Core 2 Duo Crashes from time to time

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:19 am

Hi Guys,

I have got some problems with my ASUS P5B / E6600 computer.
I have allready tried a lot of things, but nothing seems to help me out here.

My computer sometimes works fine for a day, but sometimes he hangs two times within one hour.

It is like the audio buffer keeps repeating and I can't do anything, except that my creamware midi controllers are still functioning (like main volume, filters etc..). So creamwares core seems to be stable.

Each Scope Card has it's own IRQ (21,22,23 as i'm running in windows APIC mode now).

I have also tried STANDARD PC install, but the problem keeps comming up.
I have also tried to install the old pulsar 3.1 drivers.

Any suggestions?

Configuration:
ASUS P5B / E6600
2 GB Kingston Ram (i 've checked them and they are error free)
3x Scope Proffesional
GEFORCE 6600 GT videocard

WINDOWS XP PRO
Scope 4.5
Cubase SX 3.1

Post by **garyb** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:14 pm

does this happen when using midi and a sequencer?

if so, then use a midi monitor on the scope midi source and check for active sensing messages. if active sensing is shown, use a midfi filter between the midi source and the sequencer midi dest. a better solution would be to insert a hardware midi filter between the controller and the card or turn off active sensing in the conntroller.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:31 pm

Which controller are you using? I had a similar problem that has been fixed w/ adding the MIDI filters. But have since purchased a hardware MIDI filter just to make sure. That will definately take care of that. Active sensing was causing a MIDI feedback loop that triggered the audio even when C4 was in standby.

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:02 am

Thanks!

I've looked at all the active sensing stuff, and it is as follows:

AMT8 -> Hardware Active Sensing filter is ON.
Sequencer Sources -> Software Active Sensing Filtering is ON.

Looks good, but after 10 minutes, the computer hung again.

Any other suggestions?

Gr Tom.

Post by **garyb** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:35 am

does it just happen with midi?

with no midi what happens?

how do you know that your cards are not sharing irqs with anything?

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:51 am

My Cards are not sharing IRQ's with anything... They are at 21,22,23 (see attachment)

I've tried to freeze and unload all used VST's and it still keeps crashing.
I'm now gonna try what will happen when all STS samplers are removed from the project file (see other attachment)

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:07 am

I'm allmost sure now... The PC only Crashes with STS loaded.

That must be the reason why this project crashes a lot of times... Beacause there are three STS Samplers loaded...

The strange thing is that this project has been working perfect on my old P4B with 3.2GHz....

Could it be something in the P5B AMI BIOS?
for example: PCI(express) Bus speed or memory access is incompatible with scope (STS Samplers)?

Grtz TP

----------------------------------------
A small addition, the sequence is still running... No crashes...

I normally alway''s use at least one STS4000 or 5000 and this was never a problem, until I have start using this new P5B core 2 dual motherboard.

I'm going to try some bios tweaking now!

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:40 am

No success on the bios tweaks!

Tried even to downclock the whole thing, and also the memory. Tried allmost all bios combinations :-S

Suggestions are realy welcome!

Thnx!

Tom

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:23 am

What benefits did you get from OC'ing? I tried it on my DP DAW w/ a Supermicro PSCT+II @ 233MHz and saw no advantage in audio streaming, however on my Core 2 Duo DAW I did gain substanially in respect to instances of GigaPulse impulses. Gigastudio 160 Vrs. 2.54 is on the DP DAW and that and SFP don't seem to have any benefits there.

Post by **garyb** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:46 am

try rebuilding the project that is failing(start with new sts samplers). it's possible that the project has become corrupt.

tripstation · Post by **tripstation** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:37 am

Think it might be something to do with having 2 cpu's in your pc.
I had the same problem with 2 xeons a while ago.
Don't think you can run scope cards with mulitprocessing.
If you suss it out let us know.
James

Zero Creative Music · Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:44 am

scope4live wrote:What benefits did you get from OC'ing? I tried it on my DP DAW w/ a Supermicro PSCT+II @ 233MHz and saw no advantage in audio streaming, however on my Core 2 Duo DAW I did gain substanially in respect to instances of GigaPulse impulses. Gigastudio 160 Vrs. 2.54 is on the DP DAW and that and SFP don't seem to have any benefits there.

I was not talking about overclocking, more aboute underclocking...
Normaly I have it at regular speed.

thomashenrydavies · Post by **thomashenrydavies** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:31 am

I had issues like this on a Core2Duo newbuild, and they were resolved by not using the Creamware midi modules in my projects. This was easy for me as I work in XTC mode. I guess it might be more difficult for you.

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:16 am

The Asus P5B seems to have some problems with more than one CW Card, and STS Direct Memory access.

So the more samples used at the same time the more crash chance....

Gonna try the new bios update from this month, and else gonna change it for WHICH ONE?

Any Tips (other than ASUS P5B)???

Post by **garyb** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:45 am

as i keep saying, the intel motherboards work very well. d965lt or d965ry.

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:09 am

I have tried 3 differen Mobos now.
And the problem persists.

So I was thinking, could it be the Power Supply Unit???

I've got a sweex PSU now. (650watt)
But it's a not very expensive one...

Could Creamware Crash if the PSU is unstable?

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:51 am

bad power supply's can absolutely cause all sorts of mysterious computer crashes.

I know you can get a power supply tester from compusa for about 20 bucks. Im not sure how well those testers work though, as I have not used one.
Being a computer nerd by trade, I always tend to have a lot of power supply's laying around, so I can usually just grab another PSU.

Out of curiosity.. anyone know how power hungry the scope cards are, or what the minimum recommended PSU would be for a 3 scope setup?

*edit: oh. sorry.. I see now that you are from the netherlands and "20 bucks" and "compusa" might not mean anything to you. Being a typical american, I assumed the world ended 10 miles off the cost of new york...

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:44 am

Just bought a new power suply for 100 Euro's

The problem keeps comming up.

I think just need a good replacement for the STS Sampler!

Any suggestions?

Post by **hubird** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:11 am

manfriday wrote:*edit: oh. sorry.. I see now that you are from the netherlands and "20 bucks" and "compusa" might not mean anything to you.
Being a typical american, I assumed the world ended 10 miles off the cost of new york...

we, from the Netherlands, even founded you(r city)...about 400 years ago ('New Amsterdam')

(Jeez, Zero, try to resize that picture, the thread is hard to read and to edit/quote

Zero Creative Music · Post by **Zero Creative Music** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:40 am

'Fixed it!'

(resized the picture)

I'm also gonna try to install scope 4.0 instead of 4.5
and a clean install with no automatic updates enabled...

Should it be save to install sp2?
or just sp1?