Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated

Hi, Owen:

I'm certainly no expert on computers or electronics, but as I was
reading your post, there is one thing that I noticed was missing: any
mention of a good power conditioner or UPS (uninterruptible power
supply), which can help a lot to minimize many kinds of AC "noise
pollution."

What is providing power to all of the elements of your recording
system?

I am using a decent-sized UPS made by ADC. My computer is plugged
directly into this UPS. The UPS also powers my Furman digital power
conditioner, which is where all of the other elements of my system are
plugged in. My Furman power conditioner has additional power filtering
especially for digital components.

I haven't had a single noise problem since I plugged my system up to
these sources. I'm not saying that any of this has to do with your
problem, but it's worth a try.

On 5 Apr 2005 12:57:51 -0700, (Owen Shiers)
wrote:

Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running.

Is something disabling/enabling the soundcard? Did you install any
new software/hardware around the time this started?

Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

That's a symptom of one or more 'background tasks' taking up CPU
time that weren't there before.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

There's also a graphics acceleration parameter in the Control
Panel-System-Performance tab. Turning it down/off makes the CPU do
more of the screen drawing which slows down redraws, OTOH it will be
interruptible by other tasks (such as audio), whereas a graphics card
operation might not be interruptible. At least that's what I read
before, I dunno. Regardless, it seems like installing a new graphics
card is an extreme and unneccesary solution.

The one thing you forgot to tell us is what OS this is: (the legacy
series): 98, 98SE, ME, or (the NT series), 2K, XP? (did I miss one?)

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated

Press ctrl-alt-delete and see what all is running. There's likely
lots of unneccesary things. Do a Google search for each running entity
to see what it is and whether you can safely remove it. Run msconfig
to disable these things from running at startup. My cheap HP
printer/scanner software loads in about a half-dozen things, and none
are neccesary for just printing, but they do take up significant
resources while 'inactive' in the background.
Some of what's running could be adware/spyware/viruses/general
malware, and that stuff is not well written, they don't bother to be
careful about resources. I've seen some P2P program, IIRC it was
Gnutella, running on a newish XP system, and it just about brought the
machine to a halt, the computer was completely useless for doing
anything else while it was running 'in the background.'

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

Owen Shiers wrote:
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in
and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated


Hi Owen:
I'm sorry that your having this problem, it is so frustrating. I had
the same experience with an m-audio soundcard, and two things that I
tried seem to cure the problem.
Firstly, changing the computer to run in 'Standard mode' rather than
ACPI. There used to be a help section on the m-audio website to show
how this can be done.
Secondly, I tried using a different driver, the asio4all...if you do a
search you can find this. It is (or used to be) a free download. I
couldn't get the m-audio asio drivers to work with wavelab (and still
can't!!)
You can check the IRQ allocations on the pc by going to Device
manager/click on the 'view' tab then select 'resources by type' and
then 'irq'. This will give you a list..
Hope that this helps a bit,
Best wishes,
David Caswell

Owen Shiers wrote:
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.


I had almost the exact same problem with my delta 66 a few years back. I
updated the drivers and that fixed the problem. Obviously this isn't
working for you. I would make sure that Cubase is using the correct ASIO
driver by going the the device setup window...I forget exactly how to
get there but I'm sure you know the one. You should be using the M-Audio
Delta ASIO.

If it started suddenly and without warning, I would be highly suspicious
of spyware eating up CPU cycles. Download Ad Aware AND Spy Bot and run
both of them....I believe Norton or McAfee also makes a free one, the
more you can run the better....if spyware is found, and upon research it
turns out to be really nasty stuff, you might have to take drastic
action like re-installing windows or even backing up all your files,
formatting and starting from scratch.....if this is the case, in the
future, use your DAW for AUDIO ONLY and keep other programs to a bare
minimum.

If you are running Win2k/NT/XP you should be able to find CPU bandwidth
hogs quite easy and narrow down any process, spyware or otherwise which
is eating up cycles.

You could also try completely removing the 1010's PCI card from your
system, uninstall all delta drivers/software and re-install from scratch.

You might also want to uninstall and re-install cubase while you're at
it just to be sure, which is actually quote easy.

