troubleshooting un-optimised chipset issues

Cubase
,
1

Dear Steinberg,

I am a customer from Australia and I need to be put directly in contact with a Steinberg Manager or higher in regards to issues with your products and obtaining a refund, or you can expect a pleasant surprise from Australian Consumer Rights Department of Fair Trading to deal with.
I need direct contact with Steinberg, not AskNet and not Distributors.

I have been a legitimate customer since Cubase 7 and have also purchased the following Steinberg products:

(1) Cubase 7
(2) Cubase updates 7.5, 8, 8.5
(3) Halion 5
(4) Halion Symphonic Orchestra
(5) Groove Agent 4
(6) Absolute VSTi Collection DL+

(7) CMC-CH Controller (which is irrelevant for this thread but worth mentioning)

Ok, so long story short is that ALL Cubase versions are having serious performance issues to the point of being able to call Cubase non-functional or does not work as advertised.
There are 2 main issues, being:
(1) I receive consistent VST Performance “drop outs” in all of my Cubase projects which cause the program to become unresponsive for a split moment and output a audio artifact glitch sound. This effects recordings and performance and all kinds of things.
(2) The Toolbar Tools, Arrangement Track and Transport Panel are all freezing up and lagging when doing things such as using the Toolbar Tools, Handling any kind of Events and using the Transport controls, these issues easily classifying Cubase as non-functional and does not work as advertised.

Now here are my Computer Specs:

Testing Platform Specs:
OS: Windows 7 64bit
DAW: Cubase Pro 8 v8.0.30.536 (64bit) and v8.5.20 (64bit)
CPU: i7 960 Bloomfield (Turbo & C1E disabled)
Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E x58 Chipset 1366 Socket (BIOS v701)
Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX970 - Driver v373.06 updated to v376.09
RAM: 12GB Corsair Dominator (CMP12GX3M3A1600C9)
HDD: Samsung EVO SSD 1TB (MZ-75E1T0)
Audio Interface: RME Fireface UCX - Driver v1.095 Rev 46
PSU: Corsair AX860 (CP-9020044-AU)
Network Adapter: Intel Gigabit CT PCIe (EXPI9301CT)

Now please understand that I have basically rebuilt the core of my system 3 times over (except for the motherboard) with different hardware and connection combinations but to no avail. These include.

(1) Changed from a Thermaltake 1200W Tough Power PSU to a Corsair AX860 PSU
(2) Changed from a i7950 CPU to a i7960 CPU
(3) Changed from a AMD Radeon HD7970 GPU to a NVIDIA GeForce GTX970 GPU (I have been through several different drivers with each one)
(4) Changed from 12GB Corsair Vengeance RAM to 12GB G.Skill Ripjaws RAM to 12GB Corsair Dominator RAM
(5) Changed HDD from a Western Digital Black to a Samsung EVO SSD
(6) Changed Audio Interface from Presonus AudioBox to RME FireFace UCX (I have tested other interfaces aswell but to keep things simple I will stick to those 2 for the example.)
(7) Changed from onboard LAN to a Intel PCIe LAN card
(8) Replaced my CMOS battery and have tested flashing to the original BIOS version and one of the most recent versions.
(9) I have re-seated all hardware, power and data connection and tried various different cables multiple times.
(10) Reformatting Windows 7 several times over for fresh new testing grounds.

So, moving on. This has lead me to creating my own Youtube channel to start documenting this case.
I have basically gathered up enough evidence proving that my system specs are stable (Memtest86+, Prime95, Check Disk, other various information tools etc) and furthermore I do NOT experience any unexpected behaviour with any other kinds of programs ranging from:

(1) Video rendering / encoding
(2) Ableton Live, FL Studio
(3) PC Games
(4) Stability testing programs


So to keep it short, in conclusion I would like a FULL Refund on every single Steinberg software product I have purchased in my account at stock price costs, and after that I would like you to remove all my Steinberg software licences and close my account.

If you “Steinberg” fail to act accordingly or fail to come to some kind of agreement with me then you can most certainly expect a phone call from Australian Consumer Rights Department of Fair Trading and someone at Steinberg won’t be happy.

Ive waited and waited in hopes the new versions of Cubase and new versions of hardware drivers would eventually resolve these issues as Cubase is my main DAW and I really wan’t to see it succeed, but enough is enough for me now and its time to get my wasted money refunded so I can purchase hardware that actually works and start to use a different DAW as my main Tape recorde. Its time for me to let Cubase go, I am done with it.
You can’t expect someone to upgrade to a brand new $1500 computer platform with every release.

