mouse causing massive cpu spikes

[Liam8mail]

Title explains the problem, using wired or wireless mouse causes protools to become unstable.
Glorious clicks and pops followed by the cpu usuage message happens when using the mouse while a track is record armed or during playback of a session. Anyone else encounter this problem?

[JFreak]

Which system? I am testing latest pt on mojave and have found out disabling huperthreading makes pt stable

[Liam8mail]

I'm on a windows 10. i7 4 core. I will disable hyperthreading and test it it out thanks. On another note wouldn't disabling hyper threading reduce the cores down to 4 and thus reduce the processing power ?

[JFreak]

In reality, only the real cores are doing the work. Hyperthreading makes another logical core for the real core and handling those two is sometimes problematic

[Liam8mail]

I'll run some tests

[Darryl Ramm]

What sample rate and IO Buffer size are you running at? How large do you have to make the IO buffer size until this stops happening? (without knowing the buffer size we can't guess if you are running at crazy low settings or if this is really an issue).

What interface and driver version? (ASIO4ALL drivers will not run reliably at small IO buffer sizes).

I would not be going for hyper-threading first.

Trash prefs. (always start debugging by trashing prefs)

Be sure to close all plugin GUIs while you test. A bad plugin GUI could cause all sorts of issues.

Do *every* optimization including all the BIOS ones first. WiFi off, bluetooth off, *everything* done no matter how annoying--and leave them all like that while you continue to debug. Then leave messing with hyperthreading to last.

Make sure you graphics drivers are up to date.

Try removing all third party .aaxplugin files from their folder.

Post a SiSoft Sandra report if still stuck and describe all the testing you did.

[Liam8mail]

Hi,
I'm running at 48khz , IO buffer size is 1080 max on my machine. This does not improve by making the buffer size smaller as expected ofc.

I'm using an m-audio m track with it's drivers selected for the audio engine. This is an old piece of hardware tho and not the newer versions.

Yes i have trashed the prefs using the trasher app.

Wifi is off ( i use wired) , bluetooth is off, c states off.

Graphic driver up to date - geforce 960m card with intel chipset

I'll try removing plugin's from the plugin folder. I don't think this will solve it but i'll make sure.

Currently looking at sandra report software

[Liam8mail]

I did the plugin's test and this actually was the problem! Thanks for advising me to do it. So the problem stopped when I stopped using the east west spaces plug in. I recently spaces 11 so i used it in place and the problem is still gone. Which means it's soley that plugin.

SO does this mean i can't use east west spaces anymore or is there a way to figure it out. I don't really mind since i have the new version now. But if this was say Kontakt causing the spikes i'd be in trouble.

[Darryl Ramm]

Always suspect plugins

But be sure to check by putting them back that the same problems happens again, and say it was not just trashing prefs/plugin database rescan that fixed things.

If it looks like the plugins google search for known issues and check in with EW support or other users, they may already know about this and workarounds or fixes.

Make sure dynamic plugin processing is *not* enabled, make sure disk cache *is* enabled... set to a few GB (unless you are really tight on memory) *not* “normal”. Make sure you follow all EW install/Pro Tools setup recommendations.

If this was a problem when using the plugin actively in Pro Tools them pay attention to streaming/cached sample optimization and the samples on a dedicated drive if they are streaming (unless you have a really fast SSD)... again no SiSoft Sandra report so we have no info on amount of systems memory, wether that looks roughly proper DIMM config or if your drive setup looks remotely OK.

Test with all the other things already suggested to see if it improves that behavior including hyperthreading off. Just go do all them in one big hit to quickly see. If you have already done that just double check again everything really was optimized properly.

I would also try reinstalling the latest EW plugins and trashing prefs again.

[Liam8mail]

Hi,
Yes i trashed my prefs a few time while trouble shooting previously. It is most definetly the plugin. I google it and found it has been causing the exact same problem with other users on other DAW's.

Sandra report:


<<< Computer Overview >>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

< ID >
Host Name: LiamXPS
Workgroup: WORKGROUP

< Computer >
Model: Dell XPS 15 9550
Serial Number: 61F****
Chassis: Dell Laptop
Mainboard: Dell 0N7TVV
Serial Number: /61FMH72/CN1************
BIOS: Dell 1.9.0 10/11/2018
TPM - Trusted Platform Module: WEC 1.2 (PCR 24)
Intel vPro: 11.8.55.3510
Total Memory: 31.88GB SO-DIMM DDR4

< Processors >
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (4C
8T 2.59GHz, 2.6GHz IMC/3.5GHz, 4x 256kB L2,
6MB L3)
Socket/Slot: FC BGA1440

< Chipset >
Memory Controller: Dell XPS 15 9550 100MHz, 2x 16GB SO-DIMM DDR4
2.4GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics

