Audio glitch occurs exactly every 2 minutes - need Computer Expert Help

[BillyK]

I am having a major problem and I would like to describe it to see if anyone has any suggestions. I just spent big bucks to upgrade my studio computer to the latest greatest and I am now getting an audio glitch which occurs exactly every 2 minutes.
After doing a Google search I see that there are quite a few mentions of a "2 minute mystery glitch" that other people have experienced however the fix I found had to do with Windows 98.


I am using a LynxTWO card (4 in/out version) with SAWStudio as my recording platform.

Here are the specs of this new computer which is running Windows XP:
MOBO: Intel® Desktop Board D925XECV2 http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/cv2/index.htm
Video Card: ATI Radeon 600X "All in Wonder" card. (PCI Express slot)
http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx600/aiwx600/

The drives that I am using are a Seagate 120Gb SATA in the C: drive position. A Maxtor 300 GB SATA as a slave/data drive. I am aware of a potential problem that can occur with a data drive loaded over 120GB in the SAWStudio platform, however as I understand it that is a constant glitching problem when it occurs much more frequent than the every 2 minute glitch as I am getting.

I am not currently using any USB, however I intended to as I have a midi interphase which is USB. I just haven't gotten to that stage as I am implementing upgrades in stages so I can shake out the bugs as I go.

All I have loaded on the system is SAWStudio and the most basic software which came with the hardware installed such as the Sony DVD drive, and the ATI 600X video card software. I also have the Intel "hardware monitor" software loaded that watched temp's and fans speed and that sort of thing however I have disabled that program in the "RegEdit" area of XP so it should not be the issue. It has been mentioned that the likely cause of this type of glitch is something grabbing the processor. I have already done all the suggested Windows XP "tweaks" that are suggested on the SAWStudio site. I have also disabled the onboard Intel audio circuitry and the onboard LAN port plus I have disabled HyperThreading in the Bios which was suggested by a few people on the SAWStudio site.

When I do a CTRL/ALT/DEL and look to see what programs are running... the only thing listed is SAWStudio. The SAW system load numbers are barely moving off zero sometime when it glitches, and I have even encountered these 2 minute "blips" when playing back a stereo file from the Sound File view. I have tried the various audio driver options provided in SAWStudio and no matter which configuration I continue to get the glitch exactly every two minutes. (It happens whether I am playing 20 tracks in a multitrack session or just one track on the multitrack or even in the soundfile window) If the first glitch occurs 23 seconds into the song.. the next one will happen at 2:23 and another at 4:43 and so on.

I have puposely loaded the minimum amout of software on this machine as it is intended to be a studio workhorse but unfortunately I am dead in the water because of this problem.

Any suggestions are extremely appreciated!
Thanks,
Billy K

[not_so_new]

Hi Billy

For the record your post should be in the "music computers" room, I think the mods will move it soon.

Anyway your problem could be pretty tricky to figure out.

I would first do my best to rule out any hardware faults. Does the shut down only happen under load? If this is the case you may have a cooling problem and the mother board / BIOS is shutting down the computer because of an over heat condition.

If you really want to get to the bottom of it I would take all the pci cards out of the computer to isolate the problem. With the audio card(s) out I would run a good burn in program to put the system under load. I hear good things about PassMark so maybe it would be worth the $20 or so. Never tired it myself but a friend who is a system builder for DAW's seems to like it.

Run the burn in software for a while and see if you get a shut down. If you do then you have a cooling problem, if not then I would put the pci cards back in and do the same test. If the computer fails then you have a pci card bus issue (I highly doubt it). If it still does not fail when you have the card in and it will only fail the the daw software open then I would have to assume you have a driver issue with the card or a hardware issue, again with the card.

??

Sorry this might not be much help but without seeing the problem... well you know..

[BillyK]

Ooopsss... sorry I somehow missed the "music computers room". I will know where to look for it when this thread gets moved.
The computer was put through a burn in process when it was built. In addition I had been running the Intel hardware monitor (until I disabled it in BIOS tracking this problem) and know for a fact that heat is not an issue. It is running far below critical temps. I am using an Antec Sonata case with a heat pipe on the processor.

What I really think is that some program is running in the background and hitting the processor every 2 minutes. The thing is I dont know how to track it down.
The glitch only lasts for a fraction of a second... then the audio runs clean for exactly 2 minutes... and then another fraction of a second glitch hits.

[not_so_new]

So it does not blue screen the computer, it just hangs the audio?