You have been sternly warned, I will be reasonable and allow for sufficient time for a response but I would like this issue to be dealt with in a timely manner please. I am not interested in trying to find a solution with your software products besides a full refund for all Steinberg software in my account.

Please find my Youtube channel Playlists documentation in my signature at the bottom. If there is any further information you need please let me know.

To save time of watching un-necessary videos, here are the videos you should watch in order:

(1) - YouTube
(2) - YouTube
(3) - YouTube
(4) - YouTube
(5) - YouTube
(6) - YouTube
(7) - YouTube

and my Steinberg Cubase v8.5.20 Bugs, Errors & Performance Reporting Playlist, found here:

Thankyou for your time and patience.

2

Good luck with that. Consumer rights orgs don’t care about individual compatibility/configuration issues / missmatches. I had simmilar issues, purchased a new system, problem solved.

3

Australia Consumer Rights Department of Fair Trading is a different beast in itself.

Are you aware of Valve / Steam (Worlds biggest online PC Game retailer ?), well they had to introduce new refund policies specifically for Australia because of things like this.

And please Raphie I do not appreciate the negativity at this point. So if you don’t have anything to contribute towards my case then please don’t.

I need a Steinberg Manager or higher, thanks.

4

It’s your journey, I’m just being realistic. But I wish for the best possible outcome for your endeavour.
Some systems just don’t play nice realtime. You can rootcause them till the cows come home, or just move on to a new system. I’m curious though how this will play out, so I’ll watch developments closely :wink:

The constant factor in your journey is your mainboard. I would go to them for not being able to deliver real time performace

One last tip: if you seriously want to adress steinberg, you do that via their contact info, not on a public forum. No need to make a big sing and dance on a public forum over a potential legal issue, unless you feel there is benefit in doing that?

5

Btw i’ve watched your 10min “performance” video going crazy with the mouse for 10 mins, while looking at windows resource meter, what are you trying to show there? There seems nothing wrong with the cubase performance meter, or windows resource meter than a process causing some overhead every once and while. Perfectly normal.
Is your conplaint that the performance meter doesn’t stay all the way off while going crazy with the mouse?

6

Some systems simply don’t perform well though specs are over the top in theory. I’d first go up with latency, 256 samples (seen in one of the videos) might not be enough when working with a lot of VSTis.

That effect that the playback cursor seems to freeze when mousing over the project window (no sound on the videos, I guess it just freezes optically?) is definately not ‘normal’. Something in the system doesn’t play nice together, seems like there are some components in the machine that are not happy to work together. Hard to say which and why.

Have you tried to set up Cubase on another computer or laptop? Just to see if those weird effects, spikes etc. do happen as well, doesn’t have to be a full install including all plugins and instruments.

7

Laggy mouse is a resource issue, probably 2 IRQ’s conflicting, you can see that easily in device manager.
Some motherboards have serious IRQ sharing ACPI issues. Things might be good in BIOS, but in Windows they get a very unfortunate ACPI mapping, switching slots for cards and switching USB ports is then the only thing you can do.
With these problems you are barking against the wrong tree. I’ve found it out myself, it’s a very finicky process and some boards just don’t play nice.

8

guys please stop it.

Raphie I have already tested every USB port / IRQ combination…why do you think im at this point now.
“Probably a IRQ conflicting” then you say you can clearly see in Device Manager ? Please provide a solution or nothing at all, I don’t wanna hear it.

The point of the videos is documenting observations and thoughts and information purposes leading upto capturing a VST Performance drop out and then Computer stability results. You can call them pointless or useless , but doesn’t change the fact im still experiencing issues.

I would highly recommend for Steinberg to just cut their losses and refund me because they will not be affected by losing 1 customer in their big flashy building.
Im going all the way with this one, I don’t want to support Steinberg anymore. I just want my money back so I can purchase musical related things that actually work.

So once again guys please stay out of this, I need to talk directly to a Steinberg Manager or higher otherwise you can expect to be faced with a Tribunal or Court.

This software is not performing as advertised, it is affecting my music production. I havn’t been able to get anything in and out of cubase because the Performance issues

Ill use Audacity freeware for my DAW if I really have to. This poor product consumerism world needs to come to an end.

9

Not to mention that I do not receive any unexpected performance behaviours with other programs such as Ableton Live, FL Studio etc… which is the real tipping point for me here.

10

If you want other forum users to ignore your issues / thread, then don’t complain on a public forum!? Use your mysteinberg account page to contact the support team directly.

