http://www.nuendo.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2486
this is my other post....
Intel PCI express (915E) chipset - A hidden drag?
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- KVRist
- 69 posts since 28 Sep, 2004 from UK
Would something like DoubleDawg ( http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/index.html ) help? DoubleDawg can adjust PCI device latency, although I'm not sure if that is relevant to this discussion. Apologies if not...
Holf
Holf
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 20 Feb, 2005
I currently have the Inspiron 9200, and I couldn't get my Edirol FA101 Firewire card to work well with it, until I set it to be a STANDARD PC, instead of using ACPI. After I did that (all it needed was a reboot), it has worked fine. Since I just bought it, I decided to return it and get the 9300...completely decked out. I was thinking that maybe PCI-Express would help me out, but maybe not. I'm still hopeful that at least it will run well as a STANDARD PC.
FYI, I've used DoubleDawg and another app too, which didn't make any difference under ACPI mode....
FYI, I've used DoubleDawg and another app too, which didn't make any difference under ACPI mode....
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- KVRAF
- 1602 posts since 14 Oct, 2002
keep us informedillwfafer wrote:I currently have the Inspiron 9200, and I couldn't get my Edirol FA101 Firewire card to work well with it, until I set it to be a STANDARD PC, instead of using ACPI. After I did that (all it needed was a reboot), it has worked fine. Since I just bought it, I decided to return it and get the 9300...completely decked out. I was thinking that maybe PCI-Express would help me out, but maybe not. I'm still hopeful that at least it will run well as a STANDARD PC.
FYI, I've used DoubleDawg and another app too, which didn't make any difference under ACPI mode....
while we all cross our fingers for you
lalo
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- KVRist
- 69 posts since 28 Sep, 2004 from UK
Yeah, fingers crossed here too...
Seems strange. I wonder if there are other issues here as well? I have the FA-101 myself and have used it on a couple of laptops with ACPI with no problems. But then again these were not 915E chipset laptops. It sounds as though there are hidden demons here which hardware manufacturers may have to contend with.
As for DoubleDawg not working: I would not expect it to fix Graphics Card latency issues if there is a more general ACPI issue on 915E chipsets. But all such ACPI problems aside, I don't know if DoubleDawg would be able to handle PCI-Express devices (rather than normal PCI devices) anyway.
illwfafer - grateful to you for trailblazing on this - gives the rest of us the benefit of hindsight! Really hope it works out (and not just because I'm looking at getting a 9300 myself
).
All the best
Holf
Seems strange. I wonder if there are other issues here as well? I have the FA-101 myself and have used it on a couple of laptops with ACPI with no problems. But then again these were not 915E chipset laptops. It sounds as though there are hidden demons here which hardware manufacturers may have to contend with.
As for DoubleDawg not working: I would not expect it to fix Graphics Card latency issues if there is a more general ACPI issue on 915E chipsets. But all such ACPI problems aside, I don't know if DoubleDawg would be able to handle PCI-Express devices (rather than normal PCI devices) anyway.
illwfafer - grateful to you for trailblazing on this - gives the rest of us the benefit of hindsight! Really hope it works out (and not just because I'm looking at getting a 9300 myself
).All the best
Holf
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 20 Feb, 2005
just a quick update. my inspiron 9300 should get here Monday or Tuesday, and I'll let you know how it goes. I currently have a Ghost image from my old 9200 (and I ran sysprep for those geeks that care) so as soon as my new laptop gets here I should be ready to go. My image is a "Standard PC". I'll try that out, and if it works, I'll try to switch it back to "ACPI".
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- KVRAF
- 1602 posts since 14 Oct, 2002
cool!illwfafer wrote:just a quick update. my inspiron 9300 should get here Monday or Tuesday, and I'll let you know how it goes. I currently have a Ghost image from my old 9200 (and I ran sysprep for those geeks that care) so as soon as my new laptop gets here I should be ready to go. My image is a "Standard PC". I'll try that out, and if it works, I'll try to switch it back to "ACPI".
if you don't use it yet...be sure to use speedswitchXP
that little app that let you choose your pentium M CPU power savings schemes
lalo
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- KVRist
- 190 posts since 9 Mar, 2004
So forums are redundant? What are you doing here then?UltraJv wrote:If you ask people on here, no one is accountable if you are given misleading/confusing advice and buy something unsuitable.
Not having a dig, just seems strange that someone asks for advice and is told that this is not the right place to do so.
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- KVRAF
- 6323 posts since 30 Dec, 2004 from London uk
Well, the person who posted the question (danio)
wont buy anything for fear of buying the wrong thing. A buyer enters into a financial agreement with a store over a purchase so we are not liable. Its for him to do the deal with the shop and then he can liase with the dealer regarding any issues but all he does as to keep posting his fears about different chipsets in different threads which seems odd! The result is that he delays buying and a new chipset comes out which makes him paranoid. This will go on forever because nothing is perfect and every 3 months, hardware evolves
wont buy anything for fear of buying the wrong thing. A buyer enters into a financial agreement with a store over a purchase so we are not liable. Its for him to do the deal with the shop and then he can liase with the dealer regarding any issues but all he does as to keep posting his fears about different chipsets in different threads which seems odd! The result is that he delays buying and a new chipset comes out which makes him paranoid. This will go on forever because nothing is perfect and every 3 months, hardware evolves
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- KVRist
- 190 posts since 9 Mar, 2004
yeah, fair enough UltraJv, I just find shop people to be full of poo, go into the Sound Control here and the kiddies in there assure you the only computer that actually works is a mac (ha, I saw a PC in there the other day).
