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Tópico: Dell Studio laptops ***Warning*** - Page: 7

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It should be able to, mine does, although obviously mines a different spec and I'm using a Firewire sound card.

You will probably need to try and track down the cause for your excessive latency - KernRate and RATTv3 are useful Microsoft utilities for this. I was going to produce a guide, but I really haven't had time.

Could well be your video card drivers though, mine was. You could try updating them - my M1730 was able to uses nVidia's reference drivers, which opened up the options a bit. Plenty available on LaptopVideo2Go as well.
 
Try disabling one of the processors via the Vista MSCONFIG/ Boot tab / Advanced button
I was having problems (latency I think on my Dell Inspiron ) using the BCD3000 by behringer. Their forums were saying freezes (caused by latency) was due to an incompatibility with dual procesors, and their software

Who knows right?
DJ Groove D
Okinawa Japan
 
SBDJ, what sound card do you use? I have been using Hercules DJ console mk2 and updated firmware and drivers. How do you connect your firewire sound card? Does it work like DJ Console mk2? Can I get the specks on your xps maybe I can convince Dell to get me a laptop like yours.

Thanks for your help.
 
gvmusic wrote :
SBDJ, what sound card do you use?


Ecler Evo 5

gvmusic wrote :
How do you connect your firewire sound card? Does it work like DJ Console mk2?


I plug it into the firewire port ;)

It's the DJConsole on steroids, a full blown audio/midi mixer.

gvmusic wrote :
Can I get the specks on your xps maybe I can convince Dell to get me a laptop like yours.


Dell XPS M1730
2.8GHz Core2Extreme (X7900 I think, it's now available with the X9000)
4Gb DDR2-800 RAM
2xnVidia 8800GTX
2xSATA2 250Gb Drives
Ageia PhysX (not relevant for VDJ)

Along with the other usual components, wireless, bluetooth, backlit keyboard etc...
 
I've got a Dell XFR (Lattitue D630 with armor) I use with a Hercules RMX and Denon HD-2500 (need to install the latter on that machine still actually). The built in sound card was banging my latency. Had to disable that through XP since no option for it in BIOS. Try that if you haven't (I know you said you disabled everything, just suggesting one last item to check).

I've even got the setup running on an MSI Wind. Had to disable Wireless on that little guy.
 
I called dell on this issue, they took me through a series of steps and even remoted into my laptop. They couldn't find why....Sooo I thought about configuring VirtualDj. I noticed that the latency spikes were pretty much in the 4000us to 8000us range with an occasional spike outside that range. I configured the performance of VirtualDj in the Sound Card setting I set the Latency to 1024 (24ms). In the Scratch I set to optimize for Latency. So far I've been running with these settings for about a month. It's been a whole lot better. I can't use my RMX though, but my Numark DMC2 work just fine. Until I can save for another laptop, it'll do...

Dj Lance
www.djlance.com
www.nervedjs.com
 
If someone has a chance and a spare HD they can use to test so it doesn't destroy their current setup, it might be worth trying a little experiment - load a fresh copy of XP with *no* extra drivers, and run DPC latency check.

If it's good then load new drivers one by one, rebooting after each one and running a latency check.

If it's bad with a fresh copy of XP then it's more likely to be an issue either with the BIOS, or with how an actual piece of hardware is behaving. At that point, you could disable every bit of hardware possible in the BIOS and try the DPC check again.
 
As I mentioned above about shutting down a processor. Testing seemed to reduce the latency, however slowing my laptop down to single 2.0Ghz speeds. The audio freezes were seriously diminished, with the exception of things that use video (screensaver, winamp's visualizations etc) in conjunction with the VDJ and my hardware caused an immediate pause. i been scouring the net in forums and stuff, coming up with a vague hypothesis, that the dual processors (especially lap tops with all the hardware integration) sometimes cause video skips, sound burps, etc due to one core handling all those requests with the other doing things and (lamens terms) running on the same highway. As wierd as it may sound. I still believe that low latency softwares,and hardwares drastically exploit this problem. Its is definately a problem that the average computer user will never run into. who knows try it unless youre using XP (not sure if you can shut off a processor like in vista)
 
.:: UPDATE ::.
I also disabled the Dell's video card in the Device Manager. Ran the Latency checker, and WOW! what a difference! Only now screen is super ugly, and i can only use the low screen size VDJ skins
 
Right I am now firmly in the same boat as the rest of you lot.

