Dropuots i cannot solve

Steinberg Hardware
1

Hi,
My computer is dell studio 1747
cpu: i7 920qm
ram 4.0 GB
graphic: Radeon HD4650
win 7 x64

the build in firewire doesn’t work at all, the soundcard come and goes without doing anything.
I’ve disabled the internal firewire through device manager.
i had a VIA firewire express card, it work worked with the generic win 7 driver.
the dropouts iv’e got with it was about 15% of total playback.
after trying everything i have decided that the problem was my firewire card.
i bought a new TI firewire express card,
When i plugged it in windows automatically installed its TI build in driver.
then the dropouts become 50% of the total playback which was horrible.
I have changed the driver into generic legacy and now it 5% dropouts which is much better but still,
I’m working live and i must got 0% dropouts.

i’ve tried 8 different firewire cables, iv’e tried resetting the MR816, i’ve tried reinstall cubase without any plugins and nothing workes
Where is my problem?
Thanks

2

The problem is the MR816 is far too sensitive. Take it back to the shop and exchange it for a device more likely to work.

3

Hi,

please update your BIOS Firmware for your Dell- Laptop. If necessary ask the Dell- Support- Team for further information how to update your BIOS.

After updating your BIOS, please deactivate your Wlan/ Wifi/ Blutooth in the Windows device manager or in your BIOS.

Run the DPC- Latency Checker tool.

Now it should run perfect with a short latency.

4
  1. i updated my bios yesterday, no effect.
  2. wifi, bluetooth and everything i’m not using is disabled.
  3. DPC results are Ok.
  4. i do not have any latency problems, even when i set it to maximum latency i still have dropouts.
  5. i’ve noticed something strange, touching the function keys to change the LCD brightness automatically cause dropouts, very strange.

Please any more ideas?

5

Hi again,

maybe there is a problem with your laptop. The problem with the lcd- brightness let me suspect something is bad with your laptop.
Please contact in this case the Dell- Support for further information.

Normally after the BIOS- Update there shouldn’t be anymore dropouts, especially if you are using a TI- Firewire Card. :exclamation:

6

I had endless problems with Dell laptops and firewire interfaces (not just MR series, just about everything I tried), and basically, I came to the conclusion that consumer laptops will not cut it for real-time audio work. I even bought their more professional line (Latitude and Precision), which had better results, but still not quite the latency I had hoped for. I tried everything, different models, then to different brands, etc… in the end I ended up buying a DAW-tuned laptop which had a custom BIOS and OS tweaks tuned for real-time audio. It was worth it… my real-time audio performance is now basically as good as I can hope for on a laptop. It’s still not to the level of my dedicated tower workstation (of course!), but it’s definitely totally usable live at low latencies without a single glitch.

Good luck getting the Dell going – generally, I really like Dell, but not for pro audio. Especially real-time stuff. Your problems are almost certainly related to the BIOS and chipsets chosen for the model of laptop you’ve purchased.