"copy protection error" and audio onboard AAARGH

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 12:51 pm

could anybody help me understand this?
i have two problems, wich i don't know if are related so sorry in advance for the long posting..

MY CONFIGURATION
asus p4b266-c
intel 1,6
pulsar 2 3.1
512 ddr
2 hd maxtor
3 com lan
matrox 450 dh
running on xp pro, standard mode.

daw assembler, when installing, to save mobo resources disabled audio onboard in the bios (there are two items related: onboard pci audio and onb. ac97 audio controller).

audio playback in nuendo and other stuff going well, but i had no midi in available in dev setup (in nuendo and cubase), no playback in wave lab, audio cd's and other appl like wmedia player.
in "sounds, etc." icon in c. panel tabs were grayed out (no audio playback, no midi etc,). in the hardware tab creamware was audio -midi enabled
these problems happened with every kind of sfp project... i tried for weeks..

then i enabled the 2 bios audio option (because i can't decide wich one to choose..) and loaded asus audio driver.

playback wavelab, mediaplayer, midi in to sequencers ok for two fantastic hours. "sound icon" showed in playback tab audio and midi activated

, and hardware tab recognized both creamware and c driver (like a pci audio device)
boot again and et voilà greyed sound tab, with all the above mentioned problems (still there was in "hardware tab " the c audio driver apparently working..)
and then, the second strange vehaviour: i opened a project and suddenly a "copy protection" violation error, then "pci master- abort, check for pci board conflicts and restart the computer". all this with projects that BEFORE enabling onboard audio were going ok..

a third message appear now : "pci master overflow" ..with only few audio samples to reproduce..
in the end pulsar simply do not opens ANYMORE:"hardware version 30 detected. you need a software update",
or "hardware cannot be setup properly- installation error: pulsar2 sramtest failed:
data 0x40000000 reads 0x00000000- please chek hardware conflicts".

adresses for cw is - slot pci 3 (bus pci 2, peripheral 11 ,irq 09
for c driver- bus pci 2, peripheral 11, irq 07
no conflicts are mentioned in hardware -peripherals.
in the bios pci configuration is set to auto for all slots requiring an irq
acpi suspend to ram disabled
in boot menu plug and play o/s is set to NO.
i don't have the experience to understand if the audio- midi problems and the copy protection + installion error, etc are related.
i know several persons in planet Z had problems with copy protection error anyway. it seems in theory better DISABLE audio on board, but how to manage the thing in the way playback and midi in work properly? could all this involve acpi mode? or maybe it's the classical obvious solution i actually can't see..
i will try to reinstall pulsar, flash bios, and stuff like that, but in the meanwhile every enlightenment is precious

madsun

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 3:37 pm

Before OS 3.x, I suffered badly from these problems. I had to take out one of the cpu's on my dual deck to get rid of it. I know some people on single CPU suffered from the same problem.

I had finally forgotten this trauma, I thought they did away with that long time ago!! Ain't much you can do, AFAIK. CW support might be helpfull, ain't much I can do. Run a search here in Problem Solving on that CPVE to see what my trauma was all about.

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 6:19 pm

OS 3x? what do you mean for that?? i should upgrade to 3.1c (i'm in 3.1 now) to solve this?
yes, i read here a lot of peoplez had cpve, but still i didn't get HOW they solved!!( anyway i 'll keep reading and reading...
and about audio on board ? could cause conflicts?
thank you, madsun

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 6:40 pm

By OS 3.x I mean anything after Pulsar OS 2.04.

The latest update sure has least bugs and works great. Do you have any particular reason to stick with a previous version? If not, I'd say update first!

Check my homepage for a fast SFP-for-PC mirror.

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 9:28 pm

Disable that onboard sound first of all. I'm not sure if the onboard C-Media 8738 6-Channel Audio Controller is an AC/97 based device (AC/97 is a software codec and consumes a TON of cpu) but if it is you'll certainly have a lot of problems using it with your Pulsar.

If you want Media Player etc to be able to 'see' the pulsar (once you've uninstalled/disabled the onboard Asus sound) try the following:

First go into your control panel, "Sounds and Audio devices" on WinXP or "Sounds and Multimedia" in Win2k, and go to the "Hardware tab. Look for "Creamware Pulsar", highlight it and click the "Properties" button below. Once "Creamware Pulsar Properties" has launched go to the "Settings" tab. You'll see "Number of Devices" and "max Channels" under the "Wave Setup portion". I have mine set to 2 and 4 respectively.