It sounds like you've tried everything else I could think of. I really
think your problem is somewhere in the drivers or spy/malware. Good
luck, I know how frustrating this exact problem can be so I hope to hell
you figure it out. Keep us updated! Thanks!

Jonny Durango

"EADGBE" wrote in message roups.com...
Hi, Owen:

I'm certainly no expert on computers or electronics, but as I was
reading your post, there is one thing that I noticed was missing: any
mention of a good power conditioner or UPS (uninterruptible power
supply), which can help a lot to minimize many kinds of AC "noise
pollution."

What is providing power to all of the elements of your recording
system?

I am using a decent-sized UPS made by ADC. My computer is plugged
directly into this UPS. The UPS also powers my Furman digital power
conditioner, which is where all of the other elements of my system are
plugged in. My Furman power conditioner has additional power filtering
especially for digital components.

I haven't had a single noise problem since I plugged my system up to
these sources. I'm not saying that any of this has to do with your
problem, but it's worth a try.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I know that the building is on the end of
the power line, and we have had fluctuation problems in the past
(which we havbe complained about and they seem to have remedied. I
might look into a UPS, although it wouldn't explain why the problem
started occuring around Christmas time, as there's been no change in
supply for the last two years. I'm still convinced it's a computer
related problem, but if all else fails I may look into it as a last
resort!

What kind of noise problems were you getting before you installed the
UPS and the power conditioning?

Cheers

Owen

Owen Shiers wrote:
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.



Hi there - what Delta driver are you running?

I had best luck with an older driver : Delta_29x12_Pro.EXE

Maybe rey Googling for it - it isn't on M-Audio's Site any more (at least I
don't think it is.....)

Good luck!

Geoff

Owen:

I use some outboard signal processors with my DAW. (Plug-ins are great,
but there's nothing like the "old school"!)

I was getting some hum showing up on some tracks I recorded with the
outboard processors, even though ALL items were plugged into the same
surge protector.

I did some reading, and found that even a "good" surge protector
doesn't actually "condition" the AC power. It simply protects against
power spikes. In other words, I had spike protection, but I was still
getting the same "dirty" power with the usual AC line noise.

Even though it sounded like a gimmick, I went ahead and bought a power
conditioner, and VOILA! All of my line noise was gone. It really made
me a believer.

Jonny Durango wrote in message ...
Owen Shiers wrote:
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.


I had almost the exact same problem with my delta 66 a few years back. I
updated the drivers and that fixed the problem. Obviously this isn't
working for you. I would make sure that Cubase is using the correct ASIO
driver by going the the device setup window...I forget exactly how to
get there but I'm sure you know the one. You should be using the M-Audio
Delta ASIO.

If it started suddenly and without warning, I would be highly suspicious
of spyware eating up CPU cycles. Download Ad Aware AND Spy Bot and run
both of them....I believe Norton or McAfee also makes a free one, the
more you can run the better....if spyware is found, and upon research it
turns out to be really nasty stuff, you might have to take drastic
action like re-installing windows or even backing up all your files,
formatting and starting from scratch.....if this is the case, in the
future, use your DAW for AUDIO ONLY and keep other programs to a bare
minimum.

If you are running Win2k/NT/XP you should be able to find CPU bandwidth
hogs quite easy and narrow down any process, spyware or otherwise which
is eating up cycles.

You could also try completely removing the 1010's PCI card from your
system, uninstall all delta drivers/software and re-install from scratch.

You might also want to uninstall and re-install cubase while you're at
it just to be sure, which is actually quote easy.

It sounds like you've tried everything else I could think of. I really
think your problem is somewhere in the drivers or spy/malware. Good
luck, I know how frustrating this exact problem can be so I hope to hell
you figure it out. Keep us updated! Thanks!

Jonny Durango

Well, I'm not 100% certain, but I think I've solved the problem...

I removed all non critical processes from Task Manager, and ran Cubase
SX for five minutes, just doing what I normally do and I got no
clicks! I had noticed today that the CPU meter jumped every time there
was a click, so all I need to do now is narrow down which process it
was, and then kill the sucker.

By the way, thanks for everyone's support, it's fantastic to find a
newsgroup where people actually reply and genuinely care about your
problems.

I'll get back to you tomorrow when I've narrowed the culprit down.

Cheers

Owen

Owen Shiers wrote:
snip

Well, I'm not 100% certain, but I think I've solved the problem...

