Help needed. having audio problems with vista

[sixstringhotshot88]

Hi guys.

Right i'll try and explain this as best i can.

I'm having audio problems with my computer.

computer specs are

intel core 2 duo 2.40ghz
2gb ram
running windows vista sp1 32bit.
M audio audiophile 192 sound card.

my problem is that when i'm running an DAW say fruity loops for example (i use this for drum sequencing) it sounds like the audio is clipping even though all levels are set correctly and nothing is peaking. Pro tools runs fine if i'm writing and playing back from a seperate hard drive.

I've even noticed the audio lagging when playing normal mp3 files in media player or itunes. Sometimes i have to use the bog standard windows magnifier as my sight aint too good and when i move the mouse around the screen to focus in on something the audio lags as if its overloading the cpu.

any thoughts on what it could be?

only reason i'm running vista is that my old hard drive crapped out on me so i upgraded to a new 500gb sata drive and the only operating sytem i had was vista.

i've tryed different drivers for my sound card and nothing is helping.

i dont know if its just vista as it used to run fine with xp

 

[cwhitey2]

I would suggest you buy more RAM...2 gigs is not really enough for vista and a DAW. I run Reaper on my 5 year old Toshiba laptop with XP Pro SP3 (1.6 gig single core, 1 gig RAM) but I have to dedicate the system to basically just run the DAW (dumb down all the visuals because it eats RAM up for nothing). I don’t have vista, but I do know that the OS requires more ram to just run so that could be your problem...I don’t think it has anything to do with CPU power, just not enough ram...try downloading a program called "FreeRAM XP Pro" it will optimize your ram so that you can use it where you actually need it plus its free. If that don’t work buy 2 more gigs of ram to throw in it and I bet that will take care of it. And if that doesn’t work it could be the software is not compatible with vista...a lot of the music software is made for XP, they are really just starting now to make EVERYThing compatible with the new OS's. Hope this helps you!!!

p.s. make sure you have all the software updates for your music programs

 

[sixstringhotshot88]

cheers dude.

i've just realised its doing the same clipping with the standard windows sounds.

i might see if i can get a copy of xp and try that. i dont use the machine for anything but music and video work.

 

[cwhitey2]

pretty much every audio production software is compatible with XP... if you dont mind downgrading buy it....i will never upgrade....until they make me haha

cheers
chris

 

[sixstringhotshot88]

in all fairness i'd rather downgrade

in my experience with vista over the past couple of days i've come to the conclusion that it sucks.

xp and osx ftw

 

[cwhitey2]

vista blows thats why microsoft canned it for 7...if i had the money i would buy Apple all day

 

[nwright]

I say go for Windows 7 rather than XP. I've never had issues with Vista or 7 though, so YMMV.

Can you adjust buffer settings for your hardware?

 

[sixstringhotshot88]

^
yeah i can. But dosn't really make that much of a difference.

it seams weird how its doing it with just mp3's on itunes. i wouldn't say playing an mp3 would use that much RAM

 

[TheDude]

^
yeah i can. But dosn't really make that much of a difference.

it seams weird how its doing it with just mp3's on itunes. i wouldn't say playing an mp3 would use that much RAM

I have the same problem on Vista and on Win7. Stuttering sound, audio drop outs and so on. I use XP without any internet connection. Clean install, no upgrades except for the ones that the DAW requires. Talk about fast computer.

 

[BlackDukeReiter]

I don't know if this is your particular problem (different hardware), but I recall that when I first installed my MOTU 8pre Windows 7 insisted on using it's own drivers instead of the MOTU ones (even though I installed the MOTU ones). What I ended up doing was removing the hardware and completely uninstalling it from the hardware/devices screen, then installing the drivers and then connecting the hardware again. I remember it having that same clippy problem, though, and that fixed it right up.