nforce boards and PTFree

[PaulG.]

I've tried both Asus A7n266VM and A7n8x boards and can't get PTFree to work without 9093 IRQ problems. I've done everything posted for ProTools LE problems of this nature.

The Digidesign compatibility page says Via chipsets are no good - but is that earlier chipsets and would something like the A7V8X-X recommended for the other products work with PTFree for Athlon ?

I'm getting great latency with an Echo mia at 128 buffer, it's just the 9093s.

Appreciate any advice.

[PaulG.]

Well, the A7V8X Via chipset was no good for me at all with the Echo Mia card. Interrupt errors all the time. A7N8X was a bit worse than the A7N266VM.

I've gone back to the nforce A7N266VM (with Athlon 2000XP, 384MB, Seagate 60GB/7200). It will actually work well at the lowest possible latency (44100/128/40% and zero DAE playback buffer). But for some reason the first time you play back you get two interrupt errors. After that, it's pretty solid. I found if I go to the hardware buffer setup screen before opening a session, and just click OK without changing anything it doesn't even give the two interrupt errors. I've done all the tweaks recommended also.

One other thing, if the mouse icon ever goes over the Windows minimize or X (close) icon on the title bar it causes a huge jump in CPU usage and an interrupt error. I have to go way up to 2048 or 4096 to avoid that, so I'm just careful where I point the mouse.

There's a recent post at download.com under PTFree section claiming super fast latency with echo mia also. Don't know what motherboard.