I removed all non critical processes from Task Manager, and ran Cubase
SX for five minutes, just doing what I normally do and I got no
clicks! I had noticed today that the CPU meter jumped every time there
was a click, so all I need to do now is narrow down which process it
was, and then kill the sucker.

By the way, thanks for everyone's support, it's fantastic to find a
newsgroup where people actually reply and genuinely care about your
problems.

I'll get back to you tomorrow when I've narrowed the culprit down.

Cheers

Owen

This is almost certainly a spyware/malware problem. Run Ad Aware and
Spybot and anything else you can get your hands on and have them remove
the culprit(s) (this usually works better from safe mode).....if you're
lucky this will take care of the spyware. If you're not lucky, it will
be a really nasty case which you'll have to research and follow a buncha
instructions to get rid of. If you've got more than two or three like
this, it would probably be easier and safer in the long run to start
from scratch and get everything right from the get-go. Anyway, I'm glad
you seem to have tracked down the problem! Cheers!

Jonny Durango

Is it a desktop or a laptop (I didn't notice if you mentioned it)? Many
laptops cannot reset IRQs. Mine has the the USB, the IEEE 1394 and the
Radeon video card all sharing the same IRQ. Brilliant!

It did work fairly well for a few months, however.

I had some click/pop issues using SX-1 which eventually became crash
problems. Tried many of the suggestions mentioned above, all of which
are valid. I ended up having the M-board replaced. When the problem
returned, my warranty replaced the RAM, HD & CPU. When I re-installed
the OS and the computer went to BSOD then wouldn't boot in any mode
(that same day), I contacted the Manufacturer (Dell). This all over the
course of a few months. I am currently awaiting the arrival of a new
laptop. We shall soon see if it is destined to compute only word
processing and newsgroup browsing at which point I'll break down for a
dedicated desktop, with no absolute guarantees. Hope yours is a better
scenario.

IOW, hang in there. It's not a perfect science & I feel your pain.

peakester

P.S. I also own an Alesis HD-24 which is close to bulletproof but not
as versatile.

Hum is different than clicks and pops. I'd be willing to bet better AC
won't matter. I have heard of occcasional mismatches between sound cards or
hard drives and certain mother boards. Not an easy solution, but if it is
the cause, looking in the wrong place won't help.

Julian


"EADGBE" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, Owen:

I'm certainly no expert on computers or electronics, but as I was
reading your post, there is one thing that I noticed was missing: any
mention of a good power conditioner or UPS (uninterruptible power
supply), which can help a lot to minimize many kinds of AC "noise
pollution."

What is providing power to all of the elements of your recording
system?

I am using a decent-sized UPS made by ADC. My computer is plugged
directly into this UPS. The UPS also powers my Furman digital power
conditioner, which is where all of the other elements of my system are
plugged in. My Furman power conditioner has additional power filtering
especially for digital components.

I haven't had a single noise problem since I plugged my system up to
these sources. I'm not saying that any of this has to do with your
problem, but it's worth a try.

Congratulations


"Owen Shiers" wrote in message
om...
Jonny Durango wrote in message
...
Owen Shiers wrote:
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.


I had almost the exact same problem with my delta 66 a few years back. I
updated the drivers and that fixed the problem. Obviously this isn't
working for you. I would make sure that Cubase is using the correct ASIO
driver by going the the device setup window...I forget exactly how to
get there but I'm sure you know the one. You should be using the M-Audio
Delta ASIO.

If it started suddenly and without warning, I would be highly suspicious
of spyware eating up CPU cycles. Download Ad Aware AND Spy Bot and run
both of them....I believe Norton or McAfee also makes a free one, the
more you can run the better....if spyware is found, and upon research it
turns out to be really nasty stuff, you might have to take drastic
action like re-installing windows or even backing up all your files,
formatting and starting from scratch.....if this is the case, in the
future, use your DAW for AUDIO ONLY and keep other programs to a bare
minimum.

If you are running Win2k/NT/XP you should be able to find CPU bandwidth
hogs quite easy and narrow down any process, spyware or otherwise which
is eating up cycles.

You could also try completely removing the 1010's PCI card from your
system, uninstall all delta drivers/software and re-install from scratch.

