• Arnie
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Topic: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Hi,

Apologies if this problem was posted already and I didn't look properly.

On my audio workstation the sound is skipping during playback and recordings are skipping, for example when I am streaming audio to the radiostation I play at (DJ turntable setup -> FF -> Streaming software)

The simplest situation is when I use for example Winamp to play back music. When I start the music, all is well. The sound will play back just fine, until I start doing even the slightest thing. For example opening a webbrowser and navigating to a website, scrolling through the site, but also when I for example do some I/O such as copying files. The same thing happens when I'm recording and the skips are audible in the recording.

This is a fairly powerful workstation, built with a Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 2x WD Caviar Black 500GB's in RAID1, Intel C2D E8400 and an NVidia 9600GT video card. The OS is a genuine Windows 7 x64 installation.

So far I have tested with and without the virusscanner active (Windows Security Essentials), I have swapped the memory with 2GB from a perfectly operational workstation, I have replaced the processor with a working E7400 to no avail. The same problem applies and I cannot really say if it is any better or worse with the swapped hardware.

Playing back audio from another computer using for example the optical link to the FF is no problem at all. It will never skip.

I would reinstall Windows 7 but this is the last resort because it takes a lot of time and I certainly am not looking forward to calling Microsoft to manually reactivate the key.

I have used the sound card with this hardware before and the only thing I can think of is that either there is a problem with the motherboard or the problem is Windows 7 itself. It is the latter I am seeking confirmation for and I'm hoping that either someone has had the same issues or that people have some suggestions for me to try.

Thanks in advance!

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Seems like you may have some trouble with video drivers, check for updates. Also please let us know what your DPC Latency Checker results are.

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1704

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Arnie
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Okay thanks for the tip! I will try that out tonight. (The DPC latency checker, that is, I actually installed the latest video drivers last week, but I'll see what I can do about that of course)

  • Registered: 2010-08-23
  • Posts: 10

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

I've had exactly the same problems with FF800. I am going to buy a new Firewire PCI card to try that. Just need to figure out which one!

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

It's quite likely the 9600M GT driver in 2D mode. Nvidia promised that the next beta driver will include DPC fixes (after nearly 2 years of waiting), until then there are some workarounds.

Please post a screenshot of your DPC Latencies.

  • Arnie
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Today I replaced the videocard with an Ati Firepro 3D V3750 and the official AMD drivers (of course deinstalled NVidia drivers). At first the problem seemed to be gone, but I forgot that the buffer size was still on 256 samples. Didn't hear any skips at first.

However, when I switched to 48 samples buffersize (44.1KHz samplerate), the buffering started again. This is a screenshot of the latency:

http://blackbox.okkernoot.net/~niels/dpc_48_samples_buffersize.png

The average would be 80-100us.

When working with 256 samples, skipping remained. Average latency went up to 100-120us with the same peaks:

http://blackbox.okkernoot.net/~niels/dpc_256_samples_buffersize.png

So I suppose we can conclude it is not the video card.

To be honest I'm out of options now. Or it should be the motherboard or Windows 7. I'm inclined to believe the latter, because I have good experiences with the mobo with Windows XP. If I can't solve it this week I will probably try XP. sad

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

The peaks are the problem. Did you already try to disable the usual suspects like WLAN?

  • Registered: 2010-09-10
  • Posts: 1

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem with FF400 and GIGABYTE GA-P35-GS4 motherboard .... and only under Seven x32 ou x64 ! it's work under XP

I try with Ati & Nvidia graphic card, disable Lan/internal audio card ... same problem ... tested with drivers 2.9992 & 3.020

Idea ?
Thk

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

I suggest you follow this guide on Xperf to find out what is the real DPC culprit: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/140263- … interrupt/

  • Arnie
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Thanks for that suggestion Timur. However (there always is a but), I think I'm going to drop the issue for now because this has cost me too much time already and I have a backlog of work growing.

I actually reinstalled Windows 7 and with nothing but the minimal drivers (graphics, basically) and the FF connected I still have the same problem. After that I installed Windows XP. There the problem is not only gone, but the latency is down to 3-6us instead of 60us! That was to be expected of course, but I can't help but believe Windows 7 being much more bloated than XP having to do with this.

I think I'm going to sit this one out for now and try again in a few months when I have more time on my hands. If the problem hasn't been solved by driver updates I will definitely revisit the xperf guide or whatever other guides there are around then.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Buying this Fireface was one of the best decisions I made technology-wise in the past years. :-)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

60 us is not a problem (it's still well below maximum for even the lowest audio buffer settings), but 2900 us is.

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

It's not a Windows 7 problem per se, just the Windows 7 drivers for some devices on your particular computer. Plenty of people have great results with Win 7.

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Arnie
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

I both agree and I don't. This is a motherboard with mainstream chipsets (realtek, intel ICH, etc) and I tested with the most basic setup, and two different brand videocards. It is the streamlined drivers that cause problems. For me to solve that on my computer could be a real challenge.

For that I simply don't have time right now, so even though I agree that I could spend more time pinpointing the specific driver, I'm going to opt for productivity for now. Either way thanks for the comments. When I decide to continue the hunt and find a generic solution that could work for others, I will definitely post smile

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Your approach is absolutely the right one! You need to have a working tool, not a messed up toolbox. wink

(Another option would be to pay for a professional to set things up, but then you could also just go and buy a pre-setup audio PC. Both add to the costs.)

  • Arnie
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Re: Skipping audio using FF-400 in Windows 7

Actually I'm a computer scientist. I don't consider myself computer illiterate at all. big_smile But yes, it's a good idea to inform myself better of the best working setups would I decide to get me some new hardware. 8)