Computer stops responding

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:18 am

hi. About 3 months ago I got a new machine.

Making Cuabse 3 work with my Pulsar was a BIG pain, but finally it worked.

Problem is that while Cubase3 is working, occasionally, either once in a week, or twice in a day, the computer will completely freeze - even CTRL-ALT-DEL is not responding.

Did any of you encounter such a problem?
Any ideas ?

My computer's spec:

MoBo: DP965lt/Intel

Chip: E6600 2.4Gz Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400 2048MB KIT,
w/two 1024MB PC6400 XTC,CL4-4-4-16, Rev2

Graphics Card: HIS Radeon X1650XT 256MB, iSilence II,
PCI-Express, GDDR3, 2xDVI/Tv-Out/HDCP

HDD's: Samsung SpinPoint T166 320GB SATA2
16MB 7200RPM
Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2
16MB 7200RPM

Case: Antec Performance One P180 Miditower,

Seasonic S12 Powersupply 500W, 120mm
Fan, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin

Samsung DVD±RW burner, SH-S182M, 18x,
Dual, LightScribe, DVDRAM, Zwart

LG DVD Drive, GDR-8164RBB, 16x52,

Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB

Sound Card: Creamware Pulsar II

Thanking you.
Shay.

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:24 am

stardust wrote:freezing points to midi proble called active sensing.
Some keyboards send it and spoil the show.
try filtering in Cubase.

Can this be the case even if all keyboards are OFF, and MIDI is not being used in the projects at all?

Thanks.

Shay.

Post by **Neil B** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:08 am

I have a similar intermittent problem and I use Cubase 32/5.1.
I don't think that the problem is Cubase though.
Mine will freeze if I'm using Windows media player, Cubase or even just Word.
When mine freezes using Cubase or Windows player, the music sticks too and just hangs, repeating perhaps 1 second of music (horrible sound).

It makes me wonder what the problem is because I suppose the only common factor is that the Scope card is always running in the background.

I use a Pentium 4 3.6 with Xp.

Check to see if this freezing occurs without Cubase and we can perhaps tackle the problem together.

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:39 am

hi Neil. I suspected it's related to Cubase , but then again - I use cubase 99.9% of the time.
Many times it is indeed getting stuck on a 1 second audio, just like you mentioned,
so there is a good chance we have the same problem.

Did you have the problem since you installed the card, or did it start later?

cheers.
Shay

Post by **Neil B** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:54 am

I swapped everything out an old pc and upgraded to the one I have now, so it was all done at the same time I'm afraid.
I think the problem has been there from the outset.
Mind you, it isn't all the time. For the last few days I've used it for hours without a problem. Don't know if you're the same (?) or is yours more persistent?

I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it and I half suspect the genius of Gary B will be able to resolve this for us (he ought to be on the "Heroes" TV series in my opinion !)

I have fallen into the trap of putting up with the problem and saving songs at regular intervals so I don't lose much. Perhaps it is time to get it sorted.

My computer shop man (who knows nothing about Scope cards etc) seems to think it is a driver problem when I talk to him about it, but reckons it'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
If the problem is intermittent, it's like doctors surgery syndrome - there's nothing goes wrong when you take it in.

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:19 am

I read somewhere that someone changed the drivers from v4 to v3 and problems disappeared.
Since you mention drivers, I intend to try this within the next few days, unless some better info comes along.
cheers.

Post by **Neil B** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:21 am

Hmm,
if you mean Scope drivers, I'm still on 3.1C - never upgraded to 4 or 4.5 but I'll await your tests with interest.
In the meantime, I'll check out my system details - (forgot which grafix card I have in it)

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:01 pm

if you have the same problem with v 3, so .. I don't really see the point in changing mine to 3 as well.

are we stuck ?

Post by **Neil B** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:45 pm

Hi Shay,
I don't think we're stuck yet. My computer shop man may think it is drivers (as in graphix card drivers) but it may just be a glib answer.

Sorry but I haven't had time to look at my system (especially the graphix card) yet - things are chaos here until Wednesday.
I'm sure we could get to the bottom of this.

Alho · Post by **Alho** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:48 am

Hi everyone!

I have probably the exactly same problem, and an interesting coincidence with balaftuna is that I also have an Intel dp965lt. On my previous setup everything was working perfectly. A bit more details, so that we can compare the problems:

Symptoms: The computer freezes (no blue screen or anything, it just freezes, the reset-button being the only way out). If any audio is playing, it gets stuck in an 0.5s to 1s loop. Before the freezing, none, one or more of the following may happen:

1) The mouse stops responding. Apparently this is actually a symptom of the whole USB bus crashing, since after unplugging and re-plugging the mouse (I have managed to do this before the computer becomes totally stuck) even the light on the mouse doesn't turn on. The same thing with the LED's on my USB midi-interface (and obviously the MIDI interface also stops responding).

2) The computer becomes outrageously slow. That is, switching from one window to an other might take 30 seconds.

3) the keyboard stops responding.

After the crash, the PC beeper sometimes start emitting an endless beep, which only stops once I reset the computer.