You might also want to uninstall and re-install cubase while you're at
it just to be sure, which is actually quote easy.

It sounds like you've tried everything else I could think of. I really
think your problem is somewhere in the drivers or spy/malware. Good
luck, I know how frustrating this exact problem can be so I hope to hell
you figure it out. Keep us updated! Thanks!

Jonny Durango

Well, I'm not 100% certain, but I think I've solved the problem...

I removed all non critical processes from Task Manager, and ran Cubase
SX for five minutes, just doing what I normally do and I got no
clicks! I had noticed today that the CPU meter jumped every time there
was a click, so all I need to do now is narrow down which process it
was, and then kill the sucker.

By the way, thanks for everyone's support, it's fantastic to find a
newsgroup where people actually reply and genuinely care about your
problems.

I'll get back to you tomorrow when I've narrowed the culprit down.

Cheers

Owen

Hi Owen. IT is my day job, recoding my weekend passion. I think I can
probably help you, but I need some info...

What Motherboard/chipset are you running?
What type of hard-drives? IDE or SATA?
What if any network card do you have?
Are you running any wireless network cards?

Many of the early generation PCs with Serial ATA have 3rd party controllers
haning off the PCI bus on the main board. This often results in PCI bus
saturation and I guarantee that this will cause pops and clicks in your
audio. The Delta 1010 card is particularly susceptable to this, so you need
to be careful in your Motherboard selection, especially if you run SATA
drives.

To figure out your IRQ assignments in Win XP, go to Accessories|System
Tools|System Information, expand out "Hardware Resources" and click on
"IRQs". What IRQ is the delta running, and is it shared with anything else?
I'm assuming that you are running XP.

The advice about running your PC in "Standard PC" mode is only good if you
have an older I/O PIC as your interrupt controller. If your system has (and
probably will if it's a late model AMD board) an I/O APIC, you should be
running in ACPI mode to get better distribution of IRQ resources.

If minimising/maximising/opening/closing windows adds to the clicks, try
this...
Go to "System" from your control panel, click on the "Advanced" tab and then
click on the settings button in the "Perfomance" area at the top. On the
"Visual Effects" tab choose the "Adjust for best performance" radio button.
This will cause Windows to look ugly, but you will know straigt away if
fades and animations are playing a part in your audio problems. Don't
worry, you can turn a lot of the features back on later to make windows
pretty again, just leaving out the animations and fades.

Owen, please feel free to email me privately at
and I will try to help you. I have
gone through the pain of clicky audio with the Delta 1010 an other cards, so
I feel your pain!

Cheers,
Bill Ruys.

"Owen Shiers" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated

Bill Ruys wrote:
Hi Owen. IT is my day job, recoding my weekend passion. I think I can
probably help you, but I need some info...

What Motherboard/chipset are you running?
What type of hard-drives? IDE or SATA?
What if any network card do you have?
Are you running any wireless network cards?

Many of the early generation PCs with Serial ATA have 3rd party controllers
haning off the PCI bus on the main board. This often results in PCI bus
saturation and I guarantee that this will cause pops and clicks in your
audio. The Delta 1010 card is particularly susceptable to this, so you need
to be careful in your Motherboard selection, especially if you run SATA
drives.

To figure out your IRQ assignments in Win XP, go to Accessories|System
Tools|System Information, expand out "Hardware Resources" and click on
"IRQs". What IRQ is the delta running, and is it shared with anything else?
I'm assuming that you are running XP.

The advice about running your PC in "Standard PC" mode is only good if you
have an older I/O PIC as your interrupt controller. If your system has (and
probably will if it's a late model AMD board) an I/O APIC, you should be
running in ACPI mode to get better distribution of IRQ resources.

If minimising/maximising/opening/closing windows adds to the clicks, try
this...
Go to "System" from your control panel, click on the "Advanced" tab and then
click on the settings button in the "Perfomance" area at the top. On the
"Visual Effects" tab choose the "Adjust for best performance" radio button.
This will cause Windows to look ugly, but you will know straigt away if
fades and animations are playing a part in your audio problems. Don't
worry, you can turn a lot of the features back on later to make windows
pretty again, just leaving out the animations and fades.


can you suggest some budget MB's that don't have this SATAturation
problem? I really like Abit and Soyo for price/performance. Tks!

