IN New Dell Precision problem with Cubase and RME UFX

Hi.

I bought a new computer for the studio. The computer is Dell Preciosion i7 9th Gen, 32 G ram and 2 x ssd. The operating system is Windows 10 Pro.

I installed the ASIO drivers for my RMe UFX and Cubase 10.

I enabled a small session (only 12 audio tracks and 3 plugins) to be able to configure the studio for a new computer.
While playing the session, CPU related crackles (“average load” and “real-time peak”) appear from time to time. This should not happen with such a computer and such a small audio session. I have the ASIO drivers from RME installed. In Cubase aduio setup set correctly. Buffer size 256. Everything seems to be well set …
Why is this happening?

Thank you

Have you tried something like this?
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Shows, where the internal bottleneck could be. Often network and graphic cards.

Thank you for your help. I will check my system.

I don’t know if I will be able to analyze the results … :wink:

I did the test but I can’t analyze it…unfortunately

CONCLUSION


Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:03:12 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

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SYSTEM INFORMATION


OS version: Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 18363 (x64)
Hardware: Precision 7540, Dell Inc., 0T2FXT
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core™ i7-9850H CPU @ 2.60GHz
Logical processors: 12
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 32522 MB total

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CPU SPEED


Reported CPU speed: 2592 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.


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MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES


The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 15070,50
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 16,178741

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 15059,10
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 6,159348

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REPORTED ISRs


Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 224,364969
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ACPI.sys - Sterownik ACPI dla systemu NT, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,007272
Driver with highest ISR total time: ACPI.sys - Sterownik ACPI dla systemu NT, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,011779

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 7032
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

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REPORTED DPCs


DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 15017,692130
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dddriver64Dcsa.sys - Dell Diags Universal Device Driver, Dell Inc.

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,029824
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Aparat wykonawczy struktury sterowników trybu jądra, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,105240

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 125707
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 1087
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 27
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 11
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

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REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS


Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 122
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 41
Number of processes hit: 15

Well, maybe some nerdy computer guys may chime in here!

What I can read out of it is that your CPU doesn’t run as fast as it could. Maybe some speed step setting in BIOS can help (deactivate energy saving to not throttle it down).

The ISRs and DPCs might be interesting.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 15017,692130
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dddriver64Dcsa.sys - Dell Diags Universal Device Driver, Dell Inc.

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,029824
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Aparat wykonawczy struktury sterowników trybu jądra, Microsoft Corporation

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 224,364969
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ACPI.sys - Sterownik ACPI dla systemu NT, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,007272
Driver with highest ISR total time: ACPI.sys - Sterownik ACPI dla systemu NT, Microsoft Corporation

That ‘Sterownik’ thing seems to cause real time troubles. Seems like it is some low level hardware management, so maybe try a BIOS update and also look for the latest mobo/chipset drivers. Maybe that helps.

Interesting problem, seeming to do with hardware communication and power management. There’s an old forum thread (win7 2015) that seems to implicate the Dell-specific DDDriver64Dcsa.sys driver. It seems you can disable it and that helps a lot.