Calling the Xperts!!! [Archive] - Avid Pro Audio Community

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Last

05-14-2002, 02:20 PM

Hi Guys!

I have recently become the proud parent of a new AMD XP 1800 puter,with a GA7-DX+ Mother of a board,a 10G system drive and a quantum Fireball 40G audio drive(both IDE) with windows98se on.
I also have a AGP 64MB G-force graphix card,and 256 MB DDR Ram,as well as a Yamaha 16/10/40 CD-R/RW.This all with a 17' flatscreen.Now I have no more money to spend on it for a while,so I would like to tweak the performance as much as possible.

This computer only runs PTLE with the 001 and nothing else,so I am sure there are ways of making it perform even better than it does.

I think one area would be to get the IRQ to 9,as it is on 10 at the moment.Currently on IRQ 9 it has "SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus"
Can anyone tell me what that is and how to get rid of it,and how I can get the 001 on IRQ 9?
I have tried moving it trough different slots,but it doesnt change the irq to 9,only worse,to 11 or 7.

I have done all the DMA and auto insert notification stuff as per the manual,and I have also got all usb and other comm ports disabled.

If there are any other ways to improve performance I'd love to hear them (apart from overclocking)

Please remeber that I cant spend any more on it now,so more ram and drives are out of the question for the moment.

Thanx in advance!

yavuzj

05-14-2002, 02:25 PM

To get rid of it....;

Reinstall WinME/98 SE by using setup /p i
command including the spaces exactly.

harry smit

05-14-2002, 02:30 PM

Also try to use "98lite30.exe".
With this utility you can kick out all the internet tools and active desktop and more stuff
you don't need.

Harry

yavuzj

05-14-2002, 02:33 PM

Originally posted by Last:
If there are any other ways to improve performance I'd love to hear them (apart from overclocking)The biggest difference for you might be investing $20.- on a Promise ATA100 Controller. That will nearly double your performance.

Promise Controller should be on IRQ5 alone.

Stone Knife

05-14-2002, 02:43 PM

Set swapfile to same minimum and maximum values; usually 1.5x your ram is standard.
Set machine up as Network Server instead of Desktop in My Computer/ Properties/ Performance/ File System.

I think IRQ 10 should be fine for your 001 card.
SCI is the System Control Interrupt. It is not hardware.

There will probably be some GA7 owners on later to help with IRQ 9 assignment- It's probably done in the BIOS but I have an Intel 815 so am no further help there.

Happy recording!

Sixpence

05-14-2002, 03:06 PM

here's a strange one Stone.... On the RME site there's pages and pages of tuning tips... and they recommend NOT to change the swap file size...

I'll go get the link... it was on my laptop but It's in the middle of a restore!!!!

The whole article is excellent...
[back again... it's at...

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techin fo/lola/lola.htm (http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/lola/lola.htm)

recordingguy

05-14-2002, 03:30 PM

Originally posted by yavuzj:
To get rid of it....;

Reinstall WinME/98 SE by using setup /p i
command including the spaces exactly.How do you do it? Do you reformat and do it in DOS? I would like to try...

8mmOverdose

05-14-2002, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by Last:
Hi Guys!

I have recently become the proud parent of a new AMD XP 1800 puter,with a GA7-DX+ Mother of a board,a 10G system drive and a quantum Fireball 40G audio drive(both IDE) with windows98se on.
I also have a AGP 64MB G-force graphix card,and 256 MB DDR Ram,as well as a Yamaha 16/10/40 CD-R/RW.This all with a 17' flatscreen.Now I have no more money to spend on it for a while,so I would like to tweak the performance as much as possible.

This computer only runs PTLE with the 001 and nothing else,so I am sure there are ways of making it perform even better than it does.

I think one area would be to get the IRQ to 9,as it is on 10 at the moment.Currently on IRQ 9 it has "SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus"
Can anyone tell me what that is and how to get rid of it,and how I can get the 001 on IRQ 9?
I have tried moving it trough different slots,but it doesnt change the irq to 9,only worse,to 11 or 7.

I have done all the DMA and auto insert notification stuff as per the manual,and I have also got all usb and other comm ports disabled.

If there are any other ways to improve performance I'd love to hear them (apart from overclocking)

Please remeber that I cant spend any more on it now,so more ram and drives are out of the question for the moment.