I hate to ask but was it ever on the internet? Sounds like you are smart and keep it off the net but even if you stopped to pick up Win updates or drivers you could have picked up a nasty that is set to run every so many clock cycles. ?? Doubt this is the issue but I deal with computer users all the time and it is suprising what goes down the minute I start making assumptions.

(Sorry if you know this already but..) When you go into Task Manager instead of looking to see what apps are running try the next tab over called "Processes." This page contains all the threaded processes and the amount of CPU cycles they are alocated as well as the mem used by each process. Task Manager will stay on top of your apps and works in real time. I would try to run the DAW and wait for a crash then look and see if you get a spike on any CPU % from any process. That sould help narrow it down a bit.

If that does not help then you need to start looking into running some sys monitoring from the admin console (by the way what OS are you on?? Did you ever say??).

Oh and I have seen heat sync glue get loose before even after a burn in so just because the heat pipe is there does not mean the CPU is not over heating. In your case I think you have that covered but I wanted to put it out there.

[GPl]

Boy it can be a real pain tracking down something like this. Is this a system someone built for you? Did they tweek XP os at all? Maybe just check what processes are running, maybe something like messenger, that annouying little........ If no tweeks were done on xp, I would start looking there. I build my own systems and usually strip down xp just to be on the safe side. I take out alot of services, and do some reg tweeks.

Hope you find the culprit soon. Nothing like down time for days at a time!

peace

[BillyK]

System is brand new.. never near the internet. The mobo is the "latest greatest" from Intel running the 925X chipset (which even supports the P4 1066 bus processors just coming out now.. though I am running a P4 3.4 - 800). Ram is 2GB of DDR2. Drives are SATA direct to MOBO (not conversion from IDE bus).
Video is ATI 600X "All In Wonder" which plugs into PCI Express slot and is a brand new product. The OS is Windows XP-Home (I didnt get Pro because I dont need the networking options.. this computer is dedicated to studio recording only)

I do not get a blue screen.. the audio file continues to play normally.. I just get a blip every two minutes and the sound file continues to play. It doesnt matter whether I am running 20 tracks with plug-ins and a "25% load" or if I have a single stereo file on track 1 with practically zero load. Every 2 minutes.. BLIP and the programs acts and runs normally other than that.

I will look at Task Manager again as you suggest and see if anything stands out. I will have a chance to check that first thing in the morning.

Thanks for the help so far!

Just saw the next posting about tweaks... the SAWStudio website provides a list of suggested XP tweaks which I performed immeadiately after loading the software. I dont recall if Messenger was one of those "tweaks" but I will check it out in the morning.

Bill

[latweek]

Ok.....First stab in the dark so......

Your choice of an AIW (also a very new one with potential driver issues) for a DAW videocard screams out to me.

Could there be an issue of redrawing the screen for the videocard? Every time the track hits the 2 min point it redraws the screen possibly?

2 thoughts:

1. resize the view of the song so that it comfortably fits well within the entire screen horizontally. Just a quick test.

2. More to the point: swap out your videocard temporarily with something more bland, basic and well tested. Can you put a plain-jane AGP video card in that thing? Just temporarily do that one thing and see what happens. Pain in the ass, I know, but you might end up saving yourself so much down time in the long run. Video card issues will display as problems across multiple applications as you have described. Not just screens de bleu, but sometimes just seemingly random bugs.

[latweek]

Also, be sure that the audio files that you are playing are on your data drive and not the C drive......

[ransomRR]

Give this a shot.

Start->Run

Type "msconfig" without the quotes, hit run/ok

Go to the services tab and check the box that says "Hide all microsoft services"

Uncheck all the services that are left in the list that don't have to do with your audio software (It may take some trial an error)

Next go next door to the startup tab and uncheck everything that doesn't have to do with your audio software (this should be a little easier to determine)

Hit "Ok" and restart

What you just did was disable all the other software on your computer besides Windows itself, and what you need to run you DAW.

To get back to normal, run msconfig again, go to the General tab and select "Normal startup" and restart.

This should eliminate 3rd party software out of your equasion. If it doesn't skip after you do this, it's gotta be something else running in the background causing your issue. If it does skip after you disable all the crap with msconfig, than you most likley have a hardware conflict or you don't have your DAW configured properly.

If you can't figure it out after that, I do tech support for lots of studios (None using SAW though) Message me with your number and I can give you a ring tomorrow night for some 1 on 1 phone support