Solution for Poor ASIO performance on Laptop (Mains Power)

WaveLab
1

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share a recent experience with an ASIO performance issue.

I was getting a very spikey reading on my ASIO performance monitor within Cubase5 and clicks, pops and slow down on playback of complex projects. I tried a number of things including different ASIO drivers but in the end I found that the problem dissappeared when I plugged my laptop into it’s mains charger.

I’m guessing that even when everything is set to ‘highest performance’, when running on battery this is sometimes not enough! For reference my setup is;

Cubase5 (and Halion Symphonic Orchestra 16bit edition)
Dell Alienware M15x Laptop with Intel Core i7 740QM 1.73 ghz 6mb cache
8gb RAM, onboard Nvidia HD sound chipset.

Hope that helps!

2

INoticed the same thing. Powerplan is on high performance, but if you look closely inside the powerplan you’ll find it differentiates between battery and powerlead.

I can reliably BSOD my laptop if I play guitar hero world tour without powerlead connected :wink:

3

Haha! A man with too much time on his hands! :laughing:

4

Remark: ACPI mode from the battery should be turned off in the device manager of the operating system to avoid dropouts.

Maybe the Steinberg Power scheme already does this?

5

I did have a go with the Steinberg power scheme as well as ‘everything turned all the way up’ but to no avail. Perhaps this sort of thing is dependent on the particular laptop?

I must also say that the project I was using to test this was particularly demanding of ASIO.

6

Hi @ all!

:bulb: Please try to update your Bios- Firmware.

Go to the Dell Support web-page.

:arrow_right: You will find a new Bios from 19/01/2011 Version A9

For further installation information ask the Dell- Alienware Support- Team.
Hopefully that will help you to get a better performance on your laptops.