Hope someone here can help. I'll try to give as detailed a description as to
the problem and what I've done so far as I can, while trying to keep it concise
as possible:

I'm running CubaseSX on WindowsXP, it installed like a dream & was running
glitchless for quite some time until recently when the following things
happened:

1.) When I open up a project, it only plays on the left channel, until I change
the latency settings (the interface is a Nuendo-branded RME Audiolink96
Multisets); I can change the latency settings to ANYTHING and I get both
channels, however at lower latencies I now get clicks & pops (whereas before I
would not - It ran 100% clean), and at the highest latency it runs pretty
clean, but I'm still 99.9% certain I can hear an intermittent click/pop, but at
much lesser volume.

2.) Nothing has changed in my hardware or software between the time this was
working & the time I started having problems - this appears to be a "random"
problem that just showed up recently. I know it can't trutly be random as there
has to be some reason behind it, but again, nothing has changed.

Here's what Iv'e done so far:

1.) Called Swineberg support, which, IMO, was about as big of a waste of time
as I've ever experienced... the guy just told me that I shouldn't be able to
run that many tracks (34 to 42, depending on the song) at that high of a
sampling rate (88.2k), period; and that was my problem.


2.) Defragged EVERYTHING (both system & audio drives), no change.

3.) Reinstalled CubaseSX (over the current version), no joy.

4.) Downloaded the most current drivers (dated June6th, IIRC) from the
Swineberg website, along with the flash update from that same site, and
installed both... nothing improved.

5.) Reinstalled WindowsXP from the CD over the current install... I didn't want
to format the HD right away, so I tried this first, nothing changed in the
performance.

6.) Since I had also been getting DirectX errors before the WinXP full
reinstall, I decided tonight to try updating DirectX from Microsoft's website
(the errors I had been getting said there's 'no active DirectX port available'
when I ran the diagnostics on the CubaseSX Full Duplex DirectX setup), so I
just downloaded the most recent version of DirectX 9.0 & installed that...
still the same - no changes or improvements. NOTE: It was my understanding that
the RME Audiolink drivers bypassed Windoze DirectX, and this shouldn't make any
difference, but I thought I should try it anyway since the other items above
didn't work. Bottom line: it didn't make anything worse, but it also didn't
help.

So, here's what I hope someone can help me with...

a.) Can you tell me if this seems to be a software problem or a hardware
problem?
b.) If it's a software problem, should I just format the HD completely & try a
brand-new install of WinXP & SX, etc?
c.) If it's a hardware problem, what you think it is (processor going bad? Mobo
starting to go south on me? RME Interface screwed up somehow?).
d.) If it's a complete ****ing mystery, can you recommend someone who I can
ship this whole thing off to for diagnosis & repair?

Here's the system:

-CubaseSX running on WinXP.
-AthlonXP1800 running at 1.4 gig (in overclocked mode).
-2x Sticks of 512 meg RAM.
-2x Western Digiblah 40 gig HD with the 8 Meg cache (1 for the system & apps,
and 1 for the audio files).
-RME/Nuendo Audiolink96 interface.
-Lotsa fans... it's not a heat problem, I don't think... the CPU runs within
it's recommended temperature parameters, at least.

Bottom line summary: Everything is tracked at 88.2k/24-bit.. used to play fine
with no glitches, now it does what I described above.

I'd sure appreciate it if anyone can help. Thanks a lot!

Neil Henderson

Hey Neil, 2 questions:

1. Have you posted at the Cubase Forum?

Hey Bill! No I haven't because the one time I posted there awhile back it was
pretty damn useless & I ended up figuring out the problem myself before I got
even one response (we're talking like a week here before anyone even responded
with some half-assed answer about nothing relevant to my situation anyways)...
I don't even remember what it was now, but it was some minor issue not
affecting operation. This seems fairly complex, and I wouldn't want to pose
this question there, for obvious reasons, based on past experience.

2. There was a thread there recently reporting that some users have
experienced more CPU usage with 1.06 than with 1.05, running the same
project. 10 - 15 % less. Not all users have experienced this. Apparently it
is caused by more crash protections being written into it.

I'm still running 1.01 because I've noticed discussions that infer that 1.03 &
the next couple of patches seem to have some serious problems. This same
SX-1.01 was the version that was running fine until recently.

