IRQ settings and USB soundcard

Manfred-Klose

I recently reinstalled XP SP3 to my pc, but when i set up the soundcard it gave some clipping when playing back audio, in my sequencer program(cubase SX3) and when i play back audio through winamp or media player.

I use a M-audio Fast tarck pro, so i went to the website for support, and there support is pretty good, downloaded the latest drivers, but still the problem occurs.

I found a link on their website explaining how to change an IRQ so that the USB soundcard wont be the last thing the CPU has its attention with, in other words no cliiping sound when playing back audio.

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.faq&ID=80d7b56e35ea51e73104295aec1f755b

Note that because it is a USB device it does not have and IRQ number,only a soundcard working with IDE has an IRQ number, you would have to find out what USB port it is plugged into, in this it would be under "USB host Controllers" where i did find it, but i still cant change anything to make it function better or without any clipping noise.

P.S: I run it exactly the same as i used to for the past year, and it work perfectly, but now for some reason wont work, and no its not the latency!!!

If you had such a problem and solved it , I would like to know how you did it.
Thanks ?

Gearhead

Is there a compelling reason to have SP3? Otherwise you might think of starting over and forget all about the service pack....

Manfred-Klose

Well like i said SP3 ran perfectly for 1 year without any problems with the soundcard, and i am very used to it, and i have some old programs that i still use.

Heath

if you were running sp3 for a year then it's not an irq problem , actually an irq problem would have appeared immediately afaik , sp3 wouldn't change assignment of resources anyway .

have you plugged in anything new usb wise on the machine , even a usb charger . or loaded any new software or upgrades besides sp3 and the drivers .

Manfred-Klose

I have tried the old driver and tried the updated one from the maudio website and nothing, I have tried different USB ports, i dont have any other usb devices i am using.

Heath

is that machine connected to the internet , and if so what Anti virus are you running .

Manfred-Klose

I'm running Avast and spybot.

Why could that interfere with something?

AlanRatcliffe

Have you optimised your PC for audio? If not, do that first before tracking down other specific problems. sometimes it's something as simple as the machine writing to the swap file at inopportune times or other general Windows annoyances. If you need a guide, search for the Tascam Windows XP optimisation guide PDF - I'm not at home at the mo otherwise id give you the link to the copy on my site.

Secondly, is this a laptop or a desktop machine? If it's a laptop, there's only so much you can do and if the IRQ steering has decided that the IRQ for the USB port should be shared with others, there's often nothing you can do. On my own laptop I have to install XP with ACPI disabled, which kills one of the USB ports, but clears up the audio clicks. I got the "better" version of my laptop at one point and never could get it to run smoothly with audio, so my daughter now has that one and I stuck with my old laptop.

Heath

antivirus could , specially if it's scanning any newly made files as i see many of them are scanning everything now a days , exclude any temp folders that your audio software is using , and exclude your audio software folder , vsts and don't forget the common folders in the program files directory . try disable spybot during recordings , as it will monitor activity looking for weird behaviour .

Manfred-Klose

Thanks guys i'll look into it tonight.

I run a PC.

I found a optimisation for XP on the m-audio website, will try it:

http://www.audioforums.com/windows-xp-optimization.php

nick

BIOS should be set to auto assign / PNP OS. have a look, maybe its somehow lost its settings.

Manfred-Klose

Does anyone know murphy's law, well for recording it sucks!!!!!

After many sleepless nights trying to figure out why i cant solve the problem, a few minutes ago just before i was about to go crazy and give up, i found the problem, it turns out that IRQ,USB,Drivers,ACPI,XP or whatever has nothing to do with the problem...........wait for it

My old trusty harddrive seem to have been damaged in a power failure(ouch :'() , for some reason it only affects audio and nothing else.

Thanks for everyone's input trying help me. ?

P.S: I mentioned something about murphy's law, well i got a call today from a film student asking me to compose music for his film, he is starting to film this weekend and would want a rough idea of what the music is going to sound like, so basically i experienced "murphy's law in reverse"(if there is such a thing???), it meens that everything that could have worked out did work out.

You'll be getting alot of recordings to listen to in the next few weeks.