Now you need to have WAVE drivers in your project. The Wave Dest & Wave Source pair at the bottom of the "Software IOs" menu in your routing window work fine for providing generic Windows wave support.

(There's also interleaved 16bit & 24bit modules, but outside of Sonar or Vegas you shouldn't need to use them.)

Now go into your control panel again ("Sounds and Audio devices" on WinXP or "Sounds and Multimedia" in Win2k) and go to the "Audio" tab and under default device select "Creamware Play/Rec1" under both Sound Playback and Sound Recording. You can try playing with the 'use only preferred devices' checkbox and see what difference that makes.

If you don't have the Wave Software IO modules in your current project there will be no driver for windows apps to connect to...

This also applies to the MIDI functionality of your card. Under "Creamware Pulsar Properties" in the Sounds and Audio Devices/Hardware tab there's a section called "MIDI Setup. I have mine set to provide 2 devices by default, which you then add from the Routing window's Software IOs menu as "Sequencer MIDI Source" and "Sequencer MIDI Dest". Add 1 pair for each Device you specify in "Creamware Pulsar Properties".

If this doesn't work for you please let us know and I'm sure someone can help you further...

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 4:09 am

thank you atomic,i downloaded 3.1c some days ago, simply i haven't yet set up, but i'll surf at your homepage anyway....
valis, yes i have ac/97 controller.. the problem is that, like i said, i started my os WITHOUT AUDIO ONBOARD (ALL TWO OPTIONS DISABLED IN BIOS) AND NO DRIVER FOR AUDIO ONBOARD IN WINDOWS, SO ONLY PULSAR 3.1, NUENDO, CUBASE AND WAVELAB WORKING, AND NO MATTER IF I PUT WAVE SOURCE IN MY PROJECT, (YES, I HAD THE WAVE DEVICES SET UP PROPERLY IN "SOUNDS, ETC")OR NOT, ALSO TRIED THE MULTIMEDIA EXAMPLE PROJECT, OR EVERY EXAMPLE PROJECT, STILL ONLY NUENDO AND CUBASE PLAYNG BACK, AND RECORDING, NOP WAVELAB NOR MMEDIA, AND THAT'S THE SAME FOR MIDI: I COULD PLAY PULSAR SYNTHS, BUT ICOULD NOT COME INTO SEQUENCERS (NO MIDI IN AVAILABLE!!!!).
only when i enabled onboard audio and setup related windows drivers i could, like i said for 2 moving hours playback everything (in wavelab now were no problems and also mme and creamw play drivers were available.. but not before-- only asio drivers) - in sounds (control panel) the audio tab was not greyed out, like before, and i coud gain access to creamware play, and that's the same for midi before installing audio onboard in sounds/ audio tab midi was greyed out, but now was showed a creamware fantastic midi in... and

midi in available in sequencers . SO IT SEEMS LIKE IF THERE IS NOT A WINDOWS DRIER OTHER THAN PULSAR ONE THAT MANAGE THE "SOUNDS" PROPERTIES, PULSAR CAN'T COMMUNICATE CORRECTLY.. BUT STILL THERE MUST BE ONE SOLUTION OF HAVING ONLY PULSAR running everything...
(the option to set pulsar preferred device of play /record/midi could be the solution, but simply seems that i don't have it)
ANYWAY AFTER THAT ALL THE ABOVE MENTIONED PULSAR ERRORS OCCURRED.. SO IT SEEMS THAT ALSO WITH THE ONBOARD AUDIO THERE ARE PROBLEMS..

madsun
but af

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 6:08 am

Uninstall the ac/97 sound drivers from your Device Manager (right click my computer and choose MANAGE), reboot and disable the onboard sound in your bios.

When you boot into windows go into the "Sounds and Audio Devices" control panel, to the "Hardware" tab. Look for "Creamware Pulsar", highlight it and click the "Properties" button below. Once "Creamware Pulsar Properties" has launched go to the "Settings" tab. You'll see "Number of Devices" and "max Channels" under the "Wave Setup portion". Make SURE that everything is set up correctly.

While it's possible you're experiencing a bug there's way too many people here using the Pulsar as their main audio card (no other card in the system) successfully, on Asus motherboards as well. So I'm covering the obvious first =]

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 7:06 am

thank you valis!
i'll do that, updating also to 3.1 c let's see...