Jonny Durango

Bad news I'm afraid. I took off all non critical processes in task
manager, and the situation did improve, and I can run Cubase for maybe
five minutes without a pop or click, but it's still just about there.
I can't help feeling that I'm missing something that's sucking major
CPU power. When I did open task manager with Cubase running, all hell
broke loose and I had **** loads of clicks and pops...it's most
strange.

Here's a pic of my IRQs: (does this look right)

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/irq.JPG

I'll get back to you guys tomorrow with more details (i.e.
motherboard, cpu etc)

I'm using XP, as most of youy have guesssed.

Cheers

Owen

"Bill Ruys" wrote in message ...
Hi Owen. IT is my day job, recoding my weekend passion. I think I can
probably help you, but I need some info...

What Motherboard/chipset are you running?
What type of hard-drives? IDE or SATA?
What if any network card do you have?
Are you running any wireless network cards?

Many of the early generation PCs with Serial ATA have 3rd party controllers
haning off the PCI bus on the main board. This often results in PCI bus
saturation and I guarantee that this will cause pops and clicks in your
audio. The Delta 1010 card is particularly susceptable to this, so you need
to be careful in your Motherboard selection, especially if you run SATA
drives.

To figure out your IRQ assignments in Win XP, go to Accessories|System
Tools|System Information, expand out "Hardware Resources" and click on
"IRQs". What IRQ is the delta running, and is it shared with anything else?
I'm assuming that you are running XP.

The advice about running your PC in "Standard PC" mode is only good if you
have an older I/O PIC as your interrupt controller. If your system has (and
probably will if it's a late model AMD board) an I/O APIC, you should be
running in ACPI mode to get better distribution of IRQ resources.

If minimising/maximising/opening/closing windows adds to the clicks, try
this...
Go to "System" from your control panel, click on the "Advanced" tab and then
click on the settings button in the "Perfomance" area at the top. On the
"Visual Effects" tab choose the "Adjust for best performance" radio button.
This will cause Windows to look ugly, but you will know straigt away if
fades and animations are playing a part in your audio problems. Don't
worry, you can turn a lot of the features back on later to make windows
pretty again, just leaving out the animations and fades.

Owen, please feel free to email me privately at
and I will try to help you. I have
gone through the pain of clicky audio with the Delta 1010 an other cards, so
I feel your pain!

Cheers,
Bill Ruys.

"Owen Shiers" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated

Thanks for the reply. I've disabled all animations and fades
(basically just left on the blue taskbar) but I do get clicks and pops
when I minimise cubase, or open up internet explorer or something.

I also ran Spybot, AdAware and AVG today. They picked up a few minor
things, but it didn't make any difference.

Also, why would my processor say 1.47ghz in My ComputerProperties
when it's a 3 GIG? Is this the motherboard speed or something? I'll
get back with more details tomorrow.

Cheers

Owen

Oh yeah. Also check that none of your hard drives are running in PIO mode.

Bill.

"Bill Ruys" wrote in message
...
Often, sharing an IRQ with the USB controller can be *very bad*. USB
ports tend to do a lot of fragmented traffic. If you go into Device
Manager and expand out "Computer" what does it show? Standard PC or ACPI
PC. If your motherboard has an I/O APIC and your PC is in ACPI mode, you
should have more than 15 IRQ lines. See my screenshot attached...

As you can see, I have IRQ lines greater than 15. This can only be
achieved with a motherboard with an I/O APIC and Windows in ACPI mode. As
a result, my Delta 1010 doesn't have to share an IRQ with anything.

If you have a modern motherboard, and took someone's advice to install
Windows in Standard PC mode, you have been mislead. As I said before, all
modern boards with the I/O APICs need to be in ACPI mode to access all the
extra IRQ lines.

Bill.

"Owen Shiers" wrote in message
om...
Bad news I'm afraid. I took off all non critical processes in task
manager, and the situation did improve, and I can run Cubase for maybe
five minutes without a pop or click, but it's still just about there.
I can't help feeling that I'm missing something that's sucking major
CPU power. When I did open task manager with Cubase running, all hell
broke loose and I had **** loads of clicks and pops...it's most
strange.

