Problems setting up a laptop for Guitar Rig

AlanRatcliffe · 2008-10-26T09:27:01+00:00

Hi all. I have a problem (no, penicillin will not help this time!). I'm running GR successfully on an Acer Travelmate 2300 with a stripped down version of Win XP and an Edirol UA-25 USB interface. I just got an Acer Aspire 3500, which is a better model of the same thing: same processor (celeron 1.6GHz), same memory type and speed. Feature-wise the Aspire has a bigger and better screen and a built in wireless LAN card. I installed a copy of XP (also stripped down with nLite) and Guitar Rig 3 as well as the drivers for the Edirol. Works pretty much as I expected, aside from clicks and a momentary audio dropout every few seconds - making it pretty much useless for audio. All the usual XP audio tweaks have been done, BTW. I've also tried removing the wireless card to free up system resources, but the BIOS (upgraded to the latest version) does not allow me to disable other unneeded hardware at the BIOS level (like the built in soundcard, modem and PCMCIA slot) - I have to do that in Windows. I had the same thing with the Travelmate, but cured it by changing the computer type to "Standard PC" instead of "ACPI uniprocessor PC" - I lost the use of one USB port doing so, but that wasn't a train smash. I've tried the same thing with the Aspire, but a conflict between the trackpad and "motherboard resources" causes the computer to lock up when the keyboard is used. BTW, I've tried it with the stock 512MB memory and also with the 1GB from the Travelmate. So anyone else have any good ideas of anything else to try to cure this? The only other thing I can think of is to try set the computer type to "Standard PC" at XP install, rather than changing it after the fact. Worst comes to the worst, I carry on using the Travelmate and my daughter gets the Aspire.

AlanRatcliffe

NoKay - didn't work... WinBlows reinstalled them in the same IRQs... Back to the drawingboard.

@Rene - There's nowt wrong with USB1 if you're only using it for stereo in/out.

Renesongs

SP2 with SP3 integrated using nLite

I heard a few of my peers muttering bad stuff about SP3 - I don't use it myself so I don't have an opinion, I froze my system to SP2 and switch off updates.

There's nowt wrong with USB1

Except that it's now giving you a massive headache on a newer computer. Have you tried using WDM drivers instead of ASIO ?

AlanRatcliffe

I've been using SP3 on my work machine for a while with no ill effects (and that's got an ESI 4-in 8-out PCI interface).

The "new" machine is actually from the same time as the one I am using, just in the "better" range.

Really, I'm certain the card is not the problem - it works fine on the other Acer laptop and has also worked well on two of my desktop machines. Interestingly enough, the sum of the Roland support for this problem is "try *this*, then *this* ...and if that doesn't work, get a different laptop".

I also got an E-Book version of Laptop Music Power!: The Comprehensive Guide (By John von Seggern) from my publisher and he basically says the same thing in more detail: "Try these tweaks, If nothing works you have one of *those* laptops which will never work for audio".

Renesongs

Have you ever read the technical tips for solving drop out problems in Sonar ? Same bull crap try this or that,(whoops I think it is more or less where I'm sourcing my wisdom from ☹ )

Oddly enough I get a ridiculous level of drop-outs in Sonar that I don't get in Reaper with The MAYA 44 PCI. But that doesn't solve your problem

However when I get drop outs or any funny business with the USB sound card on RK3 I close the app pull out the USB re plug and start again and it sorts it's self out. I doubt whether that helps you either ☹ So I will stop talking bull crap now and stick to helping elderly people find their lost cats using Google :-[

AlanRatcliffe

I will stop talking bull crap now and stick to helping elderly people find their lost cats using Google

I dunno, you did alright with some ideas I hadn't thought of... Thanks anyway.

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