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 3:34 pm

i updated to 3.1c (until now no copy protection error or others),
disabled audio in bios and in device manager,
set the creamware properties in device manager properly (i mean there were enough wave and midi.. i worked with pulsar be
fore this new daw) for the 1000's time:
still
the first page of sound/ in control panel is grey, in audio and voice tabs ALL IS GREY. no creamw play-record-midi available.
nuendo audio playback works, but no midi in for sequencers, no playback for wavelab, nor wmplayer, LIKE WHEN I ENABLED AUDIO ONBOARD. is it crazy? seems like the OS NEED AN INTERFACE TO OPERATE IN CERTAIN WAYS WITH PULSAR THAT HAS NOT..
ps cheked irq: was 9, shared with an usb port, wich i disabled.
ps 2 there is in hardware tab a "preexisting system driver", wich when i chek the properties shows absolutely nothing, i neither can disable, what's that? could be related?
now or there is a bug someway, or i'm forgetting something really basic...
somebody has an idea?
thanks,
madsun

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 7:53 pm

I'm actually quite at a loss at this point...sorry =/

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 9:56 pm

Have you by any chance disabled the 'Windows Audio' service? You have to leave it running for audio to work! Just a guess...

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 10:49 pm

Even without that Service, AFAIK asio/wav will still work, but MIDI is disabled.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 11:08 pm

Well, i think you're right with asio, but wav like media player or winamp didn't work here without this service. Maybe i changed something else also? But when you remove those service, look in control panel, windows doesn't see anything at all!

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 11:24 pm

I have an extremely similar setup. I simply installed XP, installed Pulsar-II, did a few tweaks and presto! Everything worked perfectly. Well, not quite perfectly, I somehow managed to select ACPI instead of Standard PC. I changed to that after install (not recommended) and everything has been perfect ever since. I never touched the BIOS and am using USB all the time.

IMHO main problem with your attempted fixes now (assuming that MarcusPocus hasn't simply solved your dilemma) is this: You've done so much tweaking without success that one of your tweaks may now be part of the problem. In fact you could conceivably fix the original problem and still have trouble because of something else you've changed.

So start again.

Revert your BIOS back to "setup defaults"
Reformat your drive
Reinstall XP
Take out the Pulsar board and put it back in
Install 3.1c

You've got a good system and the usual advice isn't helping, so I'd go back to a clean start and then report what happens without further fiddling.

A simple default installation of all these components in Standard PC mode should get you operational. You can optimise for DAW work later.

I know this isn't the immediate fix you're after, and maybe someone with more techncal knowledge than I can pinpoint your problem, but that's what I'd try.

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Sun Oct 27, 2002 4:44 pm

ok, just to make know the problem is currently solved.
i formatted c:, reinstalled xp pro, pulsar, service pack, definitevely disabled audio onboard and now everything go like should.. no more grey sounds tab: available options to choose wich device has play or record.
off course i halso have midi in available in nuendo, etc.
thank you anyway..
madsun

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Oct 27, 2002 5:52 pm

Glad you solved the problem, though it`s a pitty we don`t know the real reason...

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sun Oct 27, 2002 8:48 pm

That's how NASA used to fix things (in the days when they were in a hurry): when there was something wrong but it'd take too long to pinpoint exactly what it was, they'd just take everything apart, fiddle with whatever seemed likely, then put it back together.

Usually it worked, but they'd never know for sure what it was...

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 6:21 pm

Glad to hear it's sorted =]

madsun · Post by **madsun** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 10:48 pm

incredible!
just now i realize that when i sended a message saying the pproblem was solved, were no present messages you guys sended to me... just now i came back to the forum and saw that for some reason (i didn't refreshed the thread page?) those message refers to the time interval until i solved the "mess"; and shit

now i read a lot of tips that could really help in that day i was workin' so hard... for example the solution to format is the one in the end i optted for, but SINCE logically i can not understand what happened and i think failed some kind of interface between winZoZEE and audiocard, i would know something more about - MARCUSPOCUS- "windows audio service" I COULD HAD DISABLED... xcuse ignorance, can you tell me WHERE i can find command to this option??
pppsss: obviously i had another error copy protection. let's see in the future. wich is the most common solution for this?
THANK YOU ALL GUYS madsun

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Tue Oct 29, 2002 1:24 am

Right-click on the 'My Computer' icon on the desktop, the select 'manage', then, devices & services, then find windows audio services, make sure it is set to start automatic, and that it is started...