CPU Bogging down despite trying EVERYTHING

[Grime Syndicate]

I bounce everything. I freeze things I don't have the heart to bounce. I turn off unused vsti/vst, I have my latency set all the way up (max latency), I and my cpu still bogs down early. Running Vista 32 bit. I have a duo core, 2.0ghz processor, I have 3 gigs of ram, multicore processing is enabled in Ableton, and no matter what I try it gets bogged down really early. The weirdest part is that when I'm using the built in soundcard w/asio drivers its not as bad, but the second I switch to my Tascam US-144 audio interface, cpu meter goes thru the roof. Shouldn't external sound processing DECREASE my cpu usage, not INCREASE it? it makes no sense to me. I also try to close all non-essential background processes while ableton is up and running. Nothing seems to help. Can anyone point me in the right direction and explain this to me? It's killing me cuz I can't get anywhere in my songs lately.
I've even run all sorts of great antivirus/antimalware scans to ensure it's not a virus/malware eating up cpu. Though I am running avast and adaware simultaneously, which I've been told play nice together. But let's not jump all over that and then give me no other options to try. I'd like a list of possibilities to try, and then go from there. Someone, anyone, please help me. I want to get some music completed, not just get halfway thru a song then get stuck due to CPU overload. Thanks in advance

[ComfiStile]

I had this problem with my focusrite saffire at the start.

In FL, there are a few different drivers to choose from, something like:

Primary sound
ASIO
Focusrite saffire
and saffire ASIO

If you have similar options, make sure you pick the ASIO on of your audio device, not the device on its own.

(I'm aware this may not make sense, technical descriptions are not my strong point )

[komanderkin]

what are the settings on your external interface? perhaps the buffer is too small. a screenshot would help.

[VirtualMark]

You could freeze tracks, that will take the cpu load down.

What interface is the soundcard? if its usb, do you have lots of other stuff plugged in? try disconnecting printers, scanners etc, everything you're not using.

is it a particular synth that you're having problems with? might be a taxing one, and if you're using multiple copies then that could be the problem.

running 2 antiviruses while producing isn't a good idea. i'd disable them both when running my daw.

and is it cpu usage that goes up? or is the asio buffer overloading? maybe contact the soundcard company, see if they have any new drivers or advice. it could well be a driver problem. if not, you could try using that card with asio 4 all drivers. i don't think the soundcard does a lot of processing anyhow, the cpu does the processing with all the vst's in ableton and then sends it to the soundcard.

[um4mi]

I have the exact same problem with my soundcard..Except its an E-mu 0404 USB.. I've had it for a while and i can't use it. Have been looking for a solution for a while. Tried lots of things to fix it, 3 different versions of windows etc.. What kind of CPU and motherboard do you have specifically maybe we can figure something out. I have an AMD Phenom X2 550 dual core processor and a GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard. I also read somwhere someone solved a similar problem by taking out some memory sticks and leaving different ones in to see if threre is a bad one, but i have not tried this.

[symmetricalsounds]

have you done all the tweaks to make vista not a massive bag of shite and useable? if not google 'vista and music production' you should find enough guides to make it better.

[Demian]

Running two anti-viruses at the same time is never a good idea for anything. Two AV's will tend to conflict with eachother, a lot. Avast isn't terrible, but the lightest weight AntiVirus on PC is Microsoft's own Security Essentials. Get it, and ditch the other two you're using.

[symmetricalsounds]

Running two anti-viruses at the same time is never a good idea for anything. Two AV's will tend to conflict with eachother, a lot. Avast isn't terrible, but the lightest weight AntiVirus on PC is Microsoft's own Security Essentials. Get it, and ditch the other two you're using.

yeah he should do that but it's not going to make a massive difference.

[Demian]

No, it's not going to be like buying a new computer or anything....

Honestly, if I were you I'd grab Malwarebytes, do a quick scan...just to make sure. You'd be surprised how often you'll find something. Gotta rule everything out.

[symmetricalsounds]

yeah tbh just sounds like you need to do a full system sweep, make sure vista settings are as good as they can be for production, make sure there's no trojans n other shit like that on your system, defrag etc...

then after that you just gotta live with what you got til you can upgrade your system.

EDIT: also some screenshots of your settings in ableton would be handy too.

[RandoRando]

Are you sure your not using any new plugins? I made a thread about t CPU bogging down. And I realized it was 2 plugins eating about 30% . it was that piece of shit autotune , and the nice compressor densityMKII

[Grime Syndicate]

I've got the buffer set at maximum latency, it's not settings. I'm just gonna buy a desktop with windows 7. How does everyone feel about compatibility with 64 bit systems regarding VST/VSTi? Looking at snagging up this one: brand new HP Compaq 6005 Pro, AMD B95 Phenom IIX4 Quad core 3.0Ghzx4 processor with 7mb Cache per processor / 8GB Installed DDR3 SDRAM, 1333 MHz, PC3-10600 /1000GB 7200 rpm Hard drive. Integrated Radeon Video card, but I don't really give a shit about that. 10 usb slots, I'd kill for a fourth on this lappy. REALLY hoping an upgrade of my comp boosts everything by a yard and a mile. Ideas and opinions would be much appreciated on this front.

[symmetricalsounds]

your money will go loads further if you go custom build, if you can't do it yourself (you probably could) then pretty likely you got a mate who's confident enough.

[Grime Syndicate]

It is a USB interface, and yes, the other two slots are taken up by my mouse and my external HDD, or sometimes my M-Audio Oxygen8 Keyboard, depending on my mood. Not really an option to not use these slots.

I have adjusted Vista myself, without any guides, but there could be things I've missed, so I'll follow a walk-through or two.

Got Asio4all v2 and it seemed to help, but only ever so marginally.

Here are some screen shots



and finally

[Grime Syndicate]

Oh, Avast Boot time scan, Kaspersky TDSSKiller, Adaware, MalwareBytes, you know, like I said, I ran great scans. Not the issue here. Hard drive is really quite full and in the red though...

[symmetricalsounds]

you wanna get rid of stuff on c drive, having your system drive nearly full is bad and slows down any comp.

[VirtualMark]

Ok before you buy a new pc, is there another soundcard that you can try? It could be problem with the interface, or the driver. Asio4all shouldn't be faster than the manufacturers own driver, so i'd definitely check for issues with this card.

On the asio4all settings, have you tried checking hardware buffer? it can sometimes make a difference. Also, the latency setting isn't set to maximum, i'd try higher settings. and also get rid of latency compensation to see if it makes a difference.

also, are you sure its a CPU issue? in task manager, is your cpu at 100%? if the cpu isn't maxing out then it probably is a buffer overload. try downloading dpc latency checker and look for red spikes. if there are any then you have a driver or software problem. another program, latencymon will tell you what driver is causing the problem.

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon


Another thing to try is to perform a clean boot: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796 and see if you have the same issue.

[VirtualMark]

you wanna get rid of stuff on c drive, having your system drive nearly full is bad and slows down any comp.

+1


delete any unnecessary files and disable the page file, reboot and then defrag your drive. then you can recreate the page file and it won't be fragmented.