Tics in Record for Santa Rosa MBP/PMX 6.2 SP2 combination

[Kurt Alan Briggs]

I apologize for the length of this post, but I have been working on this for a few weeks now and wanted to give as full a picture as possible for your consideration.

I have just upgraded to PMX 6.2 SP2 with Windows XP Pro SP2 on a Bootcamped Santa Rosa MacBook Pro. (Bootcamp 3.2 with Snow Leopard) I am experiencing the following problems:

1) A tic, pop, or splutter roughly every minute.
2) Malfunctioning Monitor application in PMX. (Doubled input from Interface, and therefore no Mute or Solo etc. because of this. [I think the driver does not properly account for Alt 3-4 out of the 003]) Outputs from the main stereo bus on the board function correctly and can be monitored through the interface.
3) Crash on Exit.

I have made the following modifications and optimizations to Windows:

1) Processor Scheduling set to Background Services
2) Visual effects set to Adjust for Best Performance
3) No Background Desktop Image
4) Disabled Screen Saver
5) Disabled Fast User Switching
6) Power Schemes: Turn off Monitor and Hard discs to Never
7) Switched off Hibernation
8) Disabled system sounds
9) Set Do Not Map through Soundcard
10) Disabled System Restore
11) Disabled Automatic Updates
12) Set Do not automatically restart (Startup and Recovery options)
13) Disabled Error Reporting
14) Disabled Remote Assistance
15) Fixed Swap File set to 4096 minimum and Maximum (for 2Gb RAM)
16) Decreased ‘MenuShowDelay’ to 1 in HKEY_CURRENT _USER (from 400)
17) Disabled Offline Files
18) Disabled Remote Desktop
19) Disabled Internet Synchronize Time
20) Disabled Hide Inactive Icons
21) Disabled Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard
22) Disabled NTFS Last Access Time Logging
23) Disabled Notification Area Balloon Tips
24) Disabled CD-ROM Autoplay
25) Disabled Disc Indexing

I did this with the prior setup which ran without a problem on the same equipment for the last three years. The ‘only’ difference is the new interface firmware and Bootcamp 3.2 instead of 1.3 beta.

After this I was unable to load the interface ASIO driver (I’m using the most recent Digidesign driver: the 7.3 no longer works, the 7.4 driver needs SP3, and the first Version 8 does not correctly identify the Ins and Outs). I loaded a new Texas Instruments Firewire driver (version 6.0.6001.1800 released with Vista) and this allowed me to load the most recent driver for the interface.

However, I was now getting tics and pops, so I made these further modifications to Windows:

1) Disabled ACPI Compliant Battery Driver
2) Disabled Apple IR driver
3) Disabled USB Video Device driver
4) Disabled 1394 Network Adaptor driver
5) Disabled Atheros AR5008 Wireless Network Adaptor
6) Disabled RealTek HD Audio driver
7) Installed Microsoft KB Updates 904412 and 885222 for 1394 and SBP2 device hotfixes
8) I also tried updating the nVidia driver and running RivaTuner but both applications told me that they were not supporting my GeForce 8600M GT card so I did not run them.

There are quite a few more ACPI drivers in the system section of Device Manager, should these also be disabled?

After adding the KB Updates I noticed that the red record graphic was not functioning while in record. Even with draw waveform enabled. It still recorded however. This was corrected by forcing a redraw by opening the PMX system preferences (Alt-G) and closing it once or twice. This also gave me the opportunity to check that my buffer settings and clock sources were set correctly.

I have been having these problems with all buffer settings up to 256 samples with either Ext Wordclock or SPDIF Clock from my Mytek or the Internal Clock in PMX. A 256 sample buffer setting gives 19.7ms latency. (1024 gives around 50ms). My DPC Latency checker runs at around 100uS with 400uS peaks. Do I just need to accept a higher buffer and latency for this interface? I cannot find any information on the optimal record buffer for the interface itself—I know RME will run with a 3ms latency so maybe this is a limitation of the design spec of the 003. I am often in the same room to record a concert so the latency is a monitoring issue.

This morning I recorded for 16 minutes (48/24 with 256 buffer) without any problems at all (including the record red drawing in time with the cursor!). Still a slight splutter on minimizing PMX, but no crash on exit. I have noticed some quite bizarre things: The 40 minute piano recording I did yesterday was incorrectly date stamped by PMX or Windows as one day ahead of the time it was actually made. (I hadn’t touched the system clock) I noticed this because both were recorded at the exact same time of day (literally) and should have been dated 1/29/11 and 1/30/11, but were both reported as 1/30.
This raises some questions about Bootcamp and system time, and makes me wonder if my audio clock (or the program) could somehow have been affected by the system clock while recording.