Here's a pic of my IRQs: (does this look right)

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/irq.JPG

I'll get back to you guys tomorrow with more details (i.e.
motherboard, cpu etc)

I'm using XP, as most of youy have guesssed.

Cheers

Owen

Lots of good advice here.

Someone in another thread mentioned that clicks and pops can be caused
by inadequate latency settings for PCI devices at the Bios level.
Here's the link

http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/

My Motu HD 192 system is prone to these nasty annoyances too, so I
jumped on this solution hoping for afix. Sadly, it didn't work for me,
but maybe for you.

Harry

Also, why would my processor say 1.47ghz in My ComputerProperties
when it's a 3 GIG? Is this the motherboard speed or something? I'll
get back with more details tomorrow.

Cheers

Sounds like your BIOS has reverted to it's defoult settings. You will
need to reboot into Bios and set the FSB speed and/or multiplier. It's
probably set at 100mhz. This can happen after a bad crash or hardware
swap.

Do you have a video card, or shared video? Shared video causes problems.
Check the video aperture size while in bios, shouldn't be set higher
than 64mb.

Owen Shiers wrote:
"Bill Ruys" wrote in message ...

Hi Owen. IT is my day job, recoding my weekend passion. I think I can
probably help you, but I need some info...

What Motherboard/chipset are you running?
What type of hard-drives? IDE or SATA?
What if any network card do you have?
Are you running any wireless network cards?

Many of the early generation PCs with Serial ATA have 3rd party controllers
haning off the PCI bus on the main board. This often results in PCI bus
saturation and I guarantee that this will cause pops and clicks in your
audio. The Delta 1010 card is particularly susceptable to this, so you need
to be careful in your Motherboard selection, especially if you run SATA
drives.

To figure out your IRQ assignments in Win XP, go to Accessories|System
Tools|System Information, expand out "Hardware Resources" and click on
"IRQs". What IRQ is the delta running, and is it shared with anything else?
I'm assuming that you are running XP.

The advice about running your PC in "Standard PC" mode is only good if you
have an older I/O PIC as your interrupt controller. If your system has (and
probably will if it's a late model AMD board) an I/O APIC, you should be
running in ACPI mode to get better distribution of IRQ resources.

If minimising/maximising/opening/closing windows adds to the clicks, try
this...
Go to "System" from your control panel, click on the "Advanced" tab and then
click on the settings button in the "Perfomance" area at the top. On the
"Visual Effects" tab choose the "Adjust for best performance" radio button.
This will cause Windows to look ugly, but you will know straigt away if
fades and animations are playing a part in your audio problems. Don't
worry, you can turn a lot of the features back on later to make windows
pretty again, just leaving out the animations and fades.

Owen, please feel free to email me privately at
and I will try to help you. I have
gone through the pain of clicky audio with the Delta 1010 an other cards, so
I feel your pain!

Cheers,
Bill Ruys.

"Owen Shiers" wrote in message
.com...

Hi, I've been having a huge clicking/popping problem with my PC.
Before I blabber on, here's what I have
AMD 3GIG
512MB RAM
80G HDD (for audio)
40G HDD (for windows)
Delta 1010 (rack version)
Cubase SX 2.

It suddenly started after Christmas, initially I thought it was
graphics related, as there would be a click every time I zoomed in and
out in Cubase, or maximised/minimised a seperate window while keeping
Cubase running. Of course, there was also the clicking whilst
recording which was soemtimes being captured in the recording, and
sometimes during playback.

I was getting really ****ed off after about a month, so I ordered a
new graphics card, which did nothing to remedy the problem. I then
re-formatted, which I thought had done the trick, and since then the
problem has been slightly better, but it's still there, nagging away.
Decreasing the graphics resolution to 16 bit helped somewhat, but I
shouldn't have to do that with a Radeon 9600 256MB.

Here's what I've tried:
Changing the buffer (obviously)
Disabled system restore + auto updates
Changed processor scheduling to background services
Maximised the swap file
I know it's not something external like a heater or a light.
Updating the Delta 1010 drivers.
Checked IRQ, I can't see the PCI card for the Delta101 listed at
startup, I don't think it's sharing anyway.

Any ideas would be appreciated


Thanks for the reply. I've disabled all animations and fades
(basically just left on the blue taskbar) but I do get clicks and pops
when I minimise cubase, or open up internet explorer or something.

