• Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Topic: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

I have an older laptop that I have used regularly with HDSP Cardbus and XP - it is a Vista laptop that I retro installed XP.  It will run 24 channels of audio into a DAW at 64 buffers in XP.
I thought Id try Win7 to see how well it would track with PT10.  Everything in 7 seems to have found a good driver and device manager looks happy.
Audio records well DigiCheck, however running audio into any DAW is distorted.
Device manager see the PCMCIA slot as:
Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) or Compatible CardBus Controller

Any ideas or other info I should share?

Dave

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,766

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

Which DAW are you using? If possible, try reducing the number of active ASIO channels, will that help?

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

RME Support wrote:

Which DAW are you using? If possible, try reducing the number of active ASIO channels, will that help?Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

I tried PT10.2 and RML SAC.
Both I had only used 1 input and tried low and high buffer settings.
I did the basic DAW configuration for windows.  e.g. set background services to priority.
I can try Reaper/SAW Studio Lite on the machine and see if it yields the same results.
Would a Sandra report help?

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,766

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

Please try Reaper. Using ony one channel and specifically de/activating ASIO channels is not the same. Reaper will allow you to activate all channels or limit the number of active channels. Please test whether there is a difference.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

RME Support wrote:

Please try Reaper. Using ony one channel and specifically de/activating ASIO channels is not the same. Reaper will allow you to activate all channels or limit the number of active channels. Please test whether there is a difference.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Ok I isolated to a problem with out 21/22.  If I deactivate out 21/22 in Reaper and SAC - i don't get the distortion.   

I will look closer at the routing/windows audio settings to see if thats the cause.

Ill let you know what I find.

Thanks

Dave

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

The problem seems to be WIn7 and not enough Laptop Power.  Which is a shame because it runs great in XP.

I just ordered a CPU that is a 50% increase in power based on benchmarks that that should be compatible with the laptop. 

Hopefully when the CPU arrives the problem will be solved.

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

Here is the net/net.

With the CPU swap I didnt get anymore in/outs.  With Win7 I can run 24 in/14 out.  Once I add out 15/16 - i get the distorted audio.  In XP there was never an issue with getting distortion running all the channels from the HDSP/digiface combination in a DAW. 

I also went through Win7 and did the BlackViper Tweaked services settings, and disabled all hardware I could in the BIOS.

Annyone have a clue what is causing the bottleneck with Win7? Or what to look at to try and determine what its is?

Dave

8 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,565

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

This seems not about power but data transfer rate. The bottleneck is either the Ricoh Controller (the internal CardBus interface) or the point where the Ricoh is connected to. The drivers for these two devices have changed, so changed their performance. This is not W7 in general, but the drivers coming (or used) with it, IMHO.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

MC wrote:

This seems not about power but data transfer rate. The bottleneck is either the Ricoh Controller (the internal CardBus interface) or the point where the Ricoh is connected to. The drivers for these two devices have changed, so changed their performance. This is not W7 in general, but the drivers coming (or used) with it, IMHO.

I had previously tried to search for alternate drivers for the card, but didn't find anything on a precursory search.

Do you think its worth looking into deeper?

Dave

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,766

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

If there is a bandwidth issue, another driver may or may not help... ;-)
I recall there was a similar issue with some ENE Cardbus controllers years ago, and a new driver that was floating around on HP's website seemed to help.

So a little search may be helpful.


Else, just keep the number of active ASIO channels limited as a workaround. This of course will not affect the number of channels you can use inside your DAW, assuming your are mixing to stereo or surround.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

RME Support wrote:

Else, just keep the number of active ASIO channels limited as a workaround. This of course will not affect the number of channels you can use inside your DAW, assuming your are mixing to stereo or surround.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

The only reason I am messing with Win7 is to run ProTools 10 on the machine, so if I can't resolve the 'bandwidth' issue I might as well go back to XP. 

I'll spend a few days searching and see what I can find.

Thanks for the info.

Dave

  • Registered: 2007-05-06
  • Posts: 34

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

txshonk wrote:

I have an older laptop that I have used regularly with HDSP Cardbus and XP - it is a Vista laptop that I retro installed XP.  It will run 24 channels of audio into a DAW at 64 buffers in XP.
I thought Id try Win7 to see how well it would track with PT10.  Everything in 7 seems to have found a good driver and device manager looks happy.
Audio records well DigiCheck, however running audio into any DAW is distorted.
Device manager see the PCMCIA slot as:
Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) or Compatible CardBus Controller

Any ideas or other info I should share?

Dave

if i remember correctly i had the same pcmcia cardbus controller on my samsung laptop which caused exactly the same problems. under win7 i have to reduce the number of active io channels to work, in win xp i don't have to. so in the end i kept using win xp... the whole thing gets even worse when running higher sampling rates. so one has to deactivate even more channels. the cardbus controller just sucks...

best,
salatmensch

  • Registered: 2008-10-20
  • Posts: 24

Re: HDSP CardBus in an HP Compaq 6910p with Win7 64

salatmensch wrote:

if i remember correctly i had the same pcmcia cardbus controller on my samsung laptop which caused exactly the same problems. under win7 i have to reduce the number of active io channels to work, in win xp i don't have to. so in the end i kept using win xp... the whole thing gets even worse when running higher sampling rates. so one has to deactivate even more channels. the cardbus controller just sucks...

best,
salatmensch

I appreciate the post I was never able to get it working myself.