Yesterday I recorded 40 minutes of music with 53 tics, today 16 minutes with no tics and a correct system clock. Bootcamp runs on GMT (London) when switched from its Mac clock to its Windows boot. I noticed this when I first started using it because my family lives in London and it was quite useful! However, Windows Time and Date app reports the clock set for GMT +8 (Pacific): the clock is not correctly reporting the time zone for which it is set under Bootcamp. Setting the clock to GMT yields EST-5, NOT EST+5 as it should, and also resets the Mac system clock. I had reset the clock to GMT and back again to Pacific and after that the tics seem to have righted themselves! This is with the Bootcamp.exe, Appletimesrv.exe and AppleOSSmgr.exe all disabled through Task Manager.

The PMX log gives TC interrupt errors ranging from 51,796(!) to 7 or 9 depending on the launch for the first 5-7 or so seconds after launch. I am assuming that this is a result of PMX locking to clock at the start of the session. On deliberately turning off the clock, PMX log also reports ‘Warning: Audio Engine: Audio buffer missing from ahead reading cache at (timecode). We are waiting the end of the current loading to have a second chance.’ It then starts reading from the internal clock but does not switch the reported setting in the settings control panel menus.

It also records quite happily without an error message when I change the clock to 44.1 in a 48 session or vice versa.
What is going on? Is there some relationship between the system clocks and the audio clocks or program timing and the interrupt efficiency of the operating systems? If this is corrected now will it stay corrected for an hour or so at a time (to record one half of a concert)? And, will it need resetting every boot? Also, why is it not affecting the playback? I would be grateful for any technical knowledge on this matter that any of you may have in order to ensure that the tic problem stays fixed. In the meantime I wait to see if this remains ‘fixed’ tomorrow.

I am not ready to give up on getting the interface to work just yet for 3 reasons:

1) It has worked for three years without problems and still works in Pro Tools.
2) It worked for two days while installed on top of a XP Pro stalled Setup where I had the option to boot either to XP Pro or XP Pro Setup disc—I was trying to do a repair installation in case any of the files were corrupt. (Yes, I did repartition and reformat the drive before reinstalling Windows.)
3) The tics and pops appear and have been resolved with other Santa Rosa/interface combinations.

It seems also that I have not yet exhausted the following possibilities:

1) Install the Pro Tools 9 Firmware update and try the Windows mods again.
2) Slipstream XP Pro SP3 and try again.

However, before doing this I wondered if anyone had any further ideas on my XP Pro SP2 installation. All ideas will be gratefully considered!

After that I have two options: first, to reinstall everything as it was with the PT 7.3 interface firmware on Tiger/Bootcamp 1.3 beta; second, upgrade to an RME FF800 interface for the PMX side. However, having got this far I would like to make sure I’ve tried everything! The 003 has sufficed until now because I run my Millenia pre's into a Mytek AD and then SPDIF into the interface using the 003 for spots.

Thanks in advance for your input,

Kurt

[rick]

Hi Kurt,

Wow, that's a lot of info!

Have you disabled the keyboard.exe in msconfig?

Have you disabled the powermizer in the NVIDIA control panel and set everything to else to performance over image quality?

Unless you are doing overdubbing, why would you not set the buffer as high as possible?

Rick

[Graemme]

What about 'bootcamp.exe'? (used to be called 'kbdmgr.exe')

That one can ruin your day quite easily...so kill that process as well.

Also, see here:

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=98769

Graemme

[rick]

Thanks Graemme, that's what I was referring to but couldn't remember the exact name.

[Kurt Alan Briggs]

Graemme and Rick:

Yes I am killing Bootcamp.exe in Task Manager on boot. Also Appletimesrv.exe and AppleOSSmgr.exe. I'm wondering if I should unload the APCI drivers in System section of the Device Manager as well?

Graemme, I believe that we are running the same machine MBP 3,1 Santa Rosa. Does yours use the GeForce 8600M GT video card, and if so which driver version are you running? There is one released as recently as January 18 but it posts warnings to check with the OEM about whether the driver is appropriate.
Thanks both for your speedy replies,

Kurt

[Kurt Alan Briggs]

Rick:

Yes, I set the Mizer settings in the nVidia control panel already--not sure if I mentioned that!

I'm interested in the low buffer size to decrease latency for classical recording when I am in the same room--for example when at a concert. As long as I'm 20 feet or more back (or to the side of the stage) the latency isn't an issue.

Kurt