Dropout Hell and a cry for help...

AlakaLazlo

Don’t really know where to begin... I’m in dropout hell... Sad

Not one or two here and there, but every 5 minutes or so, I get more dropout than music... Then, no audio at all .... Mad

Specs: i7/920 Giga EX58UD5, 9Gigs RAM; 1xMR816CSX, 1xMR816x, all BIOS, drivers and software updated. Windows 7Pro/64bit. Cubase 5.5.2' MR 1.6.0

Started having random dropouts in a 96k project with about 30 tracks, about 15 instances of various VST3 inserts, and 3 instances of Reverence on effects tracks. Nothing even close to the system’s capabilities. CPU never exceeds 18 and asio (even with 256 buffers) never exceeds about 40%. Dropouts get progressively worse until it basically locks up. I ran the ysfwutility and bumped to medium and large, but no help. All (I think) bios tweaks done, but not over-clocked and standard voltages to the CPU and RAM.

Now its even doing it on projects at 41K with 12 tracks and just 2 inserts.

Sometimes it works great for a few minutes, then craps out ... sometimes it won't run properly even right after a reboot.

So I contacted Steinberg’s tech support. Got a "form" response within a few hours, and then a few back and forths with a guy via e-mail. He sent the usual links, including Steinberg’s DAW optimization stuff, all of which I’d done long ago. The guy seemed very nice, and I don’t want to say anything bad about him, but my first hint of things to come was when he suggested I buy a new firewire card with a TI chipset. I reminded him that (as I told him in my early e-mails) the Giga EX58 has a TI firewire chip onboard. He told me that they had systems like this that ran better with PCI based firewire cards, so — foolishly — I bought one and had it sent overnight. Of course, it made no difference whatsoever. $50 out the window.... Evil or Very Mad

He also offered me a tech support phone call, so I took the afternoon off today (at not insignificant expense). He called about 12:40 and we spent about 15 minutes going over very basic things, most of which I’d already tried. When I told him about the DPC Latency checker readings, he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him he sent me the link to it, but he had no idea about it or what it measured.... Crying or Very sad

After 15 minutes or so of change buffer size, change track, turn off one unit, turn off the other,... truly armature guessing, he puts me on hold and then after about 5 minutes comes back on and says he needs to discuss it with his associates and will get back to me Monday because they are closing now....

I asked him for a referral to one of their studio tech support guys in LA and offered to pay for a service call. I know I’m not a “big fish” to Steinberg/Yamaha - I don’t have any gold records (yet?!) or anything like that - but I’m in L.A. and I just can’t believe S/Y doesn’t have at least a few guys in their Rolodex that they use when someone “real” needs help. But he said they don’t have anyone and couldn’t refer me to anyone. Amazing...

So.... Bottom line is - while the guy was nice and I think he really wanted to be helpful - I think he hasn’t got a clue. I need a real tech with Cubase/Yamaha Hardware and PC chops. I can’t take a lot of time off work to have someone waste my time guessing, and trying things that anyone with rudimentary computer skills would already have done. I want someone that can actually trouble shoot and fix the damn thing - at least someone with more ability than I have.

Anyone know of a good studio computer tech in the greater Los Angeles area???
Or anyone have any ideas I haven’t already tried???

My hair is already to thin and grey for this.... Embarassed

Thanks,

Al
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AlakaLazlo
W7/64bit, i7/920, GigaEX58UD5, 9Gig Dominator DDR3-1600, EN8600GT, AntekTake4, 2xMR816, Mackie Control/Extender/C4, Moog IIP, 66 Space Dot.Com, Encore Expressionist, Variax 700, Axon AX50, HPD-15, Komplete 6, Arturia MMV2, Stylus RMX, Trillian, Omnisphere, etc, etc, etc...

sav · Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:56 am Post subject:

Hi Al,

This may sound daft and perhaps not very helpful (to your problem)
A little while back I was getting audio stutter (not sure if this is the same as you're audio drop-out problem). It happend after 2 hours of the pc being on.
Then it started happening after an hour and a half, then an hour etc. I tried turning the Pc/MR off and re-booting but the problem was still there, only by leaving it off and going back to it several hours later I found the problem had gone, that really confued the hell outta me!

It done my head in as it took several months to sort out, with the PC going back to the shop so many times.
The pc was built and config'd by an audio specialist.
Anyway, it turned out to be the PC over heating, touching the top of the pc when the stuttering started was red hot.
I left the audio playing and stuttering/dropping out, removed the side panel and within 2 minutes it started playing back normal again!

The shop tried telling me it was my MR816X causing the over heating problem but I couldnt understand why, as its 'not' built into the PC!

Anyway, I went out and bought a £5 fan, stuck it into my £1200 pre-built audio PC, and not had one glitch since!!??

(looks like we got the same i7/920 Giga EX58UD5, I just a lot less ram Laughing

)

Like I said, not sure if that will be of any help, just another avenue to try/think about Wink

AlakaLazlo · Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:04 pm Post subject:

Sav,

Thanks for the reply. I've got some pretty serious cooling on the system - 1 Noctua case fan and a Noctua CPU cooler. She never exceeds 57degrees running full out, so I'm pretty sure its not a thermal issue. But Thanks for the thought anyway.
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AlakaLazlo
W7/64bit, i7/920, GigaEX58UD5, 9Gig Dominator DDR3-1600, EN8600GT, AntekTake4, 2xMR816, Mackie Control/Extender/C4, Moog IIP, 66 Space Dot.Com, Encore Expressionist, Variax 700, Axon AX50, HPD-15, Komplete 6, Arturia MMV2, Stylus RMX, Trillian, Omnisphere, etc, etc, etc...

mcj · Junior Member Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 47

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=30896&highlight=dpclat
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