I've got a Dell XPS M1730 and I'm having the same latency spike issues.

I'm still getting to grips with all the bells and whistles of this new laptop so not sure what I can switch off and what is going on in general.

Good to know that some of you have managed to solve the problem though.

My system:

XPS M1730 CORE 2 DUO T9300 2.50GHz,800,6M
17.0" UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife with 2.0MP Web camera
4GB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 2G)
Hard Drive 500GB Free Fall Sensor RAID 0 Stripe - 2 X 250GB (7200rpm)
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software - XP Only
DUAL SLI 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GTX card
Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-PCI Card, EUR
European - Dell TrueMobile 355 internal Bluetooth Module
Operating System : English (Downgrade) Genuine Windows Vista SP1 Business to XP Pro SP3

I am using The Hercules mk2 and two technics 1210's.

So I have got the DPC latency checker and I am getting red spikes regularly.

I tried updating the video drivers as SBDJ says above by downloading from LaptopVideo2Go. Doesn't seem to have made any difference. SBDJ can you elaborate on what you did here as it seemed to work for you...

I also downloaded the kernrate application but I don't really understand it or haven't opened it up correctly. Sorry this level of investigation is a little new to me.

Can't believe that I should need to shut down all the stuff that I paid good money for to run this software normally...
 
I'll dig out the exact details on what I have installed driverwise on my system :)

It was definately the video card drivers though...
 
I've installed what looked like the latest driver from that site:

185.20
 
I doubt I used the latest; in fact I can't even remember where I got the driver I'm using from. I'll boot the gig machine up later and check.
 
Right then. Exciting/annoying developments.



The latency checker to the left of the screen is with me running Virtual Dj cueing tracks etc. The I switched off the Sigmatel audi onboard soundcard and the latency was greatly reduced with no more spikes etc.

Great!

Well sort of...

The problem I now have is that I broadcast on the internet radio every Monday night at 6pm Uk time. The Herc mk2 has no preamp on its mic input and so I need to use the laptop onboard soundcard to get a decent mic level input.

One step forward two steps back...
 
So I had to broadcast my show the other night with the onboard soundcard turned off to reduce latency. This meant that I had no microphone which is pretty annoying really as it is an integral part of my show.

The sound was ok without the clicks or stutters I had last week however when I tried to cue up a track from a cd all hell broke loose. The track playing out on air stuttered horribly and in the end I had to load another mp3 onto that deck instead as it was unbearable.

Now with my old laptop with 5 year old specs I could load up cd's or mp3's while broadcasting without any problems. I've paid a lot of money for this laptop and now I'm getting a bit annoyed.

Any of you Dell guys had this problem?

Can't believe I am having to limit what processes I use with this laptop which is essentially a beast in terms of power.
 
Some CD drives have that problem unfortunately. Often Dells are supplied throughout the course of their life with different models of optical drive - might be worth checking for a different type. What make/model is it? Sometimes a firmware is available for them from the Dell website.

Soundcard, again check the drivers - but I do know for I fact I run with mine disabled too because it caused spikes for me as well.
 
According to the device manager its a: TSSTcorp DVD+RW TS-L632H
 
There have been a few firmware updates for that drive, nothing that jumps out as causing an issue - except maybe the AHCI fix if you are using that. Interesting comment on the RME forum:

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4319

Quote :
I didn't read your thread, but did you try removing the DVD drive? Dell has been known to replace the DPC causing TSST-corp DVD drives with NEC drives if you complain enough. (iirc)


That also links to:

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3873

Seems they are big fans of the Dell Studio line too!
 
Ok I've installed a firmware update for the cd drive. Hope that works. That thread doesn't make me hopeful.

Hmm I'm regretting buying this laptop now.
 
That thread is about the Studio laptops, not the M1730, but yes Dells can be very very hit and miss...
 
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