Thanx in advance!i will check on my ga7dxr for you when i get to it, but i am pretty sure that irq 9 is reserved for the ACPI bus. my digi is on irq 10 and it works great. i do not have a seperate promise contoller.

here are a few tips to to further optimize your system.

http://www.tascam.com/support/faq/pc_optimize/6_optimize.php

>Pro Tools Configuration Tips DigiTechSupt Brent posted November 02, 2000 06:27 AM
>Try the following:
>-Enable the DMA setting for all IDE drives (cd roms too). Control Panels>System>Device Manager window. Highlight the IDE drive(s) (one at a time) in the Disk Drives list, click Properties>Settings Tab.
>-Disable the Auto Insert Notification setting for your CD ROM drive in the Control Panels>System>Device Manager window. Highlight the CD ROM device in the CD ROMs list, click Properties>Settings Tab.
>-Quit or disable any anti-virus application that might be running in the background (in bios and in windows).
>-Disable Power Management and Plug & Play OS in the BIOS.
>-Disable Advanced Power Management in the Control Panels>System>Device Manager>System Devices list. Highlight the device, click properties, enable the box next to: "Disable in this hardware profile" and restart Windows.

advanced bios features
>>HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability [disabled]
integrated peripherals
>>onboard sound chip [disabled]
>>usb 1 & 2 [disabled]
>>ac97 audio [disabled]
>>ac97 modem [disabled]
power management setup
>>suspend timeout [disabled]
>>pme event wakeup [disabled]
>>modem ring on/wake on lan [disabled]
>>modem use irq [na] (i have no modem)
>>resume by rtc alarm [disabled]
PnP/PCI configurations
>>resources controlled by [auto]

Last

05-15-2002, 10:29 AM

Thanx a lot dudes!

This will keep me busy for a while.For now it is also interesting just working with the puter and debugging as I go.It all helps a little.
My current DaveC test results are 24+10,which is nicely double what I got with the previous system.

So now thaT I have more tracks,according to some boffins on the DUC, my mixes are going to sound worse and I am going to turn into a fat couch potato....MuHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Stone Knife

05-15-2002, 03:07 PM

Six-
Thanks for the tuning link-
I've liked the same swapfile numbers as a preventitive measure against the spontaneous reboot.
I believe it's possible for a swap resize that happens when a program is open and idle may cause the idle program to trigger a reboot. May be hokum but I'll try anything; I am running 512 MEGS RAM and may be able to turn the swapfile completely off and get away with it! images/icons/wink.gif Haven't tried that one, though.

They wrote same-sizing the swapfile has risks, but didn't list any or why. Would like to find out more. Great link, tho- thanks again.

JMS40

05-15-2002, 04:33 PM

No need to reinstall Windows.. Disable ACPI in BIOS setup under "Power Management".
On first boot, Windows will reaccess all your PnP hardware... including Digi. PTLE may ask for your serial #.
D-Verb Auth. is UN-effected.
From then on, all is normal and you free up the IRQ.
All the best.

Originally posted by recordingguy:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by yavuzj:
To get rid of it....;

Reinstall WinME/98 SE by using setup /p i
command including the spaces exactly.How do you do it? Do you reformat and do it in DOS? I would like to try...<hr /></blockquote>

Roy Howell

05-15-2002, 07:03 PM

Peter,

You'de better hide that new pc from your wife, dude!... images/icons/wink.gif Are they back in town yet?

~RH

yavuzj

05-15-2002, 07:36 PM

Originally posted by JMS40:
No need to reinstall Windows.. Disable ACPI in BIOS setup under "Power Management".
On first boot, Windows will reaccess all your PnP hardware... including Digi. PTLE may ask for your serial #.
D-Verb Auth. is UN-effected.
From then on, all is normal and you free up the IRQ.
All the best.

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by recordingguy:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by yavuzj:
To get rid of it....;

Reinstall WinME/98 SE by using setup /p i
command including the spaces exactly.How do you do it? Do you reformat and do it in DOS? I would like to try...<hr /></blockquote><hr /></blockquote>JMS40, I did not give that advice since that worked 50% of the time for me. I would get immidieate or later problems almost 50% of the time like that. Now, some folks work it that way but It's risky. I always feel a lot better when I do a clean install. Especially when I am planning to do something big like getting rid of ACPI.

Another thing....;

For future XP users, I would definitely discourage NOT using ACPI. ACPI works really well with XP. It DOES get that importan IRQ9. However, it works great. People tried removing (or installing without) ACPI and got worse results. This was not the case for Win2K.

So, take out some cards if you have to but leave IRQ9 alone for ACPI on WinXP. Instead use IRQ10.

THe good news is some newer boards have APIC that has twice as many IRQs. AsusP4TE is one of them. You can not use those extra IRQs unless you use WinXP. images/icons/smile.gif

Stone Knife

05-15-2002, 10:12 PM

You're getting 24+10? Shutup! What more do you want? You've got it goin' on already, considering it's an 18 input system.
Get busy recording, sir. images/icons/wink.gif

JMS40

05-15-2002, 10:32 PM

Just my opinion, but, there is absolutely nothing risky about disabling ACPI in Bios. I have used this setup on at least 5 computers in the past 6 months alone. Especially helpful with AMD756 chip bugs... unrelated to PT.
Anyway, disable and Windows performs smooth as silk, and free's up 9 for Digi.

yavuzj

05-16-2002, 07:11 AM

Originally posted by JMS40:
Just my opinion, but, there is absolutely nothing risky about disabling ACPI in Bios. I am glad it has worked for you that way. However, RME's website says, that changing BIOS drivers AFTER installation to non-ACPI systems caused some users problems. THis was my experience as well. Especially for WinXP and Win2K systems.

Check this link here;
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/faq/faqnewe.htm

So, eventhough I am happy for you this does not mean it will works smoothly for everyone. Even Microsoft recommends a clean install if you want to change your BIOS driver to Standard BIOS from ACPI BIOS driver.

Last

05-16-2002, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by Roy Howell:
Peter,

You'de better hide that new pc from your wife, dude!... images/icons/wink.gif Are they back in town yet?

~RHLOL!since my studio is in the kitchen,I didnt stand a chance.She kicked me in the shin.I had to be super nice and quiet for a few days.For some reason my explanation about having to choose between the new puter and a french prostitute only made things worse...

yavuzj

05-16-2002, 10:55 AM

Originally posted by Stone Knife:
You're getting 24+10? Shutup! What more do you want? I sure could use the talent plugin.
images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif

Roy Howell

05-16-2002, 11:12 AM

Originally posted by Last:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Roy Howell:
Peter,

You'de better hide that new pc from your wife, dude!... images/icons/wink.gif Are they back in town yet?

~RHLOL!...For some reason my explanation about having to choose between the new puter and a french prostitute only made things worse...<hr /></blockquote>See, I TOLD you to stay away from those healthy French girls... images/icons/wink.gif

By the way, the full session is on the way (it's a full GB, so it'll take 2 CD's, which is fine).

Later, RH

JMS40

05-22-2002, 01:49 PM

Hi yavuzj-
First off, I respect your opinions and contributions. Understand, I'm not picking a fight here. Just wanted to make clear my reasons for feeling so strongly about this subject.
I take your word that you've only had a 50% success rate but I've had a very different experience.
All are Win98 related, however. I cannot comment on Win XP or 2X.
Since June of last year I've done this 6 times with 100% success.
The first was my P3 based Digi 001 computer and is the main reason I'm carring on with this discussion.
Disabling ACPI and getting 001 alone on IRQ 9 noticably improved my PT performance. It took 5 minutes and a reinstall would have been hours.( I have several other "jump thru the hoop" software packages...)
This was done 11 months ago, no problems... then or now.
The other 5 instances were workstations I built for a medical office and two DAW's, all built around the same motherboard with an AMD 756 chipset... I got a good deal. images/icons/smile.gif
All had mouse freezing and hibernation problems that were solved by disabling ACPI. All went without a hitch and, like our music world, all had specialized, registered software packages that would have taken considerable time to go back and start from zero.
As I said, I respect your experience but can only comment from my own.

Adam B.

05-22-2002, 02:04 PM

Ok, Please forgive my "igmorance", but I am new to all of this. In fact, I don't even have PT yet, I've just been reading on DUC for a month to learn about it. I am going to get it.

ANYWAYS...
What is IRQ?

Thanks for being patient!
Adam

Princeton

05-22-2002, 02:10 PM

The IRQ is a number set in the computer for the interrupt request. The interrupt request is assigned to devices to allow it to "interrupt", or send a signal, to the computer when it is finished processing. In older computers, you had to manually set the IRQ values for devices. Newer computers and operating systems use plug'n'play, which allows you to not need to set IRQ values.