I have been trying to figure out how to optimize my system for audio processing to no avail. My CPU and RAM should be sufficient enough, but I experience horrible dropouts, and gaps when processing audio, or clicks and such nonsense. Has anyone had similar problems with audio processing with the Thinkpad Edge? Did I just get the wrong computer? Is the Thinkpad Edge a piece of junk? It should work! HELP -- Thanks!
wrote: Hi xkevinbondx,
Could you check if you have the similar problem as this thread?
//JameZ
I don't think the problems are the same. Original poster is not describing interference and distortion.
I landed in this thread after heavy troubleshooting in the forums for Serato Itch audio software for DJs. I don't know what software the original poster is using but I've been having the same problems: freezing and audio dropouts.
Here is the help desk ticket I filed with the software maker:
http://serato.com/forum/discussion/469317
My specs are:
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge
Win7 64bit Home Premium
4GB RAM
500GB hard drive
wrote:
There was a thread in this subforum or some other one where disabling the Power Manager item using MSCONFIG resolved his DPC latency issues.
Thank you for pointing me in this direction.
That was exactly what I was trying this morning before checking back in this forum. There are several power components in services and startup. I disabled them all and my latency was really low, but that also wiped out the battery charge display. So I turned that part back on and I got latency spikes again.
I do like some of the ThinkPad apps, but I think I may be closer to identifying the culprit. I'll just have to test each component one by one and make sure I disable the correct resource killer.
Good news - my Thinkpad Edge* plays audio and video fine (VLC, Windows Media Player, etc)
Bad news - I have nasty problems with intermittent latency spikes when recording which does not seem to resolve even with tweaking.
Summary: Attempting to record single audio track mono 44.1khz (voice) using Cakewalk Sonar LE 8.5 (along with Cakewalk Roland external USB sound card) recording halted after 5 seconds recording (on average).
Details: After extensive (5 weeks) googling and tweaking, I eventually was able to record an entire audio book by disabling 'non-essential' services and maximizing Sonar's tolerance for latency dropouts (real time is not terribly essential for voice recording, although it would be nice for music)
Problem: Using DPCLAT (DPC latency checker) I discovered I still have fairly regular massive Red latency spikes in every 25-30 seconds, even after disabling everything I could think of (e.g. Antivirus, Windows Search & Indexing, LAN Wireless, Access Connections, setup power for maximum performance, disabled wireless in device manager, disabling everything possible in services.msc, disconnected all external USB drives, etc)**
Possible solutions: Reading extensively online over the last 5 weeks (for example the Sound on Sound and Cakewalk forums links below), I learned that if the usual tweaks don't work, sometimes it is hardware issue, and when it is a hardware issue, it is can be a hard drive IDE interface or BIOS firmware issue. I was not able to find out anything specific for the Thinkpad edge, but some other manufacturers actually looked at DPCLAT and were able to write revised BIOS firmware that brought latency down to minimal levels. DPCLAT screen capture image below***
Does Lenovo/IBM have any interest in the market for digital audio workstations? If they can write a BIOS or suggest other tweaks for my Thinkpad Edge, it would be an incredible machine.
Proposed solutions:
1) Ideally, Lenovo could provide a customized(?) BIOS or configuration option to mimimize system latency to more closely approach a 'real time' OS
2) Alternatively, some way to quickly disable and enable whatever software is causing the latency delays would be welcome
3) Lastly, suggestions of known hardware solutions (either partial (such as harddrive model) or complete (computer model)) would be welcome. I would prefer not to buy another computer as in my opinion, the specifications are this computer are MORE than adequate to record measely 44.1kHz audio if the firmware/software were properly designed to minimize latency.
I know this is not a problem noticed by accountants when using Excel spreadsheets, but seems a terrible waste to have dual processors at 2.67Gigahertz(!!!!) unable to process and record to hard drive a mere 44.1kHz audio signal, especially when the heavy lifting processing is outsourced to an external USB sound card! Since the drop outs are intermittent and fairly regular at every 25 second intervals, I trust that some smart engineers at Lenovo should be able to figure out what is causing this as fix it once and for all, and I would then sing the praises of the Thinkpad Edge! Until then, the Edge seems artificially crippled.
*Hardware
Thinkpad Edge 14 Type 0578 N8U Model
M390 Core i3 (2.67Ghz x2)
8Gb RAM 5400RPM hard drive
Cakewalk Roland UA-25EX external USB sound card (latency occurs whether or not connected)
Software
Windows 7 Professional - all updates
Cakewalk by Roland Sonar LE 8.5.1.17
** Resources used to troubleshoot intermittent high audio latency (among others):
1) Sound on Sound forum discussion of BIOS updates
2) Cakewalk forum discussing tweaks
3) Prosonus DAW setup Windows 7 advice
4) DPCLAT DPC Latency Checker software
***DPCLAT screen capture image:
hi.
no problems recording some stuff with nuendo 4 and my old mbox (1.gen) using avid asio 7.4 with 128 samples buffer size... my rig: edge e531 with i7 win7 64-bit. got it all working flawlessly...
i would point my finger on your interface driver.. tried ASIO4ALL?
cheers...