I also ran Spybot, AdAware and AVG today. They picked up a few minor
things, but it didn't make any difference.

Also, why would my processor say 1.47ghz in My ComputerProperties
when it's a 3 GIG? Is this the motherboard speed or something? I'll
get back with more details tomorrow.

Cheers

Owen

Wow, that's definately a BIOS issue....I would follow jackfish's
suggestions and also disable any onboard sound. It sounds like you may
have tracked down the problem.

Jonny Durango

"Jonny Durango" wrote

Wow, that's definately a BIOS issue....I would follow jackfish's
suggestions and also disable any onboard sound. It sounds like you may
have tracked down the problem.

Or try a different sound card that might not have a BIOS issue. Maybe Echo?

Julian

jackfish wrote in message ...

Also, why would my processor say 1.47ghz in My ComputerProperties
when it's a 3 GIG? Is this the motherboard speed or something? I'll
get back with more details tomorrow.

Cheers

Sounds like your BIOS has reverted to it's defoult settings. You will
need to reboot into Bios and set the FSB speed and/or multiplier. It's
probably set at 100mhz. This can happen after a bad crash or hardware
swap.

Do you have a video card, or shared video? Shared video causes problems.
Check the video aperture size while in bios, shouldn't be set higher
than 64mb.

No, it's not a BIOS issue (I did think it might be this originally)
it's set at auto and says it's running at 3Ghz. I'll open up my PC
this afternoon and jot down the brands of CPU, RAM, motherboard etc.

Right, here's some more details that I've gathered from looking at the
chips

CHIP

AMD Athlon Mobile 1700 - 1.47Ghz
Thoroughbred Core
L2 Cache - 256KB

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/screen.jpg

Does this mean the actual speed of the chip is 1.47ghz? In the CPU
section of the BIOS I have:

CPU 3000A+ (Note: this section is un-editable)
DRAM Frequency Auto

MOTHERBOARD

Model M825 v7.2c
Motherboard Chip: VIA VT8235

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/ch...bridge/vt8235/

GRAPHICS CARD

Radeon 9250 256MB AGP (running dual monitors)

SOUND CARD

M-Audio Delta 1010 (driver version 5.10.00.0048)

Operating System: Windows XP Professinal (With SP2)

Here are some of my BIOS (AMI Bios 686) settings which I thought might
be relevant:

Plug and Play Aware O/S Yes
Share Memory Size None (I presume this is the inbuilt
graphics card)
Primary Graphics Adapter AGP
Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA Yes
PCI IDE Busmaster Disabled
------------------------------------
AGP Mode 4x
AGP Comp Driving Auto
Manual AGP Comp Driving CB
AGP Aperture Size 64mb
-------------------------------------
On board FDC Enabled
On board setial port A 378h/COM1
On board IR Port Disabled
On board parallel port 378h
Parallel Port mode EPP + ECP
Parallel Port IRQ 7
Parallel Port DMA 3

Here's a table of my IRQs

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/irq.jpeg

-I have disabled the inbuilt graphics and modem.
-I'm using the inbuilt network card.
-I don't see how changing the PC to run in standard mode will help,
considering the PC is only a year old.
-Windows XP is in its own seperate partition (10GB) and my audio +
Cubase are allocated to a second 80GB drive. Both drives are on
seperate IDE channels to the CD-Roms and are running in DMA mode. Both
drives are IDE.
-I'm not running any wireless network cards.
-System has been adjusted for best performace
-System restore is disabled
-XP Firewall + System updates are disabled
-AVG, Spybot and Ad Aware all come back clean

I have not tried this link:
http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/
yet, but I can only see it affecting my soundcard, considering the
graphics card is in the AGP slot.

Right, I think that covers everything. Any help as always will be
gratefully appreciated.