The only one being negative here is you. Whilst I can imagine how frustrating your issues must be for you, being rude to people replying to a public thread on a public forum… you’re not playing nice.

That being said, ever tried to run Cubase without any 3rd party plugins or instruments? Maybe one or two of those are the culprit?

Anyhow, before I get blamed for jumping on a train I don’t belong on, I’ll leave it at that. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your case.

11

Dude your attitude is really missplaced. Threats won’t bring you any further here. But i am willing to help. I had issues myself alot and got them sorted.

This video

Reveals a serious Latency issue with your Computer. I don’t see Cubase running while you measure it. . It indicates The directX Graphics Kernel as the culprit.

You changed alot of Hardware to no avail. The mainboard hasn’t been switch so this in fact could be the culprit. Besides all the Bios adjustments and hardware changes i don’t find any evidence in your posts or Videos that show if you have installed the correct chipset drivers of you mainboard directly from the manufacturer. did you? Did you turn off processor parking? do you run a high performance energy profile for windows and did you turn of USB powersaving?

execute “msinfo32” please and see if there are any IRQ conflicts shown.

I had spikes every second or so on my laptop aswell. When i installed the correct chipset drivers they went away.

12

Hi Novikthewise,

Thankyou for your helpful response.

This is not a threat, this is just a customer who wants their wasted money back. And I am not going to get the correct help through AskNet or Distributors (the people Steinberg try and push support onto.)

Excuse my abruptness but I am past the point of basic troubleshooting that I have tried multiple times and I can tell that Raphie (and I know there will be others) who have not taken the proper time to view or absorb my videos and situation fully as I clearly show my Device Manager in detail in my video - My Windows 7 & BIOS Settings

Just put yourself into my shoes for a minute and imagine that you have been experience workflow breaking issues all the way back since Cubase 7 and I have just sat here patiently in hopes that a new piece of hardware or updated drivers or new connection slot configurations would resolve the issue…Imagine the impact this has on your enthusiasm and productivity and emotional state as a electronic musician.

I knew I would get all these kinds of responses, so nothing is surprising to me here.

So ive been doing alot of googling and it seems that ALOT of people have reported various issues in general with the x58 chipsets ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller, issues ranging from latency to non-functioning, to drivers missing etc etc.

So I guess its just coming to the conclusion that Cubase does not like my system specs and does not perform properly. Device manager says all my USB Drivers are upto date when I try to manually update.

I just want a refund at this point because I am not wasting anymore of my time trying to troubleshoot or save money to waste on new computers over and over and over again, ive got more important priorities then that now.

Im done with supporting Steinberg, im done with the eLicenser, im done with the poor AskNet and Distributor support, im done with uninspiring forums, im done with having faith in future development of Cubase.

Don’t take my case personally anyone, im just really not in a good mood.

Check this video out of LatencyMon with Cubase opened: - YouTube I think you will be amused.

Thankyou

13

pumpkin , I could not find any resources on MySteinberg account to contact directly, no email and no phone number or anything it just kept sending me in a loop between AskNet and Distributors. Would you care to share where I could find that ?

14

msinfo32 information youtube video is being uploaded, will update this post shortly.

15

Please, just do it already. If the products were as defective as you describe, there would be a huge number of posts about it. Instead, other users are responding to you with ideas about how to solve your problems.

http://www.yamahabackstage.com.au/steinberg/

All that said, if what you want is your money back, and to be rid of your licenses, why don’t you sell them on ebay? https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/resale_wizard_software.html

16

msinfo32 as requested: - YouTube

Everything looks ok unless someone can point out otherwise ?

17

ok thankyou for providing the resources Steve, I will follow up my case through your provided resources, thats all I needed. Thanks

18

Well,

besides not answering my questions your computer allready shows issue that are not!! cubase related but will most certainly compromise realtime performance . So its not a surprise it shows the same issue with cubase running. I did see your device manager video. its the one that i linked in my previous post. So much for who is not paying attention here or take the time to read.


So “warn” someone to sue him if he not complies is not a threat then?

19

@wavefunktion, lose the NVida graphics card and your problems will be solved.

20

That wasn’t directed towards you Novikthewise.

Here is my msinfo32 information as requested: - YouTube

I know you’re paying attention, thanks.

I am following up this case through the resources Steve has provided, you can lock this thread now.

I have previously owned a AMD Radeon HD7970 and I experienced the same issues, so I just give up now basically.

Thanks for everyones help, goodluck with your music