The rate of crashes varies from about once in five minutes to once in five hours when using cubase sx3, with the usual interval being about an hour or so. The computer has crashed a couple of times in the same way while not using cubase, but that has also always happened after using it, or, puzzlingly, very soon after a reboot before which I have used Cubase.

The most common type of crash is the computer just freezing, but as I said above, sometimes other symptoms happen just before the crash. The time between the appearance of the symptoms and the crash is from about 10s to a couple of minutes, but any of the above symptoms always lead to a crash.

My computer:

MOBO: Intel DP965LTCK
Processor: Core 2 Q6600 G0 stepping @2.4GHz
Memory: 2x Kingston 1GB 800MHz ValueRAM
Harddisk: Western Digital 320GB WD Caviar SE16
Video: Asus GeForce 8600GT Passively cooled
Sound card: Creamware Pulsar II

My own thoughts and investigations to the crash:

All the auxiliary symptoms (mouse getting stuck etc) are related to subsystems handled by the I/O Controller hub. The I/O controller is running quite hot (68-72 C), but it does that also with the pulsar removed, and cooling the IOCH with an external tabletop fan to about 50 C does not help.

I have already exchanged the motherboard once in warranty, since at first I was convinced that the IOCH must be faulty, but that didn't change anything, so either it's not a faulty motherboard or then I'm extremely unlucky in having two with the same defect.

I have tried a different display controller. No effect.

I have tried to run windows with both AHCI and IDE emulation for the SATA drivers. No effect.

I did notice that my pulsar is sharing an IRQ with the IOCH.

Right now I'm testing running Cubase with the pulsar and it's drivers removed, since nothing I've tested previously proves that the problem is Pulsar related (although that has of course been the assumption ever since I changed the motherboard and it didn't help). After about 1,5h without the pulsar, no crashes yet. If it keeps working for a few hours more, I'll consider that a proof that the pulsar is to blame.

My current assumption is that the IRQ sharing with the IOCH is the problem, and I'll try to fix that as soon as I re-install the card. Could you balaftuna also check if your Pulsar is sharing an IRQ?

The problem is driving me mad, since the computer is otherwise working marvelously and this DAWg definitely hunts when it stays on it's feet. Let's hope we can find a solution, or somebody wiser could help us out.

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:13 am

hi. it's been about a week now since i made the following changes , and my computer is now rock solid .

1) make sure your MOBO sound if off . CMOS->Peripherals->sound->DISABLE
2) turn off all startup services that are not necessary. I noticed that my graphics card had tones of them.

not only the computer is fast and stable now, it startup time is very fast.

cheers.
Shay.

Post by **Neil B** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:49 am

Alho, that sounds exactly the same problem, but I haven't checked the IRQs.
Mine even hangs without Cubase (5.1/32) - perhaps using Word even.

Anyway, I've done a bit of research and did the following when it last crashed.

I searched for all files and folders generated on that day.
A file in windows\system32\wbem\logs generated a record in the file:
wmiprov.log

This record reads:
WDM call returned error : 4200
Impersonation failed : Access denied

I have a sneaky feeling that this "impersonation failed" line may happen everytime the pc freezes

Any thoughs on this ??

Post by **Neil B** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:09 am

balaftuna wrote:hi. it's been about a week now since i made the following changes , and my computer is now rock solid .

1) make sure your MOBO sound if off . CMOS->Peripherals->sound->DISABLE
2) turn off all startup services that are not necessary. I noticed that my graphics card had tones of them.

not only the computer is fast and stable now, it startup time is very fast.

cheers.
Shay.

1: My sound has always been disabled.
2: Can you enlarge on this please - like where do you find startup services and graphics cards startup services?

I'll do a simlar check and come back to the thread if it freezes again or not, as the case may be

Neil

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:46 am

1. i was sure mine was disabled too, but was wrong. worth double checking.
2. start->run, type "msconfig", then choose the 'startup' tab, and disable all that can be disabled. in my case it was EVERYTHING.
cheers.

Post by **Neil B** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:58 am

My Pulsar 2 card is sharing IRQ 18 with:
Intel(R) 8280 1FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A whatever one of those is - does this help?

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:05 am

Neil B wrote:My Pulsar 2 card is sharing IRQ 18 with:
Intel(R) 8280 1FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A whatever one of those is - does this help?

no idea here. didn't even check IRQs. do you have standard installation?

Post by **Neil B** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:14 am

By standard installation all I can say is that my computer shop guy put me the box together with some advice on spec from the guys here on "Z".
I stuck the Pulsar card in and added the software.
Sorry, but I can be technophoebic sometimes, or just plain thick!

It's a pentium 4 3.6 with 2Gb memory and 2*230 Gb 7200 drives (SATA) I think but I'd have to work out how to find what all the manufacturers stuff (graphics card, drives, mobo etc) are.

Bit if a useless answer really

balaftuna · Post by **balaftuna** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:51 am

don't know why you have the conflict. maybe somebody else here might have an idea. anywho, try the services things first, and see if it helps.
cheers.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:53 am

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

displays a lot of info about your system, including motherboard manufacturer and model, lots of info on memory and cpu (revision, speeds etc).

recommended.

Post by **Neil B** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:51 am

Thanks for the link Piddi
The PC wizard looks a good tool too & the HW monitor