Suddenly getting CPU spikes and glitches
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- KVRAF
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
My laptop is going crazy today. It's a Dell XPS CORe duo (2Ghz) with 2 gigs RAM (dual channel) and normally runs smoothly but today it's crackling and glitching like anything when playing anything - doesn't matter what host or app. I use NI KORE as my audio interface which is normally able to run at low latencies no problem but even moving to higher latencies I'm still getting glitching. Looking at the CPU meter I'm seeing little spikes just for a ms or so where it shoots up to 90+ and then back to normal even playing really light cpu using instruments. I've closed down tons of background programmes and services and even reverted to Classic desktop and turned off all eye candy but it's making no difference. Help.
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 22 Oct, 2004
Try turning off your wireless adapter (physical switch), and disable all network connections. That worked for me.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
I think the wireless adapter is already off (I disabled it in device manager) but what's the physical switch? I'm a bit reluctant to disable the wired network as I connect my laptop to everything else through it (inc the mouse through Synergy)
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- KVRer
- 11 posts since 22 Oct, 2004
The physical switch on the side of your laptop , to turn the wireless + bluetooth adapter on/off.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Didn't know there was one.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
OK I found the switch - tiny little thing under the fan outlet - I hadn't really noticed it (thought it was just something to do with the fan). I had already disabled wireless in the device manager though because I never use it and because I found the Intel wireless app was running about 5 different memory hogging processes all the time.
Some things I've tried so far:
I know Core PC s can have a problem with powering down but I don't think it's that - I run an app called Speedswitch that should be stopping that happening. It says I'm still running at max performance - I set it to max performance when I'm plugged in and max battery when I'm not.
Looking at my running tasks I can't see anything else using lots of resources apart from Zone Alarm but I've tried turning ZA off and it still glitches and anyway been running it for months with no problems. I stripped out a lot of non essential services as well. I have a clean system - rarely use it for internet (only for work related stuff and downloading software updates - no dodgy sites) and I have no adware or viruses - I use Clamwin AV regularly and ran a complete scan last night that found nothing. I've also stripped my setup down and tried running with no themes, shadows etc.
I tried switching to WDM in Sonar to see if it ran better. There was still the same problem and that is worrying because it implies it might not even be my soundcard drivers (NI KORE) if its affecting ASIO and WDM. I've tried uninstalling the KORE drivers and reinstalling, rebooting, tried switching it to another USB port and even tried to see if it ran better off a powered hub. It's not host specific - even occurs in Cantabile.
Things to consider - I'm running a defrag - hadn't realised the drive was getting bitty so I'll see if that helps. I changed my 3D graphics to high performance setting (had it on High Quality) but maybe I should try to update my graphics driver? (I hate doing that as in the pasts it's caused more problems than solved on other PC's of mine). Not looked in the bios yet - any tweaks I could make there? I installed the MS CORE latency patch ages ago so I doubt it's related to that. I had a couple of plugins insist on installing MS C+ 2005 runtime recently - could that cause problems - I notice in add/remove there seem to be 2 different versions?? Anyone know any good diagnostic apps I could use to see if the CPU and graphics card are running properly?
Some things I've tried so far:
I know Core PC s can have a problem with powering down but I don't think it's that - I run an app called Speedswitch that should be stopping that happening. It says I'm still running at max performance - I set it to max performance when I'm plugged in and max battery when I'm not.
Looking at my running tasks I can't see anything else using lots of resources apart from Zone Alarm but I've tried turning ZA off and it still glitches and anyway been running it for months with no problems. I stripped out a lot of non essential services as well. I have a clean system - rarely use it for internet (only for work related stuff and downloading software updates - no dodgy sites) and I have no adware or viruses - I use Clamwin AV regularly and ran a complete scan last night that found nothing. I've also stripped my setup down and tried running with no themes, shadows etc.
I tried switching to WDM in Sonar to see if it ran better. There was still the same problem and that is worrying because it implies it might not even be my soundcard drivers (NI KORE) if its affecting ASIO and WDM. I've tried uninstalling the KORE drivers and reinstalling, rebooting, tried switching it to another USB port and even tried to see if it ran better off a powered hub. It's not host specific - even occurs in Cantabile.
Things to consider - I'm running a defrag - hadn't realised the drive was getting bitty so I'll see if that helps. I changed my 3D graphics to high performance setting (had it on High Quality) but maybe I should try to update my graphics driver? (I hate doing that as in the pasts it's caused more problems than solved on other PC's of mine). Not looked in the bios yet - any tweaks I could make there? I installed the MS CORE latency patch ages ago so I doubt it's related to that. I had a couple of plugins insist on installing MS C+ 2005 runtime recently - could that cause problems - I notice in add/remove there seem to be 2 different versions?? Anyone know any good diagnostic apps I could use to see if the CPU and graphics card are running properly?
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- KVRAF
- 2249 posts since 6 May, 2003 from rat city au
Sounds like a dodgy plugin to me, installed any new stuff lately?
/sk
/sk
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
I'm unclear how a single plugin could wreak such damage unless it's installed or changed some system settings somehow. All I've installed the last 3 days are the Zebra 2 update, the Audition demo and Chris Walton's oversampler (also I updated Wusik tools). Audition seemed a possibility and I've already uninstalled it but the problem is still there. The only plugin I've installed recently that installed a load of system files (C+ stuff) was a Discovery update I was sent a while back but hadn't got round to trying but that was last week and could C+ runtime cause such problems?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Went into the bios and disabled bluetooth and wifi from there too. I also disabled Speedstep. I noticed under CPU info it says I have a CPU that has 2 cores each capable of running at 2gz but it also said they are each running at 1ghz - is that normal?
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- KVRAF
- 2249 posts since 6 May, 2003 from rat city au
I don't know enough about the hardware side of things to say for sure, doesn't sound right to me?aMUSEd wrote:I noticed under CPU info it says I have a CPU that has 2 cores each capable of running at 2gz but it also said they are each running at 1ghz - is that normal?
As for a plugin wreaking havoc, well I guess it could change registry values, etc. I was more asking whether you can narrow your cpu spikes down to a particular plugin instance, or are these happening when you're not making music also?
sk
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37533 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
No but its happening whenever I play an instrument but not specific to particular plugins. Not happening if I've frozen it or rendered to audio so I guess it's something to do with latency.