Owen

Owen Shiers wrote:
Right, here's some more details that I've gathered from looking at
the
chips

CHIP

AMD Athlon Mobile 1700 - 1.47Ghz
Thoroughbred Core
L2 Cache - 256KB

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/screen.jpg

Does this mean the actual speed of the chip is 1.47ghz? In the CPU
section of the BIOS I have:

CPU 3000A+ (Note: this section is un-editable)
DRAM Frequency Auto

MOTHERBOARD

Model M825 v7.2c
Motherboard Chip: VIA VT8235

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/ch...bridge/vt8235/

GRAPHICS CARD

Radeon 9250 256MB AGP (running dual monitors)

SOUND CARD

M-Audio Delta 1010 (driver version 5.10.00.0048)

Operating System: Windows XP Professinal (With SP2)

Here are some of my BIOS (AMI Bios 686) settings which I thought
might
be relevant:

Plug and Play Aware O/S Yes
Share Memory Size None (I presume this is the inbuilt
graphics card)
Primary Graphics Adapter AGP
Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA Yes
PCI IDE Busmaster Disabled
------------------------------------
AGP Mode 4x
AGP Comp Driving Auto
Manual AGP Comp Driving CB
AGP Aperture Size 64mb
-------------------------------------
On board FDC Enabled
On board setial port A 378h/COM1
On board IR Port Disabled
On board parallel port 378h
Parallel Port mode EPP + ECP
Parallel Port IRQ 7
Parallel Port DMA 3

Here's a table of my IRQs

http://www.theshiers.plus.com/irq.jpeg

-I have disabled the inbuilt graphics and modem.
-I'm using the inbuilt network card.

Did you try disabling the network card ( or connection) before
recording? I found that having an open network connection whilst
recording can also cause clicks and pops.
Do check the knowledge base on the m-audio site, there is a lot of info
on there.
I changed my computer to standard mode because someone told me that
m-audio cards prefer this mode.
Regards,
David Caswell


-I don't see how changing the PC to run in standard mode will help,
considering the PC is only a year old.
-Windows XP is in its own seperate partition (10GB) and my audio +
Cubase are allocated to a second 80GB drive. Both drives are on
seperate IDE channels to the CD-Roms and are running in DMA mode.
Both
drives are IDE.
-I'm not running any wireless network cards.
-System has been adjusted for best performace
-System restore is disabled
-XP Firewall + System updates are disabled
-AVG, Spybot and Ad Aware all come back clean

I have not tried this link:
http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/
yet, but I can only see it affecting my soundcard, considering the
graphics card is in the AGP slot.

Right, I think that covers everything. Any help as always will be
gratefully appreciated.

Owen

XP is in its own seperate partition (10GB) and my audio +
Cubase are allocated to a second 80GB drive. Both drives are on
seperate IDE channels to the CD-Roms and are running in DMA mode. Both
drives are IDE.

doesn't the application and it's operating system need to be on the
same partition/drive???

this is how I set up my audio,,,seperate partition with stripped down
OS tweaked for audio with audio software only loaded on it with no
internet usage when using audio app's.

dale

"dale" wrote in message roups.com...
XP is in its own seperate partition (10GB) and my audio +
Cubase are allocated to a second 80GB drive. Both drives are on
seperate IDE channels to the CD-Roms and are running in DMA mode. Both
drives are IDE.

doesn't the application and it's operating system need to be on the
same partition/drive???

this is how I set up my audio,,,seperate partition with stripped down
OS tweaked for audio with audio software only loaded on it with no
internet usage when using audio app's.

dale

I don't think so. It was on the same drive before and I still had the
popping problem. I tried disabling the network card, that did nothing.
I did have a bit more success with disabling AVG and all its
processes, I managed to run Cubase happily for half and hour without
any clicks whatsoever. If someone could please answer my question
about my chip - is it actually a 3 gig?

Cheers

Owen

"dale" wrote

doesn't the application and it's operating system need to be on the
same partition/drive???

no

Ok - latest update. I think the problem was AVG. This would tie in, as
they brought a newer version out around the same time the problem
started happening. I know it's a really obvious thing, but even after
quitting AVG, it still leaves 3 processes running - which were
evidently causing popping + clicking. I'm considering emailing AVG and
informing them.

I have two further questions if anyone is willing to answer:
With regards to my chip (AMD Athlon Mobile 1700 - 1.47Ghz). I was told
it was a 3GIG chip (is the 1.47Ghz another speed?)
Also, I have a Focusrite Twin Trak Pro running though SPDIF into my
Delta 1010, do I leave the wordclock as internal in the delta 1010
settings, or does the Twin Trak need to be set to master, and the
Delta 1010 slave?

Cheers

Owen