I find the impartial advice offered by those on this forum and others to be invaluable.
Anyway, sorry danio, back to the subject and good luck with the computer
I find the impartial advice offered by those on this forum and others to be invaluable.
Anyway, sorry danio, back to the subject and good luck with the computer
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 20 Feb, 2005
first of all, the inspiron 9300 is sweet. i got it with 2.0ghz, 2gb ram, 60gb 7200rpm...the screen still isnt perfect, but im not returning it.
secondly, this is way better than the 9200. its hard to explain why, since it is practically the same computer, but it is a lot nicer on the inside.
now, the part youve all been waiting for. well, on my 9200 i had to run it in "standard pc" mode to eliminate the drops and hiccups that were in "acpi" mode. i couldnt even play an mp3 before. well on the 9300, there are not the same hiccups whatsoever. maybe its because i dont have intels wireless card anymore (i have dells). im not sure, but everything plays smoothly.
unfortunately, there is a but. ive been tweaking the latency, buffers, etc., but i am still getting dropouts on occasion. this is in acpi mode. maybe ill be able to figure it out...ive only had the laptop a few hours.
theres one device, pci to pci bridge or something, in "standard pc" mode (ive been flipping back and forth) that i cannot get installed, but i will work on that when i get some time.
i will report back in a few days or whenever i figure something out, but i just wanted to let you guys know. if you have big worries about using PCI-Express in a laptop, I don't think there is too much to worry about compared to the other options.
i'm also going to pickup a pcmcia firewire card (6pin) and see if that makes any difference too. on my 9200 it did not, but you never know.
secondly, this is way better than the 9200. its hard to explain why, since it is practically the same computer, but it is a lot nicer on the inside.
now, the part youve all been waiting for. well, on my 9200 i had to run it in "standard pc" mode to eliminate the drops and hiccups that were in "acpi" mode. i couldnt even play an mp3 before. well on the 9300, there are not the same hiccups whatsoever. maybe its because i dont have intels wireless card anymore (i have dells). im not sure, but everything plays smoothly.
unfortunately, there is a but. ive been tweaking the latency, buffers, etc., but i am still getting dropouts on occasion. this is in acpi mode. maybe ill be able to figure it out...ive only had the laptop a few hours.
theres one device, pci to pci bridge or something, in "standard pc" mode (ive been flipping back and forth) that i cannot get installed, but i will work on that when i get some time.
i will report back in a few days or whenever i figure something out, but i just wanted to let you guys know. if you have big worries about using PCI-Express in a laptop, I don't think there is too much to worry about compared to the other options.
i'm also going to pickup a pcmcia firewire card (6pin) and see if that makes any difference too. on my 9200 it did not, but you never know.
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- KVRAF
- 1602 posts since 14 Oct, 2002
good report m8
keep us informed about further tests
what's the minimum latency you used ?
do you use SpeedswitchXP?
lalo
keep us informed about further tests
what's the minimum latency you used ?
do you use SpeedswitchXP?
lalo
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- KVRist
- 69 posts since 28 Sep, 2004 from UK
Yeah - really useful info. 
Are you going to give DoubleDawg a go? http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/index.html
On the systems I've tried it with, either the devices the system uses cannot have their latency changed or the latency is pretty good anyway. But I have read about lots of examples (here and elsewhere) where it has really helped people with drop outs, especially where there is a high latency, hungry graphics card. You mention that you are tweaking the latency, so maybe you are already using D/D to do this. Apologies if so.
Holf
Are you going to give DoubleDawg a go? http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/index.html
On the systems I've tried it with, either the devices the system uses cannot have their latency changed or the latency is pretty good anyway. But I have read about lots of examples (here and elsewhere) where it has really helped people with drop outs, especially where there is a high latency, hungry graphics card. You mention that you are tweaking the latency, so maybe you are already using D/D to do this. Apologies if so.
Holf
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 20 Feb, 2005
im on my way to work, but here are some answers to your questions.
i noticed that speedswitch doesnt really do much in acpi mode. the processor still jumps up and down. but i still keep it open. when im using fruityloops, the processor is always at 2ghz, so im not sure is speedswitch really matters much.
as for latency, do you mean for my card for the devices using doubledawg. i actually think doubledawg sucks compared to this other app i found. it does the same thing, but this one has more devices and with a detailed explanation of what it is.
curiously, the nvidia go6800 has 000 latency straight out of the box. maybe that means its something higher than that that you cant edit? beats me. i turned everything else to 000 and my firewire card up to 96, 192, and other variants. i think i noticed a difference when i increased it from 64 to 96, but not to 192. i didnt really test it that much. pumping it all the way up didnt fix the dropouts though.
as far as asio latencies...im starting high and seeing if i can get it to work perfectly first before i start drilling down.
i noticed that speedswitch doesnt really do much in acpi mode. the processor still jumps up and down. but i still keep it open. when im using fruityloops, the processor is always at 2ghz, so im not sure is speedswitch really matters much.
as for latency, do you mean for my card for the devices using doubledawg. i actually think doubledawg sucks compared to this other app i found. it does the same thing, but this one has more devices and with a detailed explanation of what it is.
curiously, the nvidia go6800 has 000 latency straight out of the box. maybe that means its something higher than that that you cant edit? beats me. i turned everything else to 000 and my firewire card up to 96, 192, and other variants. i think i noticed a difference when i increased it from 64 to 96, but not to 192. i didnt really test it that much. pumping it all the way up didnt fix the dropouts though.
as far as asio latencies...im starting high and seeing if i can get it to work perfectly first before i start drilling down.