issues with various other interfaces and my fix was disabling the drivers for the sound that are the default with your laptop. the other fix was disabling certain items that run in the background such as windows defender, firewall or lower the graphic settings to minimum so the less things running the less pops and clicks you will have. Both suggestions have worked on various types of interfaces usb and firewire.
I had similar issues with various other interfaces and my fix was disabling the drivers for the sound that are the default with your laptop. the other fix was disabling certain items that run in the background such as windows defender, firewall or lower the graphic settings to minimum so the less things running the less pops and clicks you will have. Both suggestions have worked on various types of interfaces usb and firewire.
CoolCat
Well-known member
yes the background stuff...similar to someone hanging up a phone and picking up another call, the cpu is interrupted to do other tasks so the audio software is interrupted for a "pop"..."click"... to stop all other stuff going on and as in the early days it was almost a requirement the PC was to be 100% dedicated to recording.
i think now the pc are so much more powerful, the cpu so advanced people have a recording studio on the surfing-pc and windows updates and all the other crap that updates and in short......
stuff that asks for cpu time.
ever since i used a old laptop for surfing, the recorder pc was removed off the internet and its been no issues since. not sure of the date but its been a few months at least.
my last big crash was due to some bs Windows Update messing up my USB drivers.
good luck
i think now the pc are so much more powerful, the cpu so advanced people have a recording studio on the surfing-pc and windows updates and all the other crap that updates and in short......
stuff that asks for cpu time.
ever since i used a old laptop for surfing, the recorder pc was removed off the internet and its been no issues since. not sure of the date but its been a few months at least.
my last big crash was due to some bs Windows Update messing up my USB drivers.
good luck
gargoylien
New member
Pops and Clicks
I'm not sure if you found any more help on this, but I have found a couple of things regarding similar problems with my 1641. The most help came from adding a ferrite slug to the USB cable (Parts express has these real cheap). But I also found that since my machine lacked a little horse power, I could make things run a lot better by turning off any networking.
Hope this helps.
I'm not sure if you found any more help on this, but I have found a couple of things regarding similar problems with my 1641. The most help came from adding a ferrite slug to the USB cable (Parts express has these real cheap). But I also found that since my machine lacked a little horse power, I could make things run a lot better by turning off any networking.
Hope this helps.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Well, I was actually just avoiding answering the OP's question due to my opinion of his questionable use/purchase of software.
If you have any questions regarding setup with the 1641, I will be glad to help. First course with any USB 2.0 interface, it needs to have a dedicated buss. You can not run any streaming device off the same port. A mouse or keyboard maybe, but an USB2.0 interface cannot share a port with something like an external drive. I am disturbed that the manufacturers do not make this clear. It is not a big expense to add a new PCIe buss, but it should be made clear that it is necessary.
If you have any questions regarding setup with the 1641, I will be glad to help. First course with any USB 2.0 interface, it needs to have a dedicated buss. You can not run any streaming device off the same port. A mouse or keyboard maybe, but an USB2.0 interface cannot share a port with something like an external drive. I am disturbed that the manufacturers do not make this clear. It is not a big expense to add a new PCIe buss, but it should be made clear that it is necessary.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Sorry, that is just what I had to use for my old PC. PCI is fine.
Got my US-1800 last week. I also ordered a USB controller but it hasn't arrived. Had some clicks playing multichannel, none recording but I've only recorded two tracks simultaneously so far. It also crashed a few times using Foobar2000. I hope the controller will fix these issues. I have a trackball and wireless keyboard connected to USB besides the Tascam.
2.5gHz dual core CPU and 3.25gb DDR2 RAM. I have Win7 64-bit installed on a SSD. Lots of unnecessary services are turned off but I still had other software running in the background. Usually this is no problem but I could try turning everything off including internet and AVG realtime scanner.
When I use Audition I set another device as default because I use ASIO4ALL.
I don't have any clicks or pops with Foobar2000 regardless of how heavy I load my PC. Running Prime95 torture test and starting Phohoshop and Vuze (heavy applications) simultaneously doesn't cause any distortions. But Foobar did freeze the US-1800 a few times earlier without having as much CPU activity.
I already increased buffer size in ASIO4ALL. I don't know if ASIO4ALL caused the clicks. I have to run some test, trying different settings for ASIO4ALL, trying the real ASIO and different stuff. Maybe I can rule out the cause.
When I use Audition I set another device as default because I use ASIO4ALL.
I don't have any clicks or pops with Foobar2000 regardless of how heavy I load my PC. Running Prime95 torture test and starting Phohoshop and Vuze (heavy applications) simultaneously doesn't cause any distortions. But Foobar did freeze the US-1800 a few times earlier without having as much CPU activity.
I already increased buffer size in ASIO4ALL. I don't know if ASIO4ALL caused the clicks. I have to run some test, trying different settings for ASIO4ALL, trying the real ASIO and different stuff. Maybe I can rule out the cause.
I just took a look at Auditions hardware set up. I see there's a driver called US-1800. I didn't figure this would be an ASIO driver, that's why I was using ASIO4ALL. I don't have time to test it now, so I'll do some tests tests tomorrow and see if this fixes my issues.
"What do you mean by the 1800 freezes?" Using Foobar, the US-1800 just stopped doing anything a few times so I had to switch it off and back on. Two times it even got into a loop, constantly repeating half a second. It doesn't happen all the time, today I had no problems using Foobar. Audio device is set to US-1800 driver so not the primary sound driver.
"What do you mean by the 1800 freezes?" Using Foobar, the US-1800 just stopped doing anything a few times so I had to switch it off and back on. Two times it even got into a loop, constantly repeating half a second. It doesn't happen all the time, today I had no problems using Foobar. Audio device is set to US-1800 driver so not the primary sound driver.