As a suggestion, could you reduce some of the less important or
predominantly low freq tracks to 44.1 (the kick and bass for instance)? I
don't know if that is possible, but I believe it should be.

Well, I suppose that's not a bad idea in principle, but... A.) you can't run
different sample rates in the same project - it's going to ask you which sample
rate you want to convert to (remember, different sample rates also equal
different playback speed/pitch if in the same project) and... B.) that wouldn't
fix it, since all of a sudden when I started to track my newest project, I
noticed the clicks & pops happening with the very first track... when I checked
past projects that had played back just fine before, they were doing the
clicking-popping thing too.

Damn f*&%^kin' DAW's.

A 2-inch, a 2-inch! My KINGDOM for a 2"!!!! lol

Neil

Neil,
Have you tried posting to the RME newsgroup? They are very helpful
over there. The company staff are very involved in the newsgroup and they
usually solve issues like this. Very nice people too:-))

No I wasn't aware RME had their own NG... do you happen to have a link handy?
If not, I'll search it out, and thanks for the tip!

NeilH

"NeilH011" wrote in message
...
No I wasn't aware RME had their own NG... do you happen to have a link
handy?
If not, I'll search it out, and thanks for the tip!


It's here on the website http://www.rme-audio.com/

Here is the page with the link for the newsgroup.
http://www.rme-audio.de/english/info/index.htm

Hope you get your problem fixed!!

--litepipe

NeilH011 ) wrote:

1.) When I open up a project, it only plays on the left channel, until I change
the latency settings (the interface is a Nuendo-branded RME Audiolink96
Multisets); I can change the latency settings to ANYTHING and I get both
channels, however at lower latencies I now get clicks & pops (whereas before I
would not - It ran 100% clean), and at the highest latency it runs pretty
clean, but I'm still 99.9% certain I can hear an intermittent click/pop, but at
much lesser volume.

Is the system always on? Try completely powering off the system, let it
sit for an hour, then power it back on, and test at low latencies.


2.) Nothing has changed in my hardware or software between the time this was
working & the time I started having problems - this appears to be a "random"
problem that just showed up recently. I know it can't trutly be random as there
has to be some reason behind it, but again, nothing has changed.

Something changed, but point taken -- you didn't intentionally/knowingly
change anything. For future reference, the use of a utility like Ghost
would have been helpful in determining if it was a software change that
is causing the problem.

3.) Reinstalled CubaseSX (over the current version), no joy.

Maybe [or maybe not] better to have tried an uninstall, then reinstall.

5.) Reinstalled WindowsXP from the CD over the current install... I didn't want
to format the HD right away, so I tried this first, nothing changed in the
performance.

Got a spare/old drive? Ghost could also be useful here.

6.) Since I had also been getting DirectX errors before the WinXP full
reinstall, I decided tonight to try updating DirectX from Microsoft's website
(the errors I had been getting said there's 'no active DirectX port available'
when I ran the diagnostics on the CubaseSX Full Duplex DirectX setup), so I
just downloaded the most recent version of DirectX 9.0 & installed that...
still the same - no changes or improvements. NOTE: It was my understanding that
the RME Audiolink drivers bypassed Windoze DirectX, and this shouldn't make any
difference,

Under Devices|DeviceSetup|VST Multitrack, what do you have selected for
the ASIO Driver? The best candidate is specific to the card, e.g. with
the RME/Multiface that would be "ASIO Hammerfall DSP" (and not "ASIO
DirectX..." or "ASIO Multimedia...").

-AthlonXP1800 running at 1.4 gig (in overclocked mode).

Have you tried running it at spec?

-2x Western Digiblah 40 gig HD with the 8 Meg cache (1 for the system & apps,

Have you confirmed that DMA is enabled for the drives? I seem to recall
anecdotes of it getting spontaneously(?) disabled, though I've never
seen it firsthand. It's also documented that WinXP will downgrade or
disable DMA on a device if it repeatedly runs into certain transfer
errors. Dunno if that's relevant to your situation.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/...e/IDE-DMA.mspx


Also, you might at least try the Cubase Forum again. I wouldn't write
it off as a resource from just one bad experience, especially if it
happened so long ago that you can't remember the specifics. Groups can
be very hit and miss, and populations change. You've come this far,
with good documentation, so it's probably worth a shot. At the very
least it might be a useful addition to their archives for someone that
ends up with similar problems.

Best of luck,
- Brian