< Memory Module(s) >
Memory Module: G.Skill/Micron F4-2400C16-16GRS 16GB SO-DIMM
DDR4 PC4-19200SO DDR4-2400 (16-16-16-38 5-54-
18-6)
Memory Module: G.Skill/Micron F4-2400C16-16GRS 16GB SO-DIMM
DDR4 PC4-19200SO DDR4-2400 (16-16-16-38 5-54-
18-6)

< Video System >
Monitor/Panel: SHP Generic PnP Monitor (3840x2160,
7PHPT‚LQ156D1, 15.6")
Monitor/Panel: Dell Computer DELL P2418D
(2560x1440, 23.8")
Video Adapter: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (24CU 192SP SM5.0
1GHz, 768kB L2, 2GB DDR4 2.4GHz 128-bit,
Integrated Graphics)
Video Adapter: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (24CU 192SP SM5.0
1GHz, 768kB L2, 2GB DDR4 2.4GHz 128-bit,
Integrated Graphics)

< Graphics Processor >
OpenCL: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (192SP 24C 1GHz,
512kB L2, 12.8GB DDR4 2.4GHz 128-bit,
Integrated Graphics)
OpenCL: nVidia GeForce GTX 960M (640SP 5C 1.1GHz,
80kB L2, 2GB)
D3D 11: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (2GB)
D3D 11: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (192SP 24C 1GHz,
768kB L2, 128MB DDR4 2.4GHz 128-bit,
Integrated Graphics)
OpenGL: GeForce GTX 960M/PCIe/SSE2 (2GB)
OpenGL: GeForce GTX 960M/PCIe/SSE2 (2GB)

< Pen and Touch >
Touch Digitiser: Integrated
Multi-Touch: Yes
Simultaneous Touches: 10
Pen Digitiser: External

< Storage Devices >
PM951 NVMe SAMSU (256GB, PCIe3:238GB (C:)
Samsung Portable SSD T5 (1TB, :932GB (D:)
Samsung Portable SSD T5 (1TB, :932GB (E:)
WDC WD10SDZW-11UMGS0 (1TB, USB:931GB (F:)

< Logical Storage Devices >
Recovery: 450MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ PM951 NVMe SAMSU (256GB,
PCIe3x4/NVMe)
Hard Disk (C:): 237GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ PM951 NVMe SAMSU (256GB,
PCIe3x4/NVMe)
Hard Disk: 822MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ PM951 NVMe SAMSU (256GB,
PCIe3x4/NVMe)
Samsung_T5 (D:): 931GB (exFAT, 128kB) @ Samsung Portable SSD
T5 (1TB, USB3/SATA600, mSATA, SSD)
Samsung_T5 (E:): 932GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung Portable SSD T5
(1TB, USB3/SATA600, mSATA, SSD)
My Passport (F:): 931GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ WDC WD10SDZW-11UMGS0 (1TB,
USB3/SATA600, 2.5", 5400rpm)
Hard Disk: 96MB (FAT32, 1kB) @ PM951 NVMe SAMSU (256GB,
PCIe3x4/NVMe)

< Peripherals >
LPC Hub Controller #1: Dell XPS 15 9550
Audio Device: Dell Sunrise Point-H HD Audio
Disk Controller: Dell XPS 15 9550
Disk Controller: Dell XPS 15 9550
Disk Controller: Samsung NVMe SSD Controller
USB Controller #1: Dell XPS 15 9550
USB Controller #2: Dell ASM1042A USB 3.0 Host Controller
USB Controller #3: Dell DSL6540 USB 3.1 Controller [Alpine
Ridge]
SMBus/i2c Controller #1: Intel ICH SMBus

< Printers and Faxes >
Printer: Send to Microsoft OneNote 16 Driver
(1200x1200, Colour)
Printer: Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4 (600x600,
Colour)
Printer: Microsoft Print To PDF (600x600, Colour)
Fax: Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer: Canon MG3000 series XPS (Colour)
Printer: Canon MG3000 series (USB, Colour)
Printer: Canon MG3000 series (Colour)

< Peripherals >
Media Player: Samsung Portable SSD T5 (931.48GB)
Media Player: Samsung Portable SSD T5 (931.51GB)
Media Player: WD My Passport 25E1 (931.48GB)

< Network Services >
Network Adapter: Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
(Ethernet)
Network Adapter: Realtek USB GbE Family Controller (Ethernet,
100Mbps)
Network Adapter: TAP-NordVPN Windows Adapter V9 (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter: Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac

< Power Management >
Battery #1: Samsung SDI DELL M7R965C 56.00Wh/4.44Ah

< Operating System >
Windows System: Microsoft Windows 10 Personal 10.0.17134
Platform Compliance: x64

Question about dynamic plugin processing. I usually have this checked to allow more processing power. I have unchecked it and it made no difference except run my cpu up usuage up. What are the pitfalls of of not allowing plugins to